1on1: Bill Elliott

Bill Elliott, a two-time winner of the Daytona 500, looked like he might be retired for good as a driver until he got talked into making 20 starts for Wood Brothers/JTG Racing last season.

This year the 1988 Cup points champion is back to drive the No. 21 Ford part-time for the organization, and is competing for a spot in the Daytona 500.

He struggled in qualifying this past Sunday, posting a speed of 184.090 mph that was slower than all but eight of the other 52 drivers who made qualifying runs. But don't count Elliott completely out just yet. He knows how to race at Daytona International Speedway and could come from back in the field (he'll start 22nd on the grid) in the first Gatorade Duel this Thursday to earn a spot in next Sunday's main event. Plus, Elliott could get in on a past champion's provisional, provided two other former champions -- Kurt Busch and Dale Jarrett -- don't need to use it first.

Elliott has raced in the Daytona 500 only once since retiring as a full-time driver following the 2003 season, finishing 19th in 2006.

He recently talked about the past, his future and a variety of other racing topics. Here is what he had to say:

Q: After stepping back as a full-time driver, you drove only six races in 2004, nine in 2005, 10 in 2006 and then double that last season. What keeps you coming back?

Elliott: Len and Eddie [Wood] keep twisting my arm. [The Woods] are a great bunch of people. It's hard to say no to these guys, and being back with Ford is a fantastic opportunity [after driving for Dodge for many seasons]. Believe me, I don't want to do it full time -- but I've enjoyed what I've done these last couple of years.

Q: So you're still having fun doing this?

Elliott: I have a good time. To me, it's a lot of fun just to come out and hang out. To do it full time, I don't think I could ever go back because I've had a taste of the other side of life. Now it's just a pretty good balance. Last fall I ended up running a little bit more than I wanted to run, but I was trying to help Len and Eddie out and trying to get things sorted out from that standpoint, and now I'm just trying to help them out a little bit at the start of the season. They've got some plans as far as Jon [Wood] and Marcos [Ambrose] and trying to get all that done for the rest of the year so, hopefully, we'll transition them in and it all works out.

Q: How do you balance your experience with these young guys that are coming in these days?

Elliott: Let me say this: The youth of today -- the guys that will come in -- they've been exposed to more racing than I ever thought about doing at their age. Take Jeff Gordon. He was racing at 3 or 4 years old, or whatever it was, racing go-karts. Those cats could run 160-170 sprint-car races in a year. Granted, by the time I started running Cup, maybe I ran 30 races or 40 races, but they'd run 150-160 a year since the age of 3. Do the math, as Michael [Waltrip] would say. You look at these kids today, they've been exposed to so much and now you look at the stuff that they've been able to come up in, they learn fast, they do what they need to do. Granted, I can't tell them anything because I don't know what to tell them. They know more than I ever thought about knowing at their age, so from the standpoint of looking at the youth and what they've done, my hat's off to them. They've done a hell of a job. (Continued)