Elliott to be inducted in Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame

Bill Elliott will be inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday. The hall is dedicated to honoring Atlanta's sports heroes, and prior inductees include Hank Aaron, Evander Holyfield, Phil Niekro and Dominique Wilkins.

On Friday, Elliott will practice and qualify the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford at Dover. He will fly to Atlanta on Saturday immediately following the Sprint Cup Series final practice. After the induction ceremony he will return to Dover to compete in the Best Buy 400 on Sunday.

This year's list of inductees also includes Steve Bartkowski (Atlanta Falcons all-time passing leader), Claude Humphrey (Atlanta Falcons six-time Pro Bowler), Edwin Moses (four-time Olympic and world gold medalist), John Schuerholz (Atlanta Braves general manager from 1990 to 2007), and Louise Suggs (LPGA founder and winner of 58 LPGA tournaments).

"Bill is a true champion and a true family friend," team co-owner Eddie Wood said. "It's no wonder he has been inducted to multiple halls of fame and voted NASCAR's most popular driver 16 times. We are blessed to have a person like Bill working with us."

The 1988 Cup Series champion, Elliott has 44 wins, 175 top-five finishes and 320 top-10s in 781 starts, which ranks seventh on the all-time list.

Elliott has won the Daytona 500 two times and has a record four consecutive wins at Michigan during the 1985-86 seasons. He made his Cup Series debut on Feb. 29, 1976, at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham. His first victory came on Nov. 20, 1983, at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway.

In 1985 he won a series-best 11 races and won more than $2.3 million but finished second to Darrell Waltrip for the championship. Three years later, Elliott held off Rusty Wallace to win the title by only 24 points.

From 1983 to 1990, Elliott was a mainstay in the top 10 in points, finishing second twice and never lower than sixth. During that eight-year stretch he had 33 wins, 100 top-five finishes and 152 top-10s to earn the nickname "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville."