A 31st-place starting position for the 17th running of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway didn’t bode well for Bill Elliott and the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion. But Elliott and his David Hyder-led crew showed their true racing colors and turned in an impressive performance in one of NASCAR premier events, a race that is second in stature only to the Daytona 500.

When the checkered flag fell, Elliott and the No. 21 had moved up 13 positions to an 18th-place finish, the team’s second top-20 finish in seven starts so far in the 2010 season. The other was a 16th-place run at Texas Motor Speedway.

On Sunday at Indianapolis, the Wood Brothers team took advantage of some skillful driving by Elliott, a former Brickyard 400 winner, along with some smooth pit stops and good pit calls by Hyder to run among the top 20 for most of the afternoon and come away with a solid finish that they hope will lead to even better results when the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team returns to action in three weeks for the Carfax 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Elliott’s driving skills were key to making it past the first lap at the Brickyard. When Kyle Busch and Sam Hornish Jr. spun just in front of him triggering a multi-car crash, Elliott steered the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion through the smoke and spinning cars, emerging without a scratch on his car.

“That was close, real close,” Elliott said.

He also managed to avoid several other incidents and stayed on the lead lap throughout the race, even as some of the top contenders fell a lap or more behind.

In the closing laps, Elliott was involved in some of the closest racing of the day, and in doing so got himself and his team some quality TV time from the ESPN broadcast crew, which pointed out to viewers what a strong run the Wood Brothers team had going.

In the end, many of the drivers who had fallen a lap or more down took advantage of the wave- around rule to rejoin the lead lap. But Elliott held his ground in the final run to the checkered flag and delivered the team a momentum-building finishing position.
 “It was a good day all around,” said team co-owner Eddie Wood. “The car was good. The FR9 engine was strong. Everything seemed to come together.

“We had good calls on the pit stops. Hyder and Bill [Elliott] worked together to make the car better, and Bill drove a really good race.”

Wood said he believes the progress the team made with a brand-new car at Indianapolis is a sign that the struggles of mid-season are behind them.

“A run like we had today is something to build on,” he said.

Check out Wood Brothers Racing’s new website at woodbrothersracing.com

Bill Elliott and the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew came away with a victory of sorts during Saturday’s qualifying session for the 17th running of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They were best in class among the “go-or-go-home” teams that are not among the top 35 in car owner points and therefore not assured of starting spots for races. Elliott’s qualifying lap at 178.845 miles per hour was only good enough for the 31st starting position. It does not take into account that he and the rest of the non-guaranteed drivers made their runs late in the session on Saturday when the track was getting hotter and slicker – and therefore slower – by the minute as the summertime Indiana heat baked the racing surface. “We ran faster than we did in practice,” Elliott said. “You can’t do anything about the [qualifying] draw. I know some guys run faster in that deal, but what we try to fight and what they try to fight is a whole different war at the end of the day.” Team co-owner Eddie Wood pointed out that with his team running a partial schedule and not guaranteed a starting spot, the most important thing in qualifying is to make sure the Motorcraft/Quick Lane colors are on the track come race day. Earlier in the weekend at Indy, the familiar red No. 21 Fusion was among the elite on the speed charts. Elliott was fifth fastest in the first practice session at 174.686 mph, then ninth in the second practice, with a speed of 178.437 mph. To get back to the lead pack when the green flag flies on Sunday afternoon, Elliott and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew will have to rely on pit strategy and other tactics to overcome their starting position. Luckily for them, the Wood Brothers team has historically been one of the best in NASCAR at pit and fuel strategy. It’ll be especially important at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the racing layout, while historic and beloved, isn’t the most conducive to side-by-side racing. “You can’t pass here,” Elliott said. “It’s probably the world’s worst race track to pass, and you just have to do whatever you’ve got to do to get there. “At least you’ve got the whole race to work on it.” The Brickyard 400 is set to begin at 1 p.m. on Sunday with coverage on ESPN.

The Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway always seems to bring out the best in NASCAR elite drivers and race teams. In the 16 previous runnings of the Brickyard 400, only the sport’s top drivers and teams have visited Victory Lane. There have been no fluke victories.

 Among the nine former Brickyard winners are three veterans of the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford team. Dale Jarrett won in 1996 and 1999. Ricky Rudd won in 1997, and Bill Elliott, the current driver of the famed No. 21, won at Indy in 2002.

 The Brickyard, historically has been one of Elliott’s better tracks. Besides his win in ’02, he has four other top-five finishes and five top-five starts, including a fourth-place start last year aboard the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion.

 So it wasn’t surprising that Elliott was unusually upbeat earlier this week as he discussed his upcoming run at one of auto racing’s most storied facilities.

 “I’ve enjoyed racing there a lot over the years,” he said. “It’s been a good race track for me.”

 Elliott said his Brickyard victory is right at the top of his list of career accomplishments. It was a dominating win in a race many consider second only to the Daytona 500.

 “It was big,” he said. “I remember how badly Dale Earnhardt Sr. wanted to win that race.”

 Elliott said he believes the Brickyard 400 is a race in which experience pays off. The facts seem to back him up. Jarrett won Indy at age 47. Dale Earnhardt won it at 44 and Elliott got his Brickyard win at age 45, with Rusty Wallace, also 45, finishing second behind him.

 “It’s a race track where you have to have patience, but your car has to be right too,” Elliott said. “It’s a four-cornered race track with 90-degree turns. It’s laid out so differently.”

 As he heads back to Indy, Elliott is encouraged by the fact that he’ll be driving a brand new race car, one that crew chief David Hyder and the team have spent countless hours preparing.

 “I know Hyder and the boys have worked hard to get things turned around for us,” he said. “We’ve gone through a lot of changes, and we’re still working through the change from the wing to the rear spoiler on the back of the car, but I’m looking forward to this weekend.

 “We ran good there last year.”

 Elliott’s hoping he and his team can duplicate their qualifying success of a year ago, for several reasons.

 “You need to be good in qualifying,” he said. “That’s the start for the whole weekend.”

 Elliott also likes the fact that fuel mileage and pit strategy often come into play at Indy, because for years that has been one of the strong suits of the Wood Brothers team.

 “They do an excellent job on that side,” he said. 

Len Wood, the man many consider the garage master of fuel-mileage calculations and strategy, said that in many ways, he figures fuel at Indy much like he does at any other track.

 “You always have gas mileage in the back of your mind,” Wood said. “We’ll work the race backwards as far as figuring the fuel, but we’ll also have to see how much the speeds slow down as the tires wear and we’ll have to consider the likelihood of a green-white-checkered finish.”

 Qualifying for the Brickyard 400 is set for 10:10 a.m. on Saturday, and the race is at 1 p.m. on Sunday with coverage on ESPN

“I cut a tire and from there I was just along for the ride,” Elliott said after climbing from the car and being checked out at the track’s infield care center. He said the impact from the collision with Gordon, one that knocked the wheels of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane car off the ground, wasn’t as bad as it might have seen to those who saw it.

“It was no easy day, but it wasn’t that bad,” he said. “I am OK.” Elliott, who wound up 37th in the finishing order, said the real pain he felt was for his David Hyder-led crew, which worked hard to give him a competitive car. He was running just one lap behind the leaders when he was knocked out of the race. “I feel bad for the guys,” he said. “We have worked hard, but we have missed something, whether it is the spoiler or whatever, we just can’t get where we need to be. “We are just OK out there. Everybody is really working hard and trying to help us out, then something like this happens, and it is just really unfortunate.”

Team co-owner Eddie Wood, looking for a bright spot on an otherwise disappointing night, pointed out that while the team’s No. 21 suffered a rare DNF [Did Not Finish], it wasn’t related to the reliability of their Ford Fusion. “We really haven’t had any mechanical issues in a while,” Wood said. “The cars have been really good.”

Elliott, Hyder and the rest of the Wood Brothers crew now turn their attention to their next appearance, in two weeks in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which historically has been one of Elliott’s better tracks. In 15 career starts there, he has a win, in 2002, and five top-five starts, including a fourth-place qualifying run last year in the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Fusion.

The No. 21 Ford Fusion, which sported the blue and white colors of FordParts.com in its most recent appearance, at Michigan Speedway, will return to the familiar red colors of Motorcraft/Quick Lane. And Hyder and his crew plan to go back to some of their old chassis set-up ideas after some experimenting at Michigan and Charlotte that didn’t produce the results they expected.

One thing that won’t change is the pressure on the team to perform on Friday. Because the No. 21 crew is running a limited schedule, they’re not among the top 35 in car owner points, the group that is guaranteed starting spots for upcoming races. Instead, they’re among the “go or go home” teams that must make the race on their qualifying speed or miss the big show. And the Chicagoland schedule – two practice sessions on Friday and no race practice between qualifying and race time – means there will have to be a lot of work crammed into the Friday sessions.

Those Friday sessions don’t leave much margin for mistakes. The opening two-hour practice is followed by a 45-minute break, then another 45-minute session, with only two hours between it and the start of qualifying. “We’ll start with the car in race trim and then switch over to qualifying trim in practice,” Hyder said. “Then we have to go back to race trim, but we don’t get back on the track after qualifying, which I don’t particularly like.”

Hyder and Elliott also will have to base their set-up for a night race on a daytime practice session, where conditions are far different. “We’ll have to build some adjustability into the car,” Hyder said. Like other teams in the Sprint Cup Series, the Wood Brothers have had to adjust to the change from a wing on the rear of the car to a conventional spoiler and to a slight change to the stagger of the tires that Goodyear produces for the circuit. Stagger is the difference in the circumference of the right side tires compared to those on the left. “Those changes threw us for a little bit of a loop,” Hyder said.

But overall, he’s confident heading into the weekend. Elliott qualified eighth at Chicagoland last year and showed strength in the race. And Hyder and his crew, as usual, have put considerable effort into preparation of the car, which is the same chassis they ran at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Coca-Cola 600. They’ve spent two days recently with the car on the seven-post test rig, and worked on some different components in the suspension. Hyder said he believes the changes he’s made recently will help the team not only this weekend, but in races on down the line. “We haven’t had any bad cars all year, and now we’re building on that for the end of the year,” he said.

The LifeLock.com 400 will be televised on TNT, with the green flag set to fly at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Ernie Elliott is one of five members to be named to the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame Class of 2010. Elliott was named Engine Builder of the Year in 1985, and Engine Builder of the Decade for the 1980s. (Photo courtesy of Ernie Elliott Inc.)

Ernie Elliott named to 2010 class

by Sudie Crouch

Dawson News & Advertiser

The Elliott family of Dawsonville has added another credential to its racing legacy.

Ernie Elliott has been chosen as one of the five 2010 inductees into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame.

“It is an honor to be inducted into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame,” Elliott said. “I would like to thank the board for recognizing me as an inductee for 2010.”

Elliott, the older brother to racing legend Bill Elliott, was chosen along with Ted Edwards, Jack Etheridge, Jerry Wimbish and Laverne Kendrick for the 2010 class. Elliott is the only living inductee to be chosen for this year’s Hall of Fame.

*** Read the complete story in this week’s print edition of the Dawson News & Advertiser

 The Cool-Down Lap · Doug Turnbull · Monday June 21, 2010

On Sunday, the NASCAR community spent Father’s Day in mourning after losing one of the sport’s founding Fathers. At 96 years old, former car owner Raymond Parks passed away at his home in Atlanta hours before the start of racing at Infineon. No cause of death was initially reported, but here’s what we do know: the passing of this future Hall of Famer closes the book on the sport’s original generation of leaders.

To fans unfamiliar with Parks, a sheer glance at his official NASCAR statistics tell but a fraction of the influence he had on the creation of the sport. Two wins amongst five drivers in 18 races – collected in a four-year time span – are numbers that normally do not deserve a second look. But placed within the context of a fascinating life story, it’s quickly made apparent how special those achievements really are.

Both wins claimed by Parks were in NASCAR’s first official season of 1949, where only eight races were run. Two other top 5s were enough to go with it, handing the sport’s inaugural championship to Parks’ No. 22 Oldsmobile and driver Red Byron. Byron, a crippled war veteran who had to drive racecars with a modified clutch pedal because of a leg maimed in World War II, drove in a style comparable to future champions David Pearson, Bill Elliott, and Matt Kenseth: slow and steady won him the race. And Parks, a distinguished businessman known for being well-dressed and carrying an essence of professionalism, appreciated that type of strategy from his prized driver – especially in light of the outlaw antics performed both in and out of Parks’ racecar by rowdy cousin and driver Roy Hall.

The owner’s stock car success, however, stretched much further back than the NASCAR record books. As NASCAR founder Bill France began driving in and promoting races in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Parks’ cars were always contenders and often winners. France even drove a race for Parks in this stretch. Those close to Parks who have heard the many tales of his past say that he even lent money more than once to Bill Sr., keeping his one-time fledgling career as a racing promoter alive. Though this fact has not officially been confirmed, there is no doubt among those familiar with this era of the sport that NASCAR likely would not be what it is today without his presence.

In recent years, that role has slowly become more recognized, helped by a recent book called Dancing with The Devil which describes the early days of stock car racing in great detail. Sadly, most of those accolades came later than they should have. Suffering heavily from hearing loss and being virtually mute in his later years, Parks was unable to fully enjoy the fanfare around the welcome he received in the early months of 2009, as NASCAR honored him at Daytona in February before getting inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame at Talladega shortly thereafter.

NASCAR Hall of Fame Historian Buz McKim, as you might expect, is very familiar with the influence this man had on the sport. “Raymond Parks was a true pioneer of NASCAR, who chose to stay in the background as he supplied the sport with its first championship team,” he said. “All NASCAR fans and competitors owe him a huge debt of gratitude for what he brought to the sport.”

Parks, the last living attendee of the famous meeting that formed NASCAR at the Streamline Hotel in December 1947, lived up to his “away from the limelight” persona from the start of the organization. He lurked in the back of the room, sometimes walking out, as France dominated the conversation and incorporated what became “NASCAR” into his own enterprise. In fact, Parks and others involved saw France’s leadership of this stock car body as more of a hostile takeover of the budding sport than an organization. The acronym “NASCAR,” by the way, was coined by Parks’ genius mechanic Red Vogt, who operated one of Parks’ many gas stations around the original “center of stock car racing:” Atlanta.

Parks’ bitterness over the way the sport got structured never died, even as he, Vogt, and Byron won both the first ever NASCAR-sanctioned Modified race and championship in 1948, then followed up with the inaugural “Cup Series” title (the series was then known as strictly stock) one year later. When France penalized Parks and Byron, among others, for running other racing series in 1950, the owner began dialing back his NASCAR involvement, never running the equivalent of a full-time Cup season again.

That explains the pedestrian stats, with Parks holding just a modest collection of records. But 1988 Cup Champion and fellow Georgian Bill Elliott knows that’s far from the only way he had an impact.

“People like Raymond were the backbone of America,” Elliott said Sunday. “To be able to fight in the war, survive that era, and come back and be so instrumental in NASCAR and accomplish the things that he did … I feel that it is a shame that he wasn’t inducted into the [NASCAR] Hall of Fame before he passed away.”

In his younger years, Raymond Parks – who passed away Sunday at the age of 96 – was influential in helping both NASCAR and Bill France, Sr. get started.

The last part of Elliott’s statement is a sticking point to Parks’ supporters. While the five inductees in May each deserved a place in NASCAR’s revered Hall, many felt that Parks’ deteriorating health and immeasurable influence should at least have garnered him some sort of “legend” or “achievement” enshrinement there. That debate will continue as time presses on, as hopefully will the memories of who he was both inside and outside of racing.

Born in 1914, Parks – the oldest of 16 children – left his home and abusive father in north Georgia to come south to Atlanta and learn the moonshining business with another relative. Parks used his success in both distilling and delivering the banned beverage to catapult him into many other successful endeavors, including an illegal lottery in Atlanta called “the bug,” numerous pinball and cigarette machines (otherwise known as novelty machines, which are what the listed sponsor of Byron’s car was in 1949), service stations, real estate, and liquor stores.

Parks’ illegal business landed him time in jail, but also pushed him to pay Vogt to soup up moonshining automobiles on Spring Street in Downtown Atlanta at “Parks’ Garage.” As was the case with many of early stock car racing’s first cars, Parks’ immaculate, speedy machines made the transition from ‘shine haulers to racecars… though Parks’ profit margin running ‘shine was considerably larger.

And though Parks had a passion for racing and winning, his main concern was his bottom line. After multiple falling outs with Bill France, despite his helping out France on numerous occasions before NASCAR was born into existence, Parks decided after fielding a car for Curtis Turner for five races in the 1955 season he’d had enough. Racing cost too much. So he quit while he was ahead, and settled into the businesses he ran well and made more money with. Never straying far from those roots, Parks owned a liquor store in Northwest Atlanta until the day he died.

Though not the epitome of the stereotypical Bible-thumping Baptist in the Southeast, Raymond Parks’ life resembled that of Paul from the Bible’s New Testament. Paul was shipwrecked, cursed, beaten, and thrown in prison for preaching – all after he killed Christians for a living as a young man. Parks was an outlaw and a womanizer in his early years, but also a war veteran and savvy businessman who worked hard to become successful and take care of his many relatives. He accomplished the goals he set and was never insistent on becoming the face of whatever project he backed… which is likely why what he did worked.

Prominent Atlanta radio traffic reporter and NASCAR show host Captain Herb Emory sums up Parks best.

“He was a true pioneer of stock car racing and one of the founding Fathers of the sport,” he said. “The winning of the first championship with his driver Red Byron is still a giant accomplishment that we will always be able to brag about in Georgia. My thoughts and prayers [go out] to the Parks family, and my thanks to them for sharing Raymond and his memories with those of us not lucky enough to witness the first steps of the sport we love.”

I agree. So Godspeed, Raymond Parks. You will be missed… but your presence in NASCAR will always be felt.

For a great summation of Raymond Parks’ involvement in the early days of NASCAR, pick up a copy of “Driving With the Devil” by Neal Thompson.

Listen to Doug weekly on The Allan Vigil Ford Lincoln Mercury Speedshop racing show with host Captain Herb Emory each Saturday, from 12-1 p.m., on News/Talk 750 WSB in Atlanta and on wsbradio.com. Doug also hosts podcasts on ChaseElliott.com and BillElliott.com.

Parks, who died on Sunday in his hometown of Atlanta, was a major force in the early days of auto racing, even before the formation of NASCAR. “I remember him very well, from back in the ‘40s to today,” Wood said, adding that Parks was known for having the best cars and the best drivers. “Fonty Flock drove for him, and Red Byron,” Wood recalled. “Red Byron was like the Dale Earnhardt of his day.”

It was Byron who in 1949 drove Parks’ Oldsmobile to the championship in the Strictly Stock division that is now the Cup series. And Parks was the premier car owner of his time, fielding multiple entries in numerous races in both the Strictly Stock and Modified divisions. “He always kept his cars neat, like they do today,” he said. “The rest of us just kind of beat them out if they got banged up.” Mr. Parks also presented himself in a neat manner throughout his life. “You never saw him when he wasn’t wearing a suit and a Fedora hat,” Wood said. Wood said he was especially grateful that his old friend was able to attend some of the opening ceremonies for the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte last month.

Mr. Parks, despite his success in the sport, walked away from racing in the early 1950s. He explained many times over the years that it simply was costing him too much money in a time when there was little sponsorship or manufacturer support. Wood said that story might have been entirely different had Parks stayed on a few more years. “He would have still been around today if he had kept on until the factories got into it,” he said. But his legacy lives on, Wood said. “He opened a lot of doors and windows to how to do things and taught a lot of racers how to do it better,” he said. “I hope that some day he’ll be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.” Funeral arrangements for Mr. Parks are pending.

Contact: Jordan Wood
Wood Brothers Racing
7201 Caldwell Rd
Harrisburg, NC 28075
(704) 456-1421
jordan@woodbrothersracing.com