Loudon II: Bill Elliott preview

Bill Elliott
No. 9 Dodge Dealers Intrepid R/T

RETURNING TO NEW HAMPSHIRE
"I have to tell you that if you would have told me that one of my poles this year would have been New Hampshire, I would have told you that you were crazy, but Mike and the guys worked hard to get us to that point last time. We made some adjustments before qualifying and they worked. We were able to go out there and get a good starting spot. We had a good car during the race too, but we just ran into some trouble. I know a lot of people were complaining about the track. We'll just have to wait and see. You never know what to expect. Look at the start of the race last week - it seemed we had a lot of trouble early on and then things settled down a bit."

POINTS RACE
"It's so close right now. Someone told me the other day that this is the closest it's been since back in' 92 when it came down to Alan (Kulwicki) and me at Atlanta. I believe it. It's pretty tight right now, but we can't worry about that. We've got to focus on the task at hand, and this week that's New Hampshire."

MIKE FORD- MIDWAY THROUGH A 20 RACE STRETCH
"We've paced ourselves until now. We've gotten intense when it's been time and we're still fairly fresh. No one's really closed in on the points so these last ten races we intend to turn up the heat a little bit. We've been calm until now."

RACE NOTES

Bill Elliott will be driving the car he piloted in this season's first Winston Cup race at New Hampshire.

STATS & FACTS

* In his last visit to New Hampshire in July, Elliott won his first pole at the track, third of the season and 54th of his career. He finished 34th. In 15 career Winston Cup starts at New Hampshire International Speedway, Bill Elliott has collected one top-five and three top-10 finishes. His best finish at New Hampshire was fifth at the 1999 Jiffy Lube 300.

* Last weekend at Richmond, Bill Elliott maintained his seventh place rank in the point standings by moving from a 19th place start to a 16th place finish. Since his first top-10 finish this season at Las Vegas March 3, Elliott has posted a top-ten finish in eight of the 12 races following a finish out of the top ten. He bounced back from a 34th place finish at the New England 300 by winning the next two races, the Pocono 400 and Brickyard 400.

* Elliott's No. 9 Dodge Dealers Intrepid R/T has led laps in seven of the past 13 races (17 at Dover, 26 in June at Pocono, 31 in June at Michigan, three at Sears Point, 35 in July at Pocono, 93 at Indianapolis and six in August at Michigan). He has led in ten races this year for a total of 228 laps. Elliott led nine races in 2001 for a total of 171 laps.

* Elliott looks even better in his No. 9 Dodge Dealers Intrepid R/T than he did at this point last year. Elliott ranks six spots higher, is finishing almost four spots better in each race, and has two more wins, three more poles, one more top-five and three more top-10s than he did after 26 races in 2001. Currently, Elliott sits in seventh place in the Winston Cup points race, 38 points out of sixth, 66 points out of fifth and 184 points out of the lead.

-em