Bill Elliott Qualifies 8th for LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland

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Bill Elliott picked up almost 7/10's of a second from practice and qualified the Wood Brother's #21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion 8th for Saturday night's LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. Elliott's lap time of 29.76 seconds was fastest of the Fords.

About the qualifying lap, Elliott commented "[The car] was really good. The guys made some really key changes in practice. From what David Hyder and Len and Eddie, and all the guys that pull behind this deal, and Ford Motorcraft and all the people that have pulled together and helped us, we have come a long way in the last three races."

Brian Vickers won the pole with a lap time of 29.32 seconds.

Nice job Mr Elliott Hope they have a fantastic finish Saturday night.

They just keep getting better and better. Backing up to this part time schedule has really seemed to help them out.

yes it has! i wonder if they are going to run the full schedule next season w/o bill? they seem to be doing much better with bill as of now, & i see them continuing that trend. if bill stays with them he will surely run part-time, but who will take his place? or maybe no one & just stay with elliott (no changes)? oh well, they have time to figure it all out lol.

by far top qualifying ford

It's good to see the 21 running better!

too bad they had that happen on pit-road. looks like they brought a great car. i'm wondering if they had another problem in the pits, b/c they were 2nd in line for the free pass behind logano in like 21 place (i think) & dropped to like 25 or 26 when everybody cycled through green flag pit-stops oh well......it happens.

Just a product of not racing every week ... the pit crew is going to make mistakes when they're not having to do those pressure stops every week.

you got it. if theres any downside to not racing every week, that would be at the top. i'm still really happy with their effort

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Chicagoland - 29th Place Finish

The Wood Brothers and Bill Elliott headed into Saturday night’s race with high hopes. The team’s qualifying effort and consistency in practice all weekend confirmed the team was continuing to make progress in its intermediate track program.

The #21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion took the green flag in 8th position and climbed as high as 6th place before making its first pit stop. The car was handling well and Bill requested only minor changes to the car. Unfortunately, during the pit stop the team lost control of a tire and it rolled across pit road – a NASCAR rules infraction that relegated the #21 car to end of the longest line.

The mishap changed the entire complexion of the race for the 21 team. The team’s strategy changed from racing with the lead cars, to trying to keep from being lapped by them.

Taking the green flag at the tail end of the field, Bill drove the #21 car back into the top 20 before the next pit stop.

After multiple long green flag runs, the 21 car was eventually lapped. Unfortunately, the team could not recover from its early race mistake. Bill eventually brought the car home in 29th place.

Commenting on the night’s run, Elliott stated, “Man, I tell you what, we had a great car, but you’re gonna have nights like that. We just had a bunch of miscues. There’s no doubt we’re making progress. To run like we ran before the first caution, we’re good. We’re getting there.”

Wood Brothers co-owner Eddie Wood added, “Hyder, Bill, and the guys have worked really hard to get our car competitive, and they’ve done that. Bill fought back trying to overcome the mistake we made in the pits - we just ran out of laps. The error on pit road is completely unacceptable. We’ve been fighting problems on pit road all year, and are constantly working with our pit coach Gary Smith to fix them.”