Bill Elliott Needs Two Wins to Claim Stock Car Title

Stopping at the pits:

Bill Elliott is the winningest driver on the NASCAR Grand National circuit this year with 10 victories, six more than any other driver. Yet he must win today’s race at Atlanta and the Nov. 17 finale at Riverside to earn the stock car championship.

“I’m going to try to win them both,” says Elliott, who lags 35 points behind Darrell Waltrip. “I’m going to approach the last two races just like I have all the others. I’m not going to worry about Darrell.

“If I win Atlanta, lead the most laps and Darrell finishes fifth or sixth, we’ll go into Riverside dead even.”

The Riverside race has decided the last half-dozen Grand National driver championships. . . .

This is the last year NASCAR will use the Grand National name to describe its major league stock car series. After 31 years the name will be changed to Winston Cup. However, the Grand National designation will not go down the tubes. The Late Model Sporsman series will carry that description.

There’s nothing like keeping money in the family. A total of $520,000 from the million-dollar CART-PPG World Series Indy Car Cup fund could be banked by the Unser Family. Going into the final race of the year at Miami Nov. 9, Al Unser, who can finish no worse than second in the driver standings, leads his son Al Unser Jr. by three points, 139-136. If form holds true, one of the Unsers will finish first in the points race and earn $300,000 and the other second to collect $220,000. Bobby Rahal, third with 116 points, has an outside chance to overtake Al Jr., if fortune does not smile on the younger Unser.

The elder Unser has won only one race this year, at Phoenix. The younger Unser won at Meadowlands and Cleveland.

“If anyone is going to outrun me, I want it to be my dad,” says Al Jr. “In my wildest dreams, I never thought about a situation like this while growing up. This points championship is so unique that it is almost unheard of.”

“The Miami race will be a turkey shoot for drivers since no testing is permitted prior to practice,” says Ed Pimm, who will be driving a Dan Gurney-Skoal Bandit Eagle. “Whoever can dial in their car the quickest will have the advantage.”

Pimm ranks 12th in the CART driver standings with a third-place finish at Michigan his best of the year. . . .

A field of 75 cars is expected for the three-hour Camel GT finale Dec. 1 at Daytona International Speedway.

Some of the drivers’ names mentioned are 1985 Indianapolis winner Danny Sullivan and two-time Grand Prix Formula One champion Emerson Fittipaldi of Brazil in a Chevrolet Corvette GT Prototype, Bobby Rahal trying to duplicate his winning partnership with Drake Olson at Road America in a Porsche 962, IMSA champion Al Holbert teamed with Al Unser Jr., and Daytona 24-Hour winner A.J. Foyt in a Porsche 962.