Big not always better

Cox News Service The 1988 NASCAR championship team reunited at Atlanta Motor Speedway last month to mark the moment. "None of us have ever gotten the proper credit for what we did," Bill Elliott (far right) says. Jimmie Johnson's third consecutive Sprint Cup title was the 14th time that the winning crew was part of a powerful multi-car team based in the NASCAR hub north of Charlotte, N.C. The streak started in 1995 with Johnson's teammate Jeff Gordon, who was teammates that year with Terry Labonte and Ken Schrader.

Conventional wisdom says big teams are the way to go. Small teams, especially those not located near Charlotte, can't overcome the advantages of being around the top racing talent. Ernie Elliott begs to differ.

"That's total bunk," he said, explaining that a team with the proper financial backing can win from any home base.

He knows because 20 years ago, he, his brothers Bill and Dan and a small group of talented, hard-working mechanics grabbed NASCAR's biggest prize from their shops in Dawsonville, Ga.

Bill Elliott, who was a chassis expert and driver at that time, said it's one of the most under-recognized accomplishments in NASCAR history.

"None of us have ever gotten the proper credit for what we did," he said.

Ernie Elliott recalls that the major pit-crew awards that season went to members of Charlotte-based teams, but he said his crew was as dedicated as any racing group ever assembled.

"Everybody was giving it all they had," he said. "There weren't any eight-to-four jobs here."

He recalled leaving the shop late at night, returning later and finding crew members like body man Melvin Turner, whom he described as "an absolute perfectionist," still hard at work. It was the way things were done in their day.

J.W. Waldrop, who led the fabrication crew that built the fast No. 9 Fords, said that when he joined the team after stints with NASCAR and roadracing crews, he found a comparatively low-buck operation.

"I was amazed how little they had, how small their operation was," he said.

The team was a mix of mechanics with experience with other teams and home-grown craftsmen like Turner, who now builds hot rods at a shop near the North Georgia town of Suches.

They used their isolation to their advantage. What was learned behind closed doors in Dawsonville stayed there, unlike shops at Charlotte, where secrets are hard to keep.

"Nobody in Charlotte had a clue what we were doing," Waldrop said.

But they didn't have any trouble keeping up with the end results. The No. 9 stayed near the top of the points standings for much of the season. The Elliott crew, known for its superspeedway performance, eliminated one of its weaknesses by building a fast short-track car. It scored a victory and a runner-up at Bristol and was a top-five and top-10 finisher elsewhere.

But the real push for the title didn't come until late September. Before heading to Dover, Del., for the 23rd of 29 races, the Elliott brothers paused to plan their strategy.

"We decided that if we came out of Dover with a pretty good points lead, we'd go for it," Ernie Elliott said.

That decision was easy. Bill Elliott earned maximum points, leading all but 108 of 500 laps to get his sixth victory and push his points lead to 127 over Dale Earnhardt and 139 over Rusty Wallace.

Another key moment occurred the next Monday morning. Team owner Harry Melling called Dawsonville, concerned about the team's spending. Ernie Elliott laid out the facts but left the decision up to Melling.

"Harry thought about it and said, 'Just forget I ever

called,' " Elliott said.

From then on, the team focused on the big prize. Wallace won three of the four races leading up to the season finale, but the Elliotts held on to the lead with an average finish of 4.25 in those races.

Elliott carried a 79-point lead into the season finale at Atlanta and needed to finish 18th to secure the crown that had eluded him three years before when he dominated the circuit, winning 11 superspeedway races. He ran conservatively and finished 11th, while Wallace won, leaving many to criticize the Elliotts for their strategy.

Ernie Elliott makes no apologies. "We lost it in '85 because we weren't paying attention [to the points]," he said. "We were not going to do that again."

He said his crew was poised to do what Jimmie Johnson's crew just did — win three straight — but that wasn't to be.The next February, Bill Elliott was injured in a crash at Daytona and didn't fully recover until mid-season. Ernie Elliott, burned out from being crew chief and engine builder, brought in an outsider, Mike Beam, to be crew chief, a move that didn't bring the desired results.

Soon, the driver, car owner and sponsor had moved on. The magic was lost.

But for crew members like Waldrop, now managing a warehouse in Gainesville, Ga., the late 1980s remain some of the best years of their lives.

"I'm lucky to have lived it," he said.