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One-time NASCAR Cup champion Bill Elliott says that his Xfinity race at Road America later in August will be his last in NASCAR.
The 62-year-old announced his plans for a one-off NASCAR return with Xfinity outfit GMS Racing – the team his son and Hendrick Motorsports Cup driver Chase has driven for in the wake of Spencer Gallagher’s drug ban – last weekend.
It will be Elliott’s first NASCAR race since 2012, when he competed in the Cup series with Turner Motorsports at Daytona and Talladega, but the 1998 champion has since raced in historics.
Elliott says he will not return to NASCAR again after his Road America duties.
“I would say in the [NASCAR] national series, this will be my last race,” Elliott told NASCAR SiriusXM Radio.
“I’m not saying I wouldn’t do something else.
“I’ve been enjoying the vintage car races the last couple of months. I’m going to run a Trans-Am car at Mid-Ohio next weekend just to tinker around with.
“I’m just trying some different stuff. I’ve been through so many evolutions of racing and I just want to see what this stuff is like.
“I was watching the Xfinity race [at Watkins Glen last weekend] and man, those guys are good. I just would like to see how are these cars are today, how are things going along and just kind of see what it’s all about.”
Elliott also explained how his deal for the race came about and joked that GMS Racing and AJ Allmendinger – another driver drafted in to replace Gallagher – had earned a stay of execution after his second place finish in the Xfinity race at Watkins Glen (below).
“We [Elliott and GMS Racing team president Mike Beam] kind of got to talking about it and they asked me to do it and I thought, ‘Well, what the heck,’ – I really don’t have anything to prove,” he said.
“I don’t know what my expectations are. After [Saturday], I texted my team and said you all might want to put AJ back in the car after what he did today.
“Win, lose or draw, go up there, I’ll first off have a good time, enjoy the moment and just see what goes from there.
“I have never officially retired.”