HOMESTEAD, Fla. — After seven years and 226 races without a victory, Bill Elliott wasn't even sure how to celebrate.
After taking the checkered flag in the Pennzoil 400 Sunday, he did a tentative burnout in front of the main grandstand at Homestead-Miami Speedway, then did a couple of rubber-burning doughnuts before driving slowly to Victory Lane, relishing the moment.
On a day when Jeff Gordon all but wrapped up his fourth Winston Cup championship, Elliott gave Ray Evernham and crew chief Mike Ford their first wins.
Elliott, whose last victory came at Darlington in September 1994, passed teammate Casey Atwood five laps from the end of the 267-lap race after stalking the rookie for several trips around the 1 1/2-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway.
"I was just staying with him and then I got under him, and he got real loose in (turns) three and four and that's all it took," said Elliott, a winner for the 41st time in his career.
"Ray believed in me, and Mike and all the guys believed in me," the winner added. "With 20 laps to go, Mike said, 'You can do it.' I just dug down a little deeper, and here we are."
The victory was just as sweet for Evernham, who was the top crew chief in the sport before leaving Hendrick Motorsports late in 1999 for the difficult task of starting up his own team and guiding Dodge's return to NASCAR's top division after a 16-year absence.
An accident in the pits left four people injured, including a crewman for Ricky Rudd's team who was hospitalized in serious condition with head injuries after striking a concrete wall.
Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip, driving one of his best races of the season, came on to pass Atwood for second on the last lap, but crossed the finish line 1.42-seconds — about eight car-lengths — behind Elliott's bright red No. 9 Dodge.
There have been three other Dodge victories this season — two by Sterling Marlin for Chip Ganassi and one by Ward Burton for Bill Davis — and Evernham admitted after his drivers swept the front-row qualifying positions for the Homestead race that he was bothered by having gone 33 races this season without a win.
"I certainly wasn't getting frustrated, but sometimes you just get a little impatient," Evernham said. "Our guys have been getting more and more ready to win. Today, we had a good engine and good strategy. If we can keep that consistency, we'll have a lot more wins."