Bill Elliott is ending his NASCAR Sprint Cup career the same way he started it—behind the wheel of a Ford.

Elliott, who has been driving a partial series schedule the last couple of years, will do the same again this year for Wood Brothers Racing. The agreement car owner Eddie Wood has with Elliott is a simple one. When the entry blank for the next race comes in the mail, Wood calls Elliott and asks him if he wants to drive. It’s that simple.

That arrangement began in the middle of last year when Elliott’s past champion provisional became even more valuable than previous seasons. The Wood Brothers were hovering around the 35th and final guaranteed spot for making the field, so they called on Elliott, whose championship in 1988 served as a safety net for the 21 team to make the field in races he competed.

Elliott debuted behind the wheel of the famed No. 21 Ford in May at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, where he qualified 22nd for the Coca-Cola 600. In all, Elliott drove in 20 races for the team last year, but how many he will drive this season is up to him. Marcos Ambrose is committed to 12 races under the Little Debbie sponsorship while Jon Wood will drive a number of events with the U.S. Air Force. That leaves the rest of the races for Elliott and Ken Schrader.

Having Elliott behind the wheel of one of NASCAR’s most storied car numbers is only fitting since the Georgia native is recognized as one of the sport’s all-time best. Doing it his way with the help of his brothers, Elliott joined the NASCAR ranks in ‘76 and gradually began figuring out what it took to compete on a regular basis.

While many of the other competitors were driving rival brands, Elliott proved to be the Ford standard bearer and when Harry Melling ended up sponsoring and then owning Elliott’s No. 9 Thunderbird, his career took off.

Elliott won his first race in ‘83 as he captured the road-course event at Riverside in his 117th series start. He won three more times in ‘84, which served as a precursor to one of the most memorable seasons in NASCAR history.

The ‘85 season saw Elliott not only dominate the sport, but also create a buzz from the national media that hadn’t been present before his arrival. He started out by winning the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500 and then won the race with relative ease. After winning the Coca-Cola 600 in May, the media frenzy continued to build because Winston was offering a $1 million bonus to any driver who won three of the sport’s major events (Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, Winston 500 and Southern 500).

Elliott made history when he won the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Labor Day weekend and life was never the same. He was spotlighted the following week with the cover of Sports Illustrated and dubbed Million Dollar Bill, a nickname that stuck for the rest of his career.

Despite the fact he went on to win 11 races and 11 poles, Elliott ended up finishing second to Darrell Waltrip in the point standings that season. Still, he was named Driver of the Year by four different motorsports organizations as a result of his groundbreaking season.

That only made Elliott’s popularity rise and that was hard to do considering the fact he won the most popular driver award in 1984. Recognized with having one of the most loyal fan bases in the sport, Elliott eventually won that award 16 times in his career and finally had the award named in his honor by the National Motorsports Press Association.

Elliott went on to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship in 1988 and was involved in another memorable three-way battle in 1992 before Alan Kulwicki edged him by a scant 10 points for the title.

As the sport changed, Elliott attempted to change with it by becoming one of many owner/drivers in 1995. He finished in the top 10 twice during his six seasons in that capacity, but the era of multi-car teams began and Elliott decided to sell his team to Ray Evernham.

With Evernham tied to Dodge, Elliott saw his relationship with Ford come to a temporary end, but not before the automaker recognized him with its highest honor in motorsports—the Spirit of Ford Award.

After helping resurrect Dodge’s motorsports program, Elliott moved into semi-retirement in 2004 and has maintained a limited schedule ever since.

Overall, Elliott has won 44 NSCS races and ranks second on the all-time Ford win list with 40, ranking behind Ned Jarrett’s 43. He has 55 all-time poles and a list of accolades that would fill an encyclopedia, including being named one of NASCAR’s 50 All-Time Greatest Drivers.