ESPN Sprint Cup

Bill Elliott's season hasn't started out like he hoped, but there's no reason for the veteran to panic. He hasn't had to worry about the point standings since 2003.

And for that, he couldn't be happier.

After proving in '03 that he could still find his way to victory lane -- only a flat tire on the last lap at Homestead kept him from sweeping the year's final two races -- Elliott knew it was time to leave the full-time Nextel Cup grind in his rear-view mirror.

He embarked upon a limited schedule with Evernham Motorsports last year, making way for Kasey Kahne to take over the seat of his legendary No. 9. This year, he hopes to run up to 12 races if sponsorship can be worked out.

An accident ruined Elliott's run at California Speedway in late February, and a lack of testing at Atlanta contributed to a disappointing 22nd-place finish last week at his home track.

But for a driver who can go snowboarding whenever he chooses, or break out a car and head to the local dirt track on a Friday or Saturday night, life is good.

"I've got a lot to do, but it's kind of more on my terms," said Elliott, who turns 50 in October. "I really enjoy [racing a limited schedule]. From the standpoint of where I'm at and what I've done over the years, it's kind of the right fit for me."

It didn't take Elliott long to know he'd made the right decision. While retiring veterans such as Rusty Wallace naturally second-guess about whether or not they've decided to step away too soon, Elliott has no such qualms.

That doesn't mean, though, that Elliott is finished with racing. He's going to run a limited schedule until he loses the desire to compete, whereas Wallace, the driver he edged out for the 1988 Cup championship, is quitting Nextel Cup for good at the end of this year.

"You kind of suspect it and as you continue on, everybody's kind of got their different way of doing things," Elliott said. "I thought, rather than just quit cold turkey, let's do it a little bit at a time here.

"Once I made that decision, I knew it was the right decision."

Terry Labonte is following Elliott's lead and running just 10 Nextel Cup races both this season and next, while Wallace and Mark Martin plan to leave Cup behind come November.

If Elliott had so chosen, he could have made a small fortune with a farewell tour, selling countless T-shirts and hats along the way. But a driver who gladly leaves the limelight to others wasn't interested.

"I saw what it did to Richard [Petty] when he did all that mess," Elliott said of Petty's 1992 year-long tribute. "For me it wasn't my style. I definitely don't want to run all the races. When I made that decision it was perfectly clear. I still want to run some, but to sit down and run a full season, I was done with that. I've done it for 21 years and that's enough."

Elliott could even run a few Busch Series races this year, but it depends on getting a situation to his liking. It's an approach that's served him well when it comes to spur-of-the-moment appearances at dirt tracks on weekends in which he's not committed to the Nextel Cup race.

"I'll decide Friday morning if I want to go run it Friday night and then I'll show up," Elliott said. "For me to go and have a big hassle [to run a Busch race], I don't want it and I don't need it. For me there's more important things. I love to race, but I ain't going through the hassle. Just like if I go to a dirt show and it takes all night to run the race, I'll load up and go home. It ain't because I get mad. It's because I've got more important things to do.

"I want to race. [But] I want it to be more of a pleasurable situation rather than a hassle. When it becomes a hassle it becomes no fun. Then why are we here? I've been fortunate enough to race through my lifetime and have a good time at it. Now there's another point in my life. What am I going to do the next 5, 10, 15 years? I don't see anyone else in here much older than me that's still running all the races. I get more fun out of watching him [9-year-old son Chase] race than anything else in the world. It's a lot of fun."

Jeremy Mayfield says the schedule seems to agree with his now part-time teammate.

"Bill's a great guy. He's pretty much Bill Elliott all the time. He's always helpful, and I think he's liking what he's doing," Mayfield said. "He's racing when he wants to and having a good time. He seems cool. He's always been kinda relaxed. It's hard to tell when he's tense and when he's relaxed. Every time I've been around him he's cutting up and having a good time."

Elliott, 49, knows there's a time when the younger generation needs to establish itself; and he did what he could to help Kahne make the transition to Cup last season. All told, he was rather impressed with the job Kahne did while winning rookie of the year honors.

"He was an easy study. He did well. I think he was an exception to the rule," Elliott said of Kahne. "He came in, picked the ball up and carried it way beyond my expectations. He got in good equipment, but on the flip side of that, he carried it. I'm very proud of him. He's a good kid, and he's got a great future in this sport. I compare him to Jeff Gordon or any of those guys."

One aspect Elliott certainly doesn't miss is all the demands on one's time that come with running the full schedule. He'll leave the numerous sponsor appearances to Kahne and Mayfield, content to handle the appearances that come with his limited schedule.

"To take care of the sponsorship, plus running 38 weekends a year, plus doing all the other stuff involved, just between the racing and testing is the hardest part of the whole deal," Elliott said. "Then you add on the sponsorship, car owner and everybody else's commitment and you try to put in a home life somewhere in the middle of all that mess, it does make it difficult. For the younger guys that are not really tied to anything, it makes it easy. Plus, at no point in time in their careers [did] these kids have to work on their cars like I did early on in my career."

The sport, though, has changed plenty since Elliott broke in. What hasn't changed is his personality. Even after all these years, the perennial winner of the most popular driver award prefers to stay in the shadows.

Elliott never tooted his own horn when he was the best the sport had to offer, and he could win his remaining starts this year and that wouldn't change, either.

"I'd rather be seen and not heard. That's just the way I grew up," Elliott said. "In the era we did what we did, we worked 24/7. You tell me how cocky you can get working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There were 13 of us in that shop, and I was no different. I was the guy that came in, worked on the car, swept the floor, changed the springs, put the motor in, did body work, did paint work and everything else. How cocky can you get doing that?"

Mark Ashenfelter is an associate editor at NASCAR Scene magazine and a contributor to ESPN.com.