CHARLOTTE -- Even though he's a previous two-time winner of the Daytona 500 (1985 and '87), Bill Elliott says winning the season opener, which is now less than a month away, isn't the end all and be all, particularly if he and his No. 9 Dodge team are to make a run at the championship.

"I'm kind of looking past Daytona," Elliott said, not because he doesn't consider the event to be important, but rather because there are 35 races after that which carry as much significance when it comes to winning the title.

While it'd be nice to win at Daytona, Elliott, who won the pole there in 2001 when Dodge made its return to Winston Cup racing, cites defending champ Tony Stewart as the perfect example behind his thinking. For, it was Stewart -- who finished dead last in the 2002 opener at Daytona, bowing out after just two laps due to engine problems -- who proved having a strong finish at Daytona isn't necessary to contend for the championship.

"I still enjoy racing at Daytona, it's a lot of fun there," Elliott said during this week's NASCAR Media Tour. "If you get everything right there -- if you've got the car (to win), then it's a great place to be. I don't say (looking past Daytona) negatively, but yet there's a long season past Daytona and there's a lot of good races for me.

"I enjoy Rockingham (N.C.), Las Vegas, Atlanta, Darlington (S.C.), I can just go right on down the list. But all in all for me, it's going to be an exciting year. Ray (Evernham, team owner) has made some great changes in his race team, he's got a lot of good things going on, and we just have to capitalize on what's happening."

Elliott, who has 43 career wins, won two events last year -- back-to-back triumphs at Pocono, Pa., and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis -- marking the first time he has had multiple wins in a season since he won five times while driving for Junior Johnson in 1992.

	Bill Elliott crossed the bricks for his first Indy win.

"Winning those two races back-to-back last year was the highlight of my career," Elliott said. "I feel like that, to be at my point in my career and to be able to do what we did, especially to come back and win at Indy, was a special moment. After that, I'm just looking for another great year. We have to continue to work hard and get ourselves back in Victory Lane, first at Daytona, and if not there, at Rockingham, Vegas and right on down the line."

That pair of wins not only reaffirmed to Elliott that he can be as successful as anyone else, but also rejuvenated him in the process. Instead of entertaining thoughts of retirement, he says he's looking to continue on for at least a few more years.

"Those two wins did a lot for me," Elliott said. "I didn't feel I ever got that bad (as a driver). Everybody would say, 'You're never going to win another race or do this or that,' but throughout the era of owning my own race team, I felt like we ran well. I just never got the opportunity to put it in Victory Lane. We came so close, but could never capitalize on it. Ray's given me the opportunity, given me the people and put the stuff under me that makes it great.

"To me, it's just putting it together. I feel like this race team can win anywhere, if we can just have a few factors come together and get the right things going. I mean, there's 43 cars capable of winning these races, week in and week out. The main thing is not making mistakes. We lost a little bit near the end of last season (dropped from 7th to a final finish of 13th in the final nine weeks of the 2002 schedule). I made a few mistakes, there were some in several directions, and I think that's the kind of thing we can't let happen in 2003.

"With Jeremy (Mayfield, teammate) and me working together and being on the same page, as close as we possibly can, that's what's going to be the key to success for this race team."

At 46 and with a quarter-century of competition under his belt, Elliott not only is thankful for his success, but he has the wherewithal to continue piloting himself and his car into Victory Lane.

	“	I still enjoy racing at Daytona, it's a lot of fun there. If you get everything right there -- if you've got the car (to win), then it's a great place to be. ... But yet there's a long season past Daytona and there's a lot of good races for me. ”
		— Elliott

"I think the older you get, the more you appreciate it, I really do," Elliott said. "At first, you've got a long career ahead of you and you realize that maybe you'll be around for awhile. But the older you get, the more you realize you're on the shorter end rather than the longer end."

Yet, at the same time, he readily admits that he's still learning new elements of the game, the most recent lessons coming from Stewart.

"He kind of did things his way, but the main thing is he was consistent," Elliott said. "But, I don't think he's any different than the guy before him, or the guy before him. The way all this stuff kind of shakes out, at the beginning of the season there's a lot of candidates that can win the championship.

"But by the end of the season, it's the guy who's had the least amount of bad luck. And, it's always been that way. Everybody has been pretty competitive and pretty strong where they're at. If you look at where we were at by the time we got done with late August, early September, there were a lot of cars still in the mix at that time.

"But it's he who has the least bad luck. And, plus, (Stewart) ran well. I'm not going to say it's all luck, because he backed it up by running well, too."

And if Elliott has anything to say about it, he'll try to do the same thing this season.

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.