Bill Saunders General & Managing Partner Personal Statistics: Birthdate: March 16, 1947 Birthplace: Dallas, Texas Hometown: Dallas, Texas Residence: Mooresville, N.C. Spouse: Paula

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

Bill Saunders is in his second season as the general and managing partner of Hall of Fame Racing and the No. 96 DLP® HDTV Chevrolet. Saunders, who co-owns the team with Pro Football Hall of Fame members Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach, is the chief architect of Hall of Fame Racing and oversees the day-to-day operations of the team.

In the team's first season in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series, the No. 96 DLP Chevy finished 26th in owner points, ahead of cars from such long-standing teams as Chip Ganassi Racing, Evernham Motorsports, Bill Davis Racing and Petty Enterprises.

Saunders put two-time NASCAR champion Terry Labonte and veteran Tony Raines together to split the driving duties for the team, with Labonte driving the first five races and the two road course events, while Raines drove the other 29 races. Together, Labonte and Raines scored 12 top-20 finishes and one top-10 finish apiece. Labonte scored a season-best result for the team when he finished third in June at the road course in Sonoma, Calif. Raines' seventh-place finish at Charlotte (N.C.) in October was his season-best.

TRANS-AM

Saunders is no stranger to racing, having competed for more than 10 years as a driver in various road racing series, including six in the prestigious SCCA Trans-Am Series. He won two races in his final season (1998) at Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport and at the West Michigan Grand Prix in Grand Rapids, respectively.

That same year, along with Paul Gentilozzi, his Rocketsports Racing teammate, Saunders helped Chevrolet clinch the 1998 SCCA Trans-Am Series manufacturer's championship for Chevrolet's Corvette brand. The duo scored nine wins together, with Gentilozzi taking seven victories and Saunders earning two. Each driver also scored numerous second-place finishes.

Saunders made his debut in the Trans-Am Series in 1993 when he finished 12th in points with a top finish of eighth in the Dallas event. He led his first laps in Trans-Am in 1995 at Portland (Ore.), and in 1996 was voted by his peers as the Most Improved Driver of the Year thanks to 10 top-10s, which included two sixth-place finishes, two seventh-place finishes and three eighth-place finishes.

Prior to his Trans-Am career, Saunders drove Eagle Talons for the Chrysler Corporation in the SCCA Speed World Challenge. In 1992, he finished second in the D Class Championship, losing to teammate Neil Hannemann by just one point after an engine failure in the final race of the season.

Saunders also drove in many SCCA regional and national events and was the 1990 SCCA Southwest Region champion and runner up in the SCCA National division standings. That same year, he was the leading Ford showroom stock driver in the United States.

HIGHWAYMASTER CORP.

Away from the racetrack, Saunders co-founded HighwayMaster Corp., a cellular-based communications company for the trucking industry. He took the company public in 1995 and served as CEO until retiring in 1998. HighwayMaster was the world's largest continuous footprint cellular network in the late 1990s, and the trucking industry used HighwayMaster technology to monitor with GPS and communicate via voice and data with trucks in their fleet throughout North America.

In addition to HighwayMaster Corp, Saunders founded and was principle owner of Saunders, Lubinski and White Advertising for more than 25 years. The agency's clients during Saunders tenure included Braniff Airlines, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Tuesday Morning, Zale's Jewelry, Taco Bueno and John Eagle Dealerships.