🇺🇸 Tommy Ellis

Tommy Ellis was an entry-level professional stock car racer who competed in NASCAR Xfinity, a national oval-racing championship fielding amateur and semi-professional drivers alongside graded professionals in the same races. Racing for Key Motorsports, Ellis spent fourteen seasons in the series from 1982 to 1995, accumulating 235 starts across ovals throughout the United States.[1]

Ellis won the NASCAR Xfinity championship in 1988, his first title in the series, and claimed a second consecutive championship in 1989. Across his career he took 22 wins and reached the podium 56 times. His record in the series came to a close in 1995, when he ran only two rounds before finishing 42nd in the championship standings in what proved to be his final season of racing.[2]

Ellis raced regularly against Jack Ingram and Tommy Houston, both entry-level professionals and frequent opponents with whom he proved closely matched; Ingram had won the Xfinity championship in 1982 and 1985. Ellis also finished ahead of established professionals including Sam Ard, a two-time Xfinity champion, on 26 occasions across their meetings. He beat Jeff Gordon, then competing at an established professional level, five times in their head-to-head racing on the Xfinity circuit.