JIMMY  ELLEDGE   -   07/14/1970

In the early 1990’s Jimmy left his home town to go to North Carolina to work briefly as a mechanic at Roush Racing before going to work with his father in the garage of Richard Childress Racing.  Between the years of 1992 and 1997 Jimmy worked on the #3 Chevrolet cars of the late Dale Earnhardt Sr and when Mike Skinner joined the team as a driver in 1997 Jimmy worked on his car.  He had a brief stint as a Xfinity crew chief before he went to Roush Racing where he worked as the shop foreman for the #6 team with driver, Mark Martin; and was the front tire changer for the team on race days.  In 1998 season he was approached by Andy Petree of Andy Petree Racing, giving him the opportunity to work with his former boss at Richard Childress Racing as crew chief for Kenny Wallace and Bobby Hamilton.  He had his first and only victory at Talladega Super speedway with Bobby Hamilton driving the #55 car.  He stayed with the

team from 1998 to 2002 before leaving to work with Chip Ganassi Racing.  He was instrumental in guiding Casey Mears in his rookie year in 2003.  He was crew chief for Casey for a further two years before taking Reed Sorenson through his inaugural Cup year in 2006.  For the first part of 2008 he was again the crew chief for Reed Sorenson.  After eight races Ganassi swapped his with Donnie Wingo; sending Wingo to lead Sorenson while Elledge would now lead Juan Pablo Montoya.  After an additional eight races with Ganassi he would leave to work for owner Dietrich Mateschitz joining the Red Bull Racing Team with driver Scott Speed for nine races in 2008.  Jimmy worked with Speed all of the 2009 season, and Started the 2010 season with Speed; but was switched back to wrench the car or Sorenson the remainder of that season.  He was later released as crew chief when new driver, Kasey Kahne brought his own crew chief, Kenny Francis for the start of the 2011 season.  Elledge returned to the Xfinity series to crew chief for Justin Allgaier in 2011 and 2012.  They won once each season and finished third and sixth those two years.  In 2013 he led Allgaier's two Cup starts, and four Cup starts for Kyle Larson.  He last start as crew chief came in 2014 for driver Bobby Labonte.  Of note - Jimmy was once married to Dale Earnhardt Sr daughter Kelly Earnhardt.

 

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