HOSS ELLINGTON
05/12/1935 - 05/31/2014
a retired NASCAR driver and team owner. He made 31 starts as a driver between 1968 and 1970 in the NASCAR Cup series, finishing in the top 10 four times, all in 1969. Ellington was out of CUP racing in 1971, but in 1972 he would return for the next 17 years to field cars for such all star drivers as Fred Lorenzen, Cale Yarborough, AJ Foyt, Bobby Isaac, Donnie Allison, David Pearson, Dale Jarrett, and many others. He never ran a team full time, preferring instead to pick his races, and field cars that were competitive with a chance to win. In 1968, Ellington made his NASCAR Grand National debut at the 1968 Dixie 500 racing event that took place in Atlanta Motor Speedway while driving his self-owned #61 Mercury; he finished in 31st. In 1969, he made his first start of the season at Rockingham, competed in 15 races, finishing in the top ten four times, including two career-best 7th place finishes. In 1970, he
made three more starts, at Charlotte, Darlington, and Rockingham, with a best finish of 13th that year. He then retired as a driver after the 1970 American 500 race in order to focus on being a team owner. In 1972, Ellington began fielding cars as an owner for Fred Lorenzen. In Lorenzen's first start with the team, at Darlington, he finished 29th due to an engine failure. Lorenzen would later gather two top 5s and 3 top 10's. Later in the season, Ellington had Cale Yarborough ran three races in the Ellington car, earning two top 10s, and John Sears ran one race for the team, finishing 5th. Between the three drivers, the team competed in 11 races, scoring 3 top 5s and 6 top 10 finishes. In 1973, Ellington hired Ramo Stott, Charlie Glotzbach, and Gordon Johncock to drive for him, and the team again ran 11 races, with Johncock finishing fourth at the Firecracker 400 at Daytona. 1974 was much better for the team, with A. J. Foyt, Charlie Glotzbach, Bobby Isaac, and Sam McQuagg splitting up
15 races. Foyt and Glotzbach both scored a single top 5, Isaac finished in the top 10 three times with the team, and McQuagg scored two top tens. The team scored 2 top 5s and 7 top 10s in 15 races. 1975 was when Donnie Allison made his first start with the team. He ran two races with Ellington, finishing third at Talladega in his first race with the team. A.J. Foyt ran seven races with Ellington, scoring an additional top five finish. In 1976, Allison scored Ellington's first win as a team owner at Lowes Motor Speedway in the #1 car, a second team, as A.J. Foyt drove the familiar 28 in that race. Foyt also scored the first pole for the team in that year. For 1977, Allison was hired as the sole driver for the team, with the main car renumbered #1. Allison repaid Ellington with three pole positions, as well as two wins and 10 top 10s in 17 starts. He finished 24th in points despite running a partial
schedule. 1978 was another successful year, with Allison winning at Atlanta. The Atlanta win would be his last career win. Allison did not win at all in 1979, but he became a part of NASCAR history when he and Cale Yarborough crashed while racing for the lead on the last lap of the Daytona 500, when, after the wreck, Allison, Yarborough, and Allison's brother Bobby got into a fistfight in the grass infield in front of what was then the largest televised audience for a NASCAR race. Donnie Allison only drove 3 races for the team in 1980 before he left to join Kennie Childers's team. David Pearson ran 9 races that year, winning once. It was the last win for both Pearson in his career and also Ellington's team. It would come at Darlington in the CRC
Chemicals 500. In 1981, Buddy Baker drove 15 races, scoring nine top ten finishes and Pearson drove one race, finishing 8th. 1982 saw four different drivers behind the wheel for Ellington's mounts. Buddy Baker would finish fifth in the World 600 and post another top ten finish. In 1983 and 1984, Lake Speed drove for the team. He ran 18 races in 1983 and 17 in 1984. Overall during Speed's time with Ellington, he scored 4 top 5s and 12 top 10s. Pearson returned for 8 races in 1985, along with three other drivers; but none of them was able to post a finish better than tenth. In 1986, Sterling Marlin ran a partial schedule for Ellington scoring two top 5s and four top 10s, including
the Firecracker 400 where he led 6 laps and almost won, coming in second. In 1987, Brett Bodine and Ron Bouchard shared the car, with Bouchard scoring the only top 10 for the team all year. The team's last season was in 1988, when Dale Jarrett drove 8 races for Ellington, with a best finish of 11th. The team shut down after attempting to qualify for the 1989 Daytona 500 in an unsponsored Buick with driver, Doug Heveron. Unfortunately, a blown engine on lap 1 of the Gatorade 125 Qualifying race forced the team to miss the race. For his career as an owner he fielded cars for 264 events and won five times. Four of
those with Donnie Allison and the other with Pearson. His cars also posted 52 top five and 92 top ten finishes. Ellington died on May 31, 2014 in Wilmington, NC after a long battle with liver cancer. He was 79 years old.
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