TOMMY ELLIS - 08/08/1947
was a NASCAR short track ace of the 1970s and 1980s. Often referred to as "Terrible" Tommy Ellis for his rough tactics. His first start in NASCAR came in the Cup series in 1976. It would come at Dover DE as he would drive the Sunny Kind Ford owned by Bill Champion. He would start 31st and at the checkers he had a 21st place finish. His next Cup start wouldn't come until 1981 when he would make four starts. All would come in car #55 in a self owned car with sponsorship from Industrial Boiler. He would make an impressive run at Charlotte and after starting 22nd would finish in fourth spot. This would be Ellis' only career top 5 Cup finish. He won the National Late Model Sportsman championship in 1981 and was one of six drivers enrolled in the Winner's Circle plan at the formation of the Xfinity Series in 1982. He posted a win that season in the Xfinity Series; as he would start on the pole and cross the finish line first at Langley Speedway in Hampton VA. He ran two Cup races in 1982 and finish 11th in both events. Both starts
1981 Cup car
1987 Cup ride
Running so many Cup events cut into his Xfinity race schedule as he only ran 14 of 29 races. He did claim one win at Richmond; starting on the pole; leading all 150 laps and just edged out Geoff Bodine by a couple car lengths. Once again 1985 Ellis would run about half of the Cup Series races. His best finish would be a 10th place finish at Richmond driving the #18 Freedlander Chevy. Ellis also ran about half of of the Xfinity races. He posted five wins in just 15 starts; but since he ran such a limited schedule he was only able to finish 16th in the points. Ellis ran most of the Cup series the following year starting 24 of 29 Cup events. He piloted his #18 Freedlander Chevy to a season's best eighth place finish at Dover in September.
From this points on Ellis would make no more than four Cup starts in any season the rest of his career, He went to concentrating on his Xfinity Series career. 1987 he ran just 15 of 27 Xfinity series events and get one win. From 1988-1990 Ellis ran every race in the Xfinity Series chasing the Championship. He was successful in 1988 claiming three wins and 12 top five finishes. When the season closed; he had beaten Rob Moroso by 295 points to claim his first Championship. 1989 saw car owner John Jackson get GooGoo Clusters as a sponsor for his #99 Buick; and Ellis would once again claim three wins. This season Moroso would come out on top in the points with Ellis third. 1990 would be Ellis' final full season of competition. He would claim a win at Loudon NH; but Chuck Bown would have a phenominal season claiming six wins and beat Jimmy Hensley by 200 points to claim the title. Ellis would finish sixth in the points. This season would be the last one that Ellis was able to visit victory lane. For the rest of his career
1988 Xfinity Champ
1989 Xfinity car
(1991-1995) Ellis would only run 35 total races and post two top 5 finishes. His final race came at Michigan when he would start 40th and finish 34th. He was also considered an ace sub-driver in Cup, filling in (1991-1995) Ellis would only run 35 total races and post two top 5 finishes. His final race came at Michigan when he would start 40th and finish 34th. He was also considered an ace sub-driver in Cup, filling in for Neil Bonnett in 1989 and replacing a suspended Geoff Bodine at Junior Johnson Motorsports two years later. His Xfinity Series career totals are 28 poles and 22 wins. In 2010 pleaded guilty to a tax-evasion charge in a Richmond, Va., federal court. His wife, Brenda Ellis, also pled guilty to a tax-evasion charge in a Richmond, Va., federal court. Reports say the Ellis' maintained two sets of books for their automated car-wash business, according to court documents, and paid taxes on
only part of their income. The discrepancy was discovered, documents said, when the couple put the business up for sale in 2008 and -- to justify the asking price -- showed the second set of books to an undercover Internal Revenue Service agent posing as a potential buyer. The government charged the Ellises with understating their income by $386,397 between 2003 and 2007, and underpaying their taxes by $133,163. Tommy was sentenced on 7/31/2010 to 18 months in prison for tax evasion and money laundering. The 63-year-old Richmond, Va., native pleaded guilty in May and was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson of Richmond. The judge also sentenced Ellis’s wife, Brenda, to 12 months for her role. Some info from WikiPedia
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