Shawn ‘ Murder Nova ’ Ellington ’ s consistent efforts pay off with No Prep Elite championship By Craig Cook

as Roberts went red against Chris Rankin in the very next race . The door had suddenly swung wide open .

“ At that point , my wife and the push car are not even to me yet ,” Ellington says . “ The producer says , ‘ Robin just lost .’ I ’ ll be honest , I felt like an asshole , but I was extremely excited . As they ’ re coming down , I ’ m waving my arms in the air saying , ‘ Robin lost ! Robin lost !’ There was a number of things that needed to happen today , and it ’ s like they all just fell in place .”

It wasn ’ t just Ellington that benefited from the red light , however . Seven drivers entered the season finale with a realistic shot at the championship . But in addition to Roberts , Justin Swanstrom and Ryan Martin both fell in round one . Clay Cole and Scott Taylor then lost in round two , leaving only Jim Howe standing in Ellington ’ s way .

As luck would have it , the two drew each other in the semifinals . Unfortunately , Howe blew the motor in his quarterfinal-round win and was not able to make it back in time , giving Ellington a bye run and the championship .

“ Jim is always a tough draw , no matter when you get him ,” says Ellington . “ Any time you race him , he ’ s got a chance to put bus lengths on people . We went up there loaded for bear , and he didn ’ t make the call . I don ’ t know if we would ’ ve outran him , but at that point , I told him , ‘ Hey man … I love you dude , but I ’ m making the pass . I ’ m not waiting on nobody .’ There ’ s too much money and too much hard work involved by my crew to do that . We all have the same opportunity to keep our cars together .”

With the $ 100,000 championship secured , there was only one item left on the agenda – win the event . Ellington would face Paige Coughlin , appearing in her first-ever Invitational final round . The race was over right at the tree , as Coughlin red lit to give Ellington the victory and another $ 20,000 . It was his fourth Invitational win of the season , becoming only the third driver – along with James “ Birdman ” Finney and Ryan Martin – to win four events in a single season .

“ Everything is about being consistent ,” Ellington says . “ I do believe a few times we had the fastest car on the property . But I also believe sometimes we were just the most consistent car on the property . That was the biggest key to our victories all year . We talked about it at the beginning of the year , and we said we wanted to finish off the season with a championship and a win in Ennis . And we made it happen .” DI

“ It ’ s still not real to me ,” says Ellington . “ It ’ s still all a dream right now . At some point tomorrow it will hit me . When I lay down in bed tonight and won ’ t be able to sleep , that ’ s when it will hit me that it all came together . It makes everything worthwhile – all the struggles , all the headaches , beating our heads against the wall – it makes everything worth it .”

Ellington finished the regular season of No Prep Kings as the points leader , but after a couple early losses in the No Prep Elite playoffs , he entered Texas third in the standings , 30 points behind leader Robin Roberts . He knew things had to break his way to win the championship , and that ’ s exactly what happened .

Ellington and Jeff Lutz were the first pair down the track in round one , with Ellington scoring the victory . He then watched from the return road

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARKALE EPPS

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