Melling Racing was a Championship-winning NASCAR Winston Cup Series race team owned by Harry Melling and his son Mark Melling. Harry Melling ran the team from its inception in 1982, to mid-1999. When Harry died after a heart attack in mid-1999, his son Mark then took over Melling Racing until the team closed in 2003.
The team was most notable for fielding cars for Bill Elliott in the 1980s, where he won the 1985 Southern 500 at Darlington to claim the first ever Winston Million bonus, claiming the fastest qualifying lap in NASCAR history at Talladega Superspeedway with a lap of 212.809 mph in 1987, and winning the 1988 Winston Cup championship. Melling won 34 career NASCAR Winston Cup races, all of them with Bill Elliott.
Melling Racing car that set the record for the fastest recorded time in a stock car - 212.809 mph at Talladega Superspeedway
Nadeau in the Melling Racing No. 9 at Dover, 1998
Lake Speed in the Cartoon Network No. 9 Ford, about to qualify for the Pocono Raceway Winston Cup Race, June 1998.
William Clyde Elliott Sr., also known as "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville", "Million Dollar Bill", or "Wild Bill" is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He last competed in the Camping World Superstar Racing Experience part-time in 2022. His accolades include the 1988 Winston Cup Championship and garnering 44 wins in that series, including two Daytona 500 victories in 1985 and 1987, three Southern 500 victories in 1985, 1988, and 1994, one Winston 500 victory in 1985, one Brickyard 400 victory in 2002, one "The Winston All-Star Race" win in 1986, and a record four consecutive wins at Michigan International Speedway between 1985 and 1986.
Elliott at Richmond Raceway in 2017
Elliott, after he won the Budweiser 500 at Dover Downs International Speedway in 1985
Bill Elliott's 1987 Daytona 500 Winning Ford Thunderbird, which also set the all-time fastest qualifying speed at Daytona International Speedway at 210.364 MPH, on display at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame.
Elliott's 1994 Ford Thunderbird