I grew up watching Bill every Sunday, he was a household favorite. The Melling Oil Pumps factory is in my hometown of Jackson, Michigan. Michigan International Speedway is about 15 minute drive from this area. This whole area of Michigan adopted Bill as a second son.
Bill Elliott is the first driver I ever rooted for; His McDonald's era being where I started watching racing though. Videos like this tell me more about Bill's racing past before I was even around, let alone started rooting for him.
I liked his McDonalds car as a kid because...I was a kid, and McDonalds was cool. In any case, I’d say his McDonalds scheme - especially the 1999-2000 one - was one of the best of the era.
The first driver I was a fan of was Bill Elliott mainly because he drove for Ford and my family had deep ties to Ford. I think I watched a couple of races in '87 but really got into it in the 1988 season so I got to see Elliott win the championship. Stayed an Elliott fan for most of his career. While it was sad to see the fall of Melling racing there were many internal family issues with the Elliott's during that time including Bill's divorce from his first wife that soured the relationship and it was clear from the 90 and 91 seasons that something needed to change.
Wow talk about a crazy history. I only knew the team Melling Racing because of Bill Elliott, and just assumed they died off after he left. I had no idea they even made it to the 21st century, let alone have drivers like Lake Speed in the Spam Car and Cartoon Network, and Stacy Compton in the Kodiak Tobacco car. I knew about all those cars, but never knew the teams they races for until now. Boy did I get a history lesson today, thanks Danny!
Same here, I'm guessing they didn't get a lot of love from the race announcers, because I just don't remember any mention of the other drivers after Elliott left.
Up until a couple weeks ago I just thought Melling went straight from Bill Elliott to Lake Speed, I didn't think about the three year span when they just had a bunch of different drivers
Didn't Robert Pressley run the Melling car at Daytona in the 92? I remember it was an unsponsored white car until Brand Source came on board. The car was wicked fast.
I know that only the final results matter. But, that Spam 9 car was much more competitive than the results would indicate. I remember that car being very fast at the super speedways and Indy.
Rise and Fall of Whitcomb Racing? Their biggest moment was winning Daytona in 1990 with Cope and another race that year but they were a short lived team with Ken Bouchard and Derrike Cope driving for them.
Yes they were a Hendrick affiliate, at least at the time they won Daytona. Cope’s only other career win at Dover was also the only other win for Whitcomb Racing. They had several things go sour, I forget the details, but there was some intrigue
For some reason I only associated the Melling team with Bill even though I recognized all the different drivers and sponsors you discussed. Fun trip down memory lane!
The problem with the new points system is the playoffs. I like how they simplified the standard season points, but win and you're in kind of puts a damper on the smaller teams. Also I think the charter system is flawed. It seems Nascar has closed the door on it's open door policy.
Nice video, many great photos and video clips. I do want to add that Dale Earnhardt won the spring Michigan race in 1987. Bill's four straight MIS wins were sweeping both in 85 & 86.
20:36 - Actually, the original season finale in 2001 was going to be Atlanta. But after the 9/11 attacks, it became the postponed New Hampshire event. Homestead's tenure as the NASCAR finale didn't start until 2002.
I didn't personally become a fan of the #9 until 1997 ironically, but the Cartoon Network schemes were what got my attention (because I was 4-5 years old and actively watching CN then because that's when they were dominating cartoons) and I didn't know until 2001 when Fox came in that the same car was once Bill Elliott's car years prior... Side note: Originally, the Evernham Elliott car was actually going to be #91 until Elliott signed and wanted #94... Ironically, Elliott would obviously drive the #91 in his last starts in the Cup Series several years later
He drove for years after the 91 car, doing several part time seasons for the Wood Brothers. He also drove several one offs including running a Melling scheme with R&J Racing and a Walmart scheme with Turner Motorsports; did a one-off Busch race for Tommy Baldwin Racing while Tommy was working for Evernham, later way after gus retirement did an Xfinity race for Gallagher Motorsports, etc.
Please correct me if im wrong, but during the "Lake Speed" run I believe the University of Nebraska was supposed to sponsor the car but pulled out at the last minute. I remember seeing the die cast car on a shelf one day while shopping and thought I would buy it thinking one day if may be worth some money since that car never existed in Nascar
great video but there is a few things that were incorrect, first of all Bill Elliott won at Homestead at 2001 yes but that wasn't the season finale, there was two more races after, Atlanta and New Hampshire. and you were right about Compton and Pressley making starts in 2002 for the team but the races were reversed, Robert Pressley ran in the Daytona 500 and not only that but they had the 4th quickest time in qualifying, and Stacy Compton was driving for A.J. Foyt until around the New England 300 when Mike Wallace replaced Compton and Compton would drive for the team at Michigan and would actually lead three laps in the race and Robert Pressley would attempt to qualify for the EA Sports 500 at Talladega but due to rain he wasn't able to qualify for the race. It's also rather fitting that the last race Melling Racing had would take place in their home state of Michigan.
Bob Latford's point system started in 1975 and David Pearson won 10 races in 1976, but finished 10th in points. So Pearson was the first driver to get 10 wins and not win the championship in the format
The thing about Pearson though is that he actually never completed a full season. In 1976 he only competed in 22 of the 30 races that year. That's why he only finished 9th in points.
I take it you made the no bull 5 a seperate thing even though for the longest time it was at the crown jewel events (Daytona, Charlotte, Indy, Darlington, Dega)
@@DannyBTalks dope! Should go to McAdenville around Christmas time if you never have. You won't be disappointed. And be a great date for you and Claudia.
Ya know. I’m thinking about doing one SOLELY on Richard Petty himself because he fell big time from where he was. He’s always the King. But he did fall.
As the Motor Sports Marketing Director for a fortune 500 company from 86-94, I approached Melling about a possible sponsorship. He not to politely "asked" me to leave his pit area. Oh well
Fun fact: Don't ask me why, but my parents let me help them with the naming of my brother when my mom was pregnant and i said Lake because i had just gotten into NASCAR as a kid and i liked the Spam car lol. And no BS they actually named him Lake after Lake Speed lol
Few Notes: (Notes You Forgot To Mention) 1. I Think The Reason Bill Elliott Struggled From 1989-1991 Was Probably From His Crash At Daytona While Practicing For The 1989 Daytona 500 , He Suffered A Wrist Injury (Also It Was One Of Two Blowouts By The New Goodyear Radial Tires Which Were Making Their Debut That Season) I Think That Wrist Injury Might Have Affected The Team From Not Begin A Championship Contender (Same Goes For His Mediocre Season Of 97 After His Leg Injury At Talladega The Year Before , As Well As His Bad Seasons From 1999-2000 From His Hard Crashes At Talladega And California In 1998) 2. The Spot That Lake Speed Had His Pratice Crash In 1998 Was In Turn 10 (In The Hairpin Turn) I Think That Lake Speed Didn't Slow Down Enough In Turn 10 And (Spun Around) And Hit The Tire Barrier Hard (He Suffered Rib And Sternum Injuries 3. The Reason Lake Speed Retired After Loudon Was Because He Aggravated His Injuries Following The Big One On Lap 36 Corrections: The 2001 Homestead Race Wasn't The Last Race Of 2001 The Last Race Was Supposed To Be Atlanta But Due To 9/11 , The Finale Was Moved To New Hampshire Also In 2002 You Actually Mixed Stacy Compton And Robert Pressley's Races , Pressely Ran The Daytona 500 And Compton Ran At Michigan Outside Of That Great Video , Thanks Danny!
I never understood why a top tier driver didn't try to drive the 9 after Bill left the team. Shows something wasn't right with how the team was being run.
I believe that Bill won the 1988 Spring race at Bristol...during that championship season...for his only short track win of his career. I havent dug into stats but would venture to say that he may have won one or two more Cup titles with improved short track finishes...???
i did not know that that melling merged with evernhams team to put bill back in the 9 i thought that melling had gone under years before and the number was unused
They became a satellite team, they were only given the full factory support treatment at plate tracks, although they still ran Evernham engines and fielded Dodges at the other races, plus had Knaus as a Dodge (Evernham)-appointed crew chief
Essentially, but having a driver who could attract those big sponsors mainly played in to that. Thinking about the cars they peaked with to where they went out, they changed so much in only a short amount of time.
@@DannyBTalks it was not about attracting sponsors per se, they couldn’t sell sponsors because they didn’t have a plan for replacing all of the Elliott family people who left the team with Bill. That is basically what destroyed the team and they essentially started over from scratch in 1992. The fact that they lasted so long while running so poorly was only thanks to their track record, but at that point it was only on paper which became quickly apparent; then Harry Melling died and the track record meant even less. Even with Chad Knaus being installed by Dodge they could not hire the personnel to overhaul the processes needed to turn the results around, except for the plate races where it was basically run as an Evernham car. This made it clear that the team had basically no future unless they landed some huge sponsor deal that would allow the team to lure top employees with a big paycheck, and even that doesn’t really work (ask Gene Haas, who spent millions more than other owners yet couldn’t hire good people until Tony Stewart came on board and used his networking).
No Cup driver went winless in order to win the championship 1 win was the fewest in the Cup Series. Trucks and Xfinity on the other hand had winless champions.
The new points format is garbage, when you can win every single race during the season and the playoffs and finish second at phoenix and lose the championship, that’s flawed to me, hypothetically speaking of winning every race but consistency doesn’t really matter in the new format, I say go back to the old Winston format where every single lap matters
Seen that Kodiak car made me think of something think of how much better off NASCAR would be today if they didn't go all stupid idiotic against tobacco. I don't smoke tobacco or chew tobacco but you cannot deny the money tobacco companies were throwing at NASCAR and the teams and for NASCAR to turn their nose up to that and tell the teams they can't have them as primary sponsors anymore was a idiotic and stupid move. Why would you throw away millions of dollars for no reason what because tobacco kills people guess what the things that they're in driving around in circles in the track kill more people every single day than a cigarette ever did way more people die every single day around the world in cars and trucks then tobacco could ever dream of killing. So they got all uppity and kicked out tobacco companies because it's tobacco but yet the main component of their sport the main thing the car is a worse killer than the tobacco that makes no sense why would you get rid of that money it's stupid it really is you know all the sponsorship troubles we've been having for the last 10 years all the money troubles we've been having for the last 10 years in NASCAR all that would be alleviated and non-existent if they didn't get rid of the tobacco companies just think about that.
So it was NASCAR that went stupid on Tobacco sponsorships? Should do a little research first before such a long anti-NASCAR diatribe. The facts are that tobacco companies were forced out of sports sponsorships in the US after the tobacco companies settled a big lawsuit with 40 states that required them to leave the sport.
Wasnt nascars fault. Was legislation. But, after, when cell phone companies wanted to sponsor anyone and everyone, nascar got greedy, took nextel as title sponsor for themselves, and told the other companies to go home and that they cant sponsor any teams. That was 100% nascars fault