Five Takeaways from No Prep Kings in Michigan
It was a special night of career-firsts in Martin, Michigan, over the weekend as No Prep Kings held its final regular season event at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park.
The battle for the final few spots in the No Prep Elite playoffs reached a fever pitch, with multiple bracket-setting round matchups on Friday night having massive points implications. Some drivers were knocked out of contention right out of the gate, while others did just enough to sneak in.
By the end of the night, we saw a first-time winner in Scott Taylor, as well as a first-time “regular season” points champion in Shawn Ellington – although he admits that doesn’t hold as much weight knowing he has to maintain his lead in the playoffs to win the $150k for the season championship.
With No Prep Elite on deck, let’s look at my five takeaways from Martin, Michigan.
Scott Taylor Wins First Career Invitational
David Hilner photo
Widely regarded as one of the nicest guys in No Prep Kings, Scott Taylor has competed in all seven seasons of the series – but had never held up the NPK Invitational trophy. That all changed in Michigan, as Taylor used a “lucky chip” to propel him into the winner’s circle and a $30k prize.
“It was super emotional for me and my team,” Taylor said of his first career Invitational win in NPK. “When I went through the eighth-mile and the scoreboard lit up, it actually took a second to process we’d just won. I’ve been to the finals so many times – at least six or seven – and fell short by inches every single time. I just have to give special thanks to my crew, family, and all of our marketing partners that made this possible.”
Taylor’s weekend started very differently than it finished, as he lost his opening round matchup Friday night to NPK newcomer Cole Pesz. However, Taylor drew one of the two lucky chips to get himself back into the winner’s bracket, and never looked back.
Taylor ran a gauntlet of top contenders on Saturday, with all four matchups against drivers ranked no lower than 11th in points. He defeated Clay Cole, Paige Coughlin, and Giuseppe Gentile en route to the final round, where he faced Robin Roberts – arguably the quickest car on the property all weekend. Taylor used a massive starting line advantage in the finals to capture that elusive first win.
“It was definitely a sweet moment to pick up a holeshot win,” said Taylor. “Coming from a bracket racing background, I’ve always thought of myself as pretty good on the tree. Everybody out here in the top 16 are within a couple hundredths of a second, so when I let go of the button and didn’t see him at the 60 ft., I knew we had a win coming.”
Overcoming obstacles was the theme of the weekend for Taylor and his team, with Friday night’s loss just one item on the list. Numerous broken parts throughout the weekend might’ve been enough to halt other teams, but Taylor’s group fought through – and in doing so, gathered a lot of momentum heading into No Prep Elite, where he’ll start in the seventh spot.
“We’ve been through so much,” Taylor said. “This wasn’t our fastest hot rod. We had transmission troubles, lifter and valve spring troubles, we broke a blower – we basically tore up everything on the race car; but we were able to patch this thing back together. It made it that much sweeter to pick up the win after going through that. I think we’re gonna go in and shake it up in these last four races. If there’s a time to turn on the afterburners, it’s now.”
Murder Nova Finishes Regular Season on Top
Chris Sears photo
Shawn Ellington – better known as Murder Nova – has been a man on a mission all season, and the only driver to win three Invitationals in 2024. He came into Michigan as the points leader and appeared poised to head into No Prep Elite as the regular-season champion. But a Friday-night loss to one of his closest competitors, Robin Roberts, opened the door for either Roberts or Giuseppe Gentile to steal that points lead away.
“We drew Robin first round, and he’s kind of my nemesis,” said Ellington. “His car’s fast. We put down a pass that we were good with, and it just wasn’t enough. I always tell myself that if we make a good, clean run and everything goes great, I can’t be upset if I lose. I was upset at the time, but that’s just how it was – he drove away from us.”
With Roberts and Gentile both having the opportunity to take the points lead if they won the event, Ellington and his team started working out the math and determined they needed to win the second-chance bracket to guarantee they stayed number one. Doing so wouldn’t be easy, however, with one of the toughest loser’s brackets in recent memory. Ellington defeated 2023 individual champion Kye Kelley in round one, then went on to beat James “Doc” Love, “Disco Dean” Karns, and Nate Sayler to clinch the No. 1 position headed into No Prep Elite.
“We didn’t realize we were going to have bigger bears in the loser’s bracket this weekend,” Ellington joked. “We faced three teams that are top-five cars any day of the week. [Finishing first in the regular season] was a goal for us personally. It’s not a big deal, we’re not getting anything for it. All we did was finish the regular season number one – that was one of the bucket list items we wanted to do, and we made it happen.”
According to “Stat Guy” Chris LeCloux, Ellington now has 101 career round wins in NPK, ranking him 8th all-time. His .816 winning percentage this year is also the fifth best for a single season. That kind of improvement over the past couple seasons is what fuels Ellington in his quest for a championship.
“I couldn’t be prouder of what my team has done,” said Ellington. “It’s tough to keep everything going – the car, rig, trailer – from race to race. I think that’s something a lot of people will never understand. It proves when we set our minds to do something, we can do it. We finished fourth last year, and at that point, there’s nothing left for us to do but go out and win the whole thing.”
Jim Howe, Nate Sayler Secure Elite Status
Coming into Michigan, there were eight drivers within 21 points of each other vying to secure their spot in the No Prep Elite championship. Two drivers – Jim Howe and Nate Sayler – managed to do just that, but in very different fashions.
Howe entered the event sitting 19th, and had to go rounds to have any kind of shot. He did exactly that with a semifinal-round finish – defeating Kye Kelley, Chris Rankin, and Kayla Morton – that vaulted him up six spots to No. 13.
When I asked Jim about his team’s mentality with their backs against the wall, he kept it simple: “I put it in God’s hands.”
Sayler, meanwhile, came into the race in the 15th position, but lost to Giuseppe Gentile on Friday night, placing him in the second-chance bracket. With multiple drivers behind him such as Howe, “Daddy Dave” Comstock, Jimmy Taylor, Jerry Bird, and James “Birdman” Finney all winning, Sayler suddenly found himself on the outside looking in.
On Saturday, Sayler watched as Comstock, Taylor, Bird, and Finney all lost in the first round. The door had opened back up, but he still had to go rounds in the loser’s bracket to try and earn enough points to sneak back in – and he did exactly that, making it to the finals where he fell to Murder Nova.
“Literally all the stars had to align to get us in, but we did it!” said Sayler. “We came in No. 15, went to the loser’s bracket, and lost four spots. This team has no quit in us. We gained back our four spots, and are coming in strong to Tulsa and going to fight for that $150k. We have a top-five car and we are going to prove that when these points restart.”
First Time for Everything
Heading into Michigan, Kye Kelley was 12-0 in the bracket-setting round, the only driver to do so in 2024. However, he ended the regular season 12-1 after a loss to Jim Howe on Friday night.
Things didn’t get any easier for Kelley in the second-chance bracket, as he drew Murder Nova in round one – easily one of the premier matchups for the loser’s bracket all season. Kelley once again fell short, making this the toughest event of the year for him. Yet despite the losses, he only fell one spot to eighth in the points and is still in great position heading into No Prep Elite.
With Kelley’s loss, Clay Cole was the only driver to finish the season undefeated in the bracket-setting round; he was 9-0 after missing four races this year.
No Prep Elite
It’s finally here – sixteen drivers and four races to determine this year’s NPK champion. Fans and drivers alike have been curious what the format will be for the playoffs, and we now have a bit of clarity.
The points will indeed be reset. However, the top five finishers in the regular season will start with points based on their finish, in 10-point increments. First place will start with 50 points, second place at 40 points, etc. Positions 6-16 will all start with zero points.
This weekend in Tulsa, there will also be a new format in the opening round. The top seed will race the lowest seed, and on down the list like a traditional ladder. However, from the quarterfinals on, pairings will once again be done via a random chip draw.
Not only will the racing format be different, but so will the points structure. The first event in Tulsa will be regular points like all previous events. However, the next two races in Rockingham, N.C. and Steele, Alabama will be worth points and a half. The season finale at the Texas Motorplex will feature double points. With so many points available over the next month, all 16 drivers remaining in NPE have a shot at the championship.
In addition to the Elite Invitational, other classes such as Outlaw Big Tire, Small Tire, Index classes, and Daily Driver will still be contested.
Next Up: The top 16 drivers in points head to Tulsa Raceway Park on October 4-5 for the first of four No Prep Elite playoff races to determine the 2024 season champion.
This story was originally published on October 2, 2024.
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