Shawn ‘Murder Nova’ Ellington Crowned No Prep Elite Season 7 Champion
Shawn “Murder Nova” Ellington wrapped up an impressive 2024 season with both a win and a points championship at the No Prep Elite season 7 finale at the Texas Motorplex. Surrounded by friends and family in the winner’s circle, he celebrated with a $120,000 payday, two trophies, and a brand-new Anvil trailer.
“It’s still not real to me,” said 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 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 said. “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,” said 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 said. “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.”
This story was originally published on October 27, 2024.
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