RYAN ELLIS RETURNS TO ALPHA PRIME RACING IN 2023
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (September 15, 2022) - Alpha Prime Racing is proud to announce today that they have signed a multi-race deal with Ryan Ellis for the upcoming 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Season. Ellis, who competed in 11 races in 2022 during his debut season with the Alpha Prime team, will be behind the wheel of an Alpha Prime Chevy for an increased number of races in 2023. His first race of the 2023 season will be announced in the coming weeks/months and will mark a career milestone for the driver, as it will be his 100th NASCAR start.
Ellis is excited to return to the Alpha Prime team. In his first race with the team, Ellis finished 13th - a career-best. He matched that finish just a few races later with another 13th-place run at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and surrounded those results with several other top-20 finishes in 2022.
A third-generation racecar driver, Ryan Ellis began racing at the age of four in quarter midgets. His father Jim raced in SCCA, and his grandfather Vic raced sprint cars in the 1950’s before losing his life in a racing accident. Ellis progressed through Legends Cars, NASCAR Late Models, Spec Miatas, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup Series, Grand-Am, and other series before NASCAR. He made his NASCAR debut in 2012 for Jimmy Means Racing and has raced for numerous small teams in the NASCAR Truck, Xfinity, and Cup Series.
In 2016, Ellis briefly stepped away from driving as a career to become the Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Go Fas Racing. When Go Fas closed its doors in the 2020 season, Ellis decided it was time to jump back into the driver’s seat part-time with major support from the long-time sponsor of the GFR team, CorvetteParts.net / Keen Parts, which is owned by Tom and TJ Keen.
Since the 2021 season, Ellis has worked diligently with his small marketing team to find and grow valued partnerships. In the 2022 season, the Keens joined Ellis at Alpha Prime, propelling Ellis’ career into the best equipment he had ever had in his NASCAR career. Ellis’ marketing team -- led by Sarah Handy and Garrett Miller and guided by the foundation of Phillip Smalley and Spire Sports + Entertainment -- grew the 2022 season into an 11-race effort with new primary sponsorship partners such as Four Loko, Heartbeat Hot Sauce, Costa Oil, Limetree Marketing, and Renascent, all of which joined Keen Parts at APR. Specific 2023 partnership announcements will come at a further date.
“As soon as we got this year underway, I knew I wanted to be nowhere other than back at Alpha Prime Racing. We’ve had some really good runs this year and there are definitely some races where our results do not reflect what the team deserved due to bad luck. I’m really excited and feel very fortunate to get the opportunity to run more races with everyone who is a part of this team. It’s a dream to be able to work with every single person here and I want to thank every single one of my sponsors, Tommy Joe, Caesar, everyone at Alpha Prime, everyone who helps me with marketing and day-to-day work, and especially family - my wife and daughter who put up with me, because I wouldn’t be here without every single one of them. We’re grinding away to continue to grow our program year after year and I’m doing my best to enjoy every minute of this ride and continue pursuing my lifelong dream,” said Ryan Ellis.
“Ryan was one of the first people to believe in what we were putting together here at Alpha Prime Racing. We’re very happy to have him and his partners secured for 2023 and proud to have him be the first driver announced in our lineup,” said Tommy Joe Martins, General Manager of Alpha Prime Racing.