Alpha Prime Racing is proud to announce today that they have signed veteran driver Ryan Ellis to a full-season schedule in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for 2024. Ellis, who was initially signed to compete with Alpha Prime for only 12 races in the 2023 season, will also complete the remainder of the 2023 season. He will likely end the season with 31 races run, with the team more than doubling their commitment to the 33-year-old driver from Ashburn, VA, since the beginning of the season.
Ellis first joined Alpha Prime Racing in 2022, competing in 11 races for the newly formed team. In his first-ever race with the team, he secured a new career-best finish.
Ellis is a third-generation racecar driver who began racing at the age of four in quarter midgets. His father, Jim, raced in the SCCA, and his grandfather Vic raced sprint cars in the 1950s before losing his life in a racing accident.
After multiple championships in quarter midgets, 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 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 was fortunate enough to find support from the long-time sponsor of the GFR team, CorvetteParts.net / Keen Parts, owned by Tom and TJ Keen. Because of that sponsorship and friendship, he found himself with his best opportunity since 2016 to get back behind the wheel of a NASCAR race car part-time.
The support of the Keen‘s, along with other longtime partners like Audio Video Specialists, Rich Mar Florists, Limetree Marketing, Kansasland Tire, and others, helped Ellis back into the driver‘s seat. He drove several races for BJ McLeod Motorsports in 2021 before making the transition to Alpha Prime Racing in 2022.
Since then, 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 opportunity 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 Motorsports Management International.
Throughout 2022 and 2023, Ellis, his internal team, and Alpha Prime Racing have grown their primary and secondary sponsorships at an unprecedented rate. In the 2023 season alone, the No.43 team has already announced/raced with primary sponsorships from Heartbeat Hot Sauce, Costa Oil (4 races), ShineWater, Rolling Plains Construction, Pella Windows + Doors of Georgia, Four Loko, Device42, Raising Cane‘s, CorvetteParts.net / Keen Parts (5 races), Flexcar, Gurtz Electric, Classic Collision, Rich Mar Florists, Renascent, AAGI, and Spider Energy Drink, with at least four new primary sponsors yet to be announced.
— Alpha Prime Racing —
