The former NASCAR team owner says NHRA reminded him of racing’s golden days—and gave his family something NASCAR no longer could
In the motorsport’s community, whether it be NASCAR or NHRA , the last name “Melling” is synonymous with winning and championships. Today, you’ll find Melling Performance and the company’s familiar red on the Chevrolet Camaro driven by six-time NHRA Pro Stock champion Erica Enders.
Products produced by the Jackson, Michigan-based company, can also be found throughout the NHRA paddock.
“The Pro Stock area is the right size ,” Mark Melling, CEO of Melling Engine Parts, said. “We can be a lot more effective with our money here than we could in some of the other forms of racing. Most of what we sell probably is hot rodders and high-performance guys.
“The high-end racing is cool, but our business is not really that. Our customer base definitely is tuned in here. They like engines. They like speed.
The NHRA is a little more targeted to … gearheads that have something in their garage that’s jacked up and being worked on. ”It wasn’t the NHRA, however, that drew the Melling company to racing. Instead, it was NASCAR. Melling became a household name with NASCAR fans in the 1980s after Mark’s father, Harry Melling, purchased George Elliott’s struggling Cup team.
Brothers Bill, Ernie and Dan Elliott quickly catapulted to stardom, acquiring 34 victories and a Cup championship in a nine-year period. However, after Bill Elliott left the team at the end of 1991 to drive for Junior Johnson, the organization struggled. It never again visited a NASCAR Cup victory lane before Harry Melling suffered a fatal heart attack in mid-1999.
With the death of the Melling family patriarch, Mark became a NASCAR team owner and the CEO of Melling Engine Parts, also referred to as Melling Tool Company or Melling Industries. At one point Chad Knaus, now Hendrick Motorsports vice president of competition, was the team’s crew chief but the organization’s success of more than a decade couldn’t be resurrected. At the end of the 2002 season, Mark made the tough decision to close the NASCAR operation.
The North Carolina shop and equipment were sold to Arnold Motorsports in 2003.
“I was really depressed,” admitted Mark, who was in his early 30s at the time. “Circumstances just didn’t happen the way you wanted. 9/11 kind of flushed a few of us out. ” Now, however, in retrospect, Mark is convinced there was a reason behind shutting down the team. No longer having the race team provided him with the time to focus on his family.
He coached hockey and attended dance recitals.
“I got to do all these things for these kids for the next 10, 15 years. It was a blessing,” Mark said. Even though Mark realized the turn his life took when he closed the NASCAR team was a better path, he was still bitter about it.
“It was tough. It took a lot out of us,” Mark continued.
Then, about a decade ago one of Mark’s friends encouraged him to check out a drag race. Mark agreed and as soon as he entered the facility, he began seeing several of his customers.
“I started looking at people and it felt like I had gone back. It had so much of a flare of when I was 10 to 12 years old,” Mark said about the NHRA event.
“The 15-year-old in the early ‘80s, I felt a lot like that here . It wasn’t this huge production. The people were all very nice. They were thrilled to have me there.
”Mark soon met with Elite Motorsports owner Richard Freeman and there was an instant connection. His previous experience as a team owner allowed him to understand Freeman’s challenges. Freeman wanted Mark to be a part of the team, someone he could bounce ideas off. That made Mark feel like a part of the family; not just someone who wrote a check and put a name on a car.
Initially, it was just a trunk deck for half a season. Then the racing flood gate opened.
“It’s like the alcoholic stayed away from the bar for a long time, and then he’s back,” Mark said in describing his return to racing. “But we keep it in moderation, so it’s all good right now. ”Mark described Enders as a “perfect representative. ” Four of her six championships have come with the Melling banner, and that, too, has brought pleasant childhood memories back to Mark.
“When I was a kid, I got to go to the Waldorf-Astoria with my dad,” Mark said, reminiscing about the 1988 NASCAR Cup awards banquet when Bill Elliott was the champion. “When we won our first championship with Erica, they were going to the IMAX Theater in Hollywood the championship dinner.
We did the red carpet there … and I thought how lucky and blessed have I been to be able to do that with my dad on one side, then go over to the NHRA, and be able to participate in the championship dinner as part of the championship team and have my kids on the red carpet with me in their dresses and their tuxedos. I’ve been very, very lucky. ”
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