Nearly a year to the day (he missed it by just two weeks) after winning his first No Prep Kings Invitational event, Shawn “Murder Nova” Ellington secured his first Pro Mod event win on Saturday night at Xtreme Raceway Park in Ferris, Texas. The win capped off a historic 12 months for Ellington, who also ended 2024 with an NPK points championship.
“We set out to change up our program,” said Ellington. “Actually, I don’t know that we changed up our program – we found a program is what we did. From Phantom (crew chief Daniel Parker) changing up what he’s doing, keeping maintenance records, and keeping up with the number of passes we have on everything has been an amazing help to us. And I understand that ‘real’ race teams do this, but it’s something we’ve never done before.
“It just seems like everything’s going good,” Ellington continued. “It’s crazy because we talk a lot about how much of this is luck. You can be as good as you want, but you still need a little bit of luck to get some of these wins – and luck has been on our side over the last year.”
Driving “Blue,” the twin-turbocharged ’69 Camaro owned by fellow racer Keith Haney, Ellington defeated Ron Muenks in the final round of the Midwest Drag Racing Series Xtreme Nationals. Ellington laid down a 3.608 elapsed time at 220.05 mph to take the win, while Muenks pedaled his Jeff Pierce-tuned, “Purple Heart” Firebird multiple times, slowing to a 4.172 at 135.14.
The victory for Ellington came in just his third career Pro Mod start. He made his debut in the car at the U.S. Street Nationals at Bradenton Motorsports Park in January, the second of three races in the Drag Illustrated Winter Series. He followed that up with an appearance at the World Series of Pro Mod. Although he failed to qualify at both events, the team showed great progress as Ellington tried to get comfortable driving the car. Based on the results in Texas, it didn’t take long.
“It’s just one of those things where I knew as I made more passes in the car, I’d get more and more comfortable in it,” said Ellington. “But this past weekend, something just changed, and it was like the car was on cruise control all weekend. The car was pretty close when we left the Winter Series, but even though we knew it was close, we still brought it back to the shop here in Oklahoma, and we went over everything. We brought Brandon [Stroud] in and he helped tune it. When Brandon showed up, everything just got happier and smoother.”
Ellington wasted little time announcing his arrival in the MWDRS, diving into the 3.50s range on Friday night during the second qualifying session. Ellington ran a 3.593 at 221.35 mph, taking the No. 1 position and setting the XRP track door car speed record in the process.
“I say this all the time about drag racing being the most humbling thing ever, and now here I am being humbled again,” Ellington said. “To be in that elite group of people who have been in the 50s is amazing and something that can’t be explained.”
As the No. 1 qualifier, Murder Nova went into eliminations against Kyle Dvorak in round one. Unfortunately, Dvorak was not able to make the call, giving Ellington a bye run. And with a 14-car field, he was already slated to receive the bye in the quarterfinals. As he’d done all weekend, Ellington once again paced the field with a 3.61 at 220.37 mph.
In the semifinals, Ellington faced Keith Goolsby and tuner Ty Tutterow. In a side-by-side race, Ellington used yet another 3.61-second pass at 219.94 mph to outrun Goolsby’s 3.68 at 201.43, setting up the final round against Muenks. It was an impressive display of not only being the quickest and fastest car in the class all weekend but also the most consistent.
“We had a few goals this weekend – to go fast, to get into the 3.50s obviously…but one of our main things was to be consistent,” said Ellington. “It felt like we could’ve went mid to low 3.60’s at any point all day long – in the heat and everything. That’s what we were so happy about. I think we’ve got a good handle on the car right now, and it only gets better from here.”
Although Ellington will soon be focusing on defending his NPK – now called the Speed Promotions Racing Outlaw 32 – championship, fans will still have a couple more opportunities to see him wheeling “Blue” later this year. He expects to compete at the MWDRS US131 Funny Car Nationals Sept. 5-6 in Martin, Michigan, and the MWDRS Ronnie Hobbs World Finals Throwdown in T-Town Oct. 18-19 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
This story was originally published on April 14, 2025. 
