Terry Elledge is entering his 10th season as head of the engine department at Bill Davis Racing. He oversees his fellow engine builders with one goal—to push the best motors in the NASCAR Cup Series garages out the doors of BDR.
Elledge has influenced the success of BDR engines since he walked through the doors to work with the team. In his first two years with BDR, the No. 22 car earned two poles, four front-row starts and qualified outside the top five only nine times in 68 races. However, Elledge’s effectiveness is not surprising, considering his experience building engines for Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, Benny Parsons and “The King” himself, Richard Petty.
It All Started With Cattle, but Quickly Transferred into Horsepower
Growing up on a cattle ranch in northern California, Elledge never would have guessed at the time that he would eventually build racing engines clear on the other side of the country.
The one characteristic that indicated what was to come was Elledge’s mechanical abilities. He was always a good mechanic, working on the farming equipment around the ranch. He realized his passion for racing when a drag racer leased his grandmother’s house.
Elledge became friends with the racer, and the two built a ‘33 Willy’s Coupe with a 430 cubic inch fuel-injected Lincoln engine. They went to a few races, and Elledge was hooked. He soon began drag racing locally in California.
In order to pay for his drag racing, he started building circle track motors for NASCAR Winston West Series driver Bill Schmitt. Together they won the 1977 championship and were runners-up for the title in 1978.
Benny Parsons, who had competed in some exhibition Winston West races, convinced Elledge to build motors for his team, owned by M.C. Anderson. Elledge agreed and moved from California to the East Coast in 1979.
After Anderson’s team shut its doors, the phone rang again. This time it was Maurice Petty. The Petty family wanted Elledge to build motors for them.
The next big name Elledge built engines for was a young Rusty Wallace. Elledge’s engines helped Wallace win the NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year title in 1983. The constant moving and travel soon took its toll on Elledge and his family, so he moved back to California with his family in 1984 with the intention remaining there while his children were in school. While in California, Elledge worked as a design engineer for a company that manufactured woodworking machinery. He worked there for eight years.
After his children graduated from high school, Elledge returned to North Carolina in 1992 to manage Richard Childress Racing’s engine development program. In 1997, with an incredible history of motorsports involvement already behind him, Elledge brought his talents to Bill Davis Racing.
With more than 25 years’ engine building experience, Elledge has brought a wealth of information and talent to the engine department at BDR. He, along with the entire BDR engine department, takes a lot of pride in finishing races and running up front. Nothing is more gratifying to him than seeing BDR cars in the lead.