Nick Fillman, USAC ECSC
2021 was the official rookie season for established micro sprint driver Nash Ely, who made his debut behind the wheel of a sprint car for the closing handful of events at the tail end of the 2020 season.
Ely, whose family has a long history of racing, especially sprint car racing, is the latest generation to begin to make his mark in the racing world. Ely ended up competing in twenty-two of the series twenty-three events, missing only the event at the Orange County Fair Speedway in October.
Nash and the Franckowiak Racing team ended the series season fourth in points, collecting thirteen top ten runs, with six top five finishes. Ely picked up his career best finish at the Georgetown Speedway in July, where he finished a close second to Briggs Danner. Along the way Nash picked up a pair of heat race wins at Action Track USA and the Winchester Speedway, while most of Nash’s better runs came on the bigger half miles. Nash found the top five on more than one occasion at tracks like: Bedford, Georgetown and Selinsgrove.
The team also competed in both USAC National Sprint Car Eastern Swings, along with starting a few events in winged 360 and 358 sprint car competition toward the end of the season. While Nash and team will be focusing on winged 358 sprint car action at Williams Grove and Lincoln for the bulk of the 2022 racing season, expect to see Ely pop in here and there across the series trail.