Ryan Ellis is currently competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the 13th time in the last 14 seasons and the fifth straight season, and for the second straight year, he is competing full-time after having never done so before.
Ellis, who competed part-time for Alpha Prime Racing in 2022 and 2023, ran the majority of the 2023 schedule before landing his first full-time ride with the team in 2024. In 2025, he competes full-time for DGM Racing with Jesse Iwuji Motorsports behind the wheel of the No. 71 Chevrolet.
DGM Racing with Jesse Iwuji Motorsports run two full-time entries, though the No. 91 Chevrolet is shared by multiple drivers. Ellis is the team's only full-time driver.
The 35-year-old Torrance, California native entered the 2025 season with career-high finishes of 11th place at Talladega Superspeedway in 2023 and Daytona International Speedway in 2024, and he was able to scrap his way to a number of other top 15 finishes during his time spent with lesser funded teams.
But in this past weekend's race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he earned his first career top 10 finish.
Ellis finished in eighth place in Saturday's BetMGM 300, which not only marked his first top 10 finish in 144 Xfinity Series starts, but his first top 10 finish in 176 career NASCAR national series starts.
It gives us a perfect opportunity to look back on an interview Ellis did with Beyond the Flag in 2023.
When he was still with Alpha Prime Racing, Ellis talked about being one of the more experienced drivers on his team, even having not spent a ton of time competing in the series before that.
"I’m one of the older and more experienced guys on our team, so I have a lot of experience to lean back on for the highs and lows during the season," Ellis said.
"The young kids that come into our sport and team tend to ride the highs and lows a little rougher than the veterans. It’s more about emotional stability and not looking at the small race sample size throughout the year."
He admitted though that he too was learning, since at the time, he hadn't competed in all that many races over the last few years.
"Having not driven much the last four to five years, I’m actually learning just as much from the other guys around the garage area. ... I’m focusing more on enjoying the journey."
It's safe to say, two years later, Ellis' ability to stick to a new challenge has paid off, and with even more experience, that journey has now reached a new high point for the former "start and park" driver, who is once again the veteran of his race team.
Ryan Ellis has also competed in the NASCAR Cup Series off and on throughout his career.
In that same interview, Ellis also made a comment about the Cup Series which, at the time, I'm not 100% sure many of us would have believed.
His most recent Cup Series start came back in October 2021, but he admitted that he had no desire whatsoever to get back to running select races at NASCAR's top level at this stage in his career.
"I always joke that going back to the Cup Series is my nightmare," he admitted. "I’m a racer at the end of the day and I want to drive a car that’s extremely competitive. In the Cup Series, the opportunities for one-off races are in cars that aren’t necessarily in the same competitive standpoint that we’re at in the Xfinity Series."
Let's just say that, by landing his first full-time rides in the Xfinity Series the past two years, he has backed up that stance, and his first career top 10 finish certainly won't hurt his desire to remain there.
And no, he still hasn't competed in the Cup Series since.
He has stuck to his claim, and once again, it has indeed paid off.
Ellis' most recent Cup Series start, the sixth of his career, came at Kansas Speedway with Rick Ware Racing. In addition to that one, he has made three with BK Racing, one with Circle Sport, and one with Premium Motorsports. Despite finishing every race, he never finished on the lead lap, and he never finished higher than 32nd place.
"I have fun going out and competing against the guys in the Xfinity Series because it’s a more competitive car, and at the end of the day, I’m not in this sport to ride around," he said. "I want to truly be racing and competing, and the Xfinity schedule works out better having a daughter, so it’s a win-win across the board."
It certainly does seem to be working out for the Xfinity Series veteran.