“We’ve been working on this engine program for about eight years and we’ve had the same people,” said Junior. “They’ve all been very loyal, good people. They’re like family to me.”

“We all work really, really hard and put a lot of hours in,” said Ellis. “The time away from home is tough sometimes.”

And all that hard work wasn’t putting Wallys on the shelf. “We had some reliability issues early on last year and we’ve really been working on getting the engine more reliable,” said Ellis. “So at this point now, we’ve been able to focus on making more horsepower.

“After Indy I felt really, really good because we had a god shot at (winning) Indy, we just missed the clutch in the second round. Our bike is running amazing and our guys are doing an amazing job back at the shop on the dyno and making more power, and that really showed this weekend. I’m just ecstatic with our performance today.”

Performance enough to overcome Hines’ .005 light in the final and out-drag his V-Rod down the track for the win. “Anytime you can qualify at one of these events any more is a major accomplishment, so to straight out-run the Harleys is an amazing day for us and for Mr. Pippin especially,” said Ellis.

“I’ve been saying all year long we need to stay in the middle of the pack, but when we get to Charlotte, we need to come out swinging—and we did,” said Pippin.

“I did get a couple breaks,” added Ellis. “Angelle broke and we would have had a really good race if her bike would have shifted. LE had an issue too, and he would have beat me if his bike had gone down the track ‘cause I was a little late.

“But as a racer, some days you just have a feeling where ‘Today’s the day’,” -- at this point Ellis choked up -- “And today was the day.”

Pippin, who’s made a remarkable recovery from his treatments but also faces having a portion of a lung removed, was unable to attend the Charlotte race.

“I knew that as soon as I’d left to go to the track, the hospital would call for me to come in for my surgery,” said Pippin. “So I thought it was better to stay home just in case.

“I wanted to be there so bad. We were watching it live on NHRA All Access. When Chip crossed that finish line, there were some tears shed around here, I’ll tell ya. I might not have been there in body, but I was there in spirit.”