Harry Melling (NASCAR owner)
American businessman and stock car team owner (1945-1999)
Harry Melling (June 13, 1945 – May 29, 1999) was the team owner of Melling Racing, which won the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship with Bill Elliott.
Background
Melling graduated from Ferris State University. Melling succeeded his father Benjamin as President of The Melling Tool Company in 1975, and subsequently now owned by his son Mark, with his son Brendan now in the family succession plan. Melling Tool is a maker of automotive products. Melling also owned Treetops Sylvan Resort in Gaylord, Michigan, turning a small local ski hill into a national skiing and golfing destination, which was sold by the family after his death.
NASCAR team owner
Melling's first involvement in NASCAR began in 1979 as a primary sponsor for Benny Parsons. Melling Racing won the NASCAR Winston Cup points championship with Bill Elliott.
Death
Melling died of a heart attack at his golf course in Gaylord, Michigan, at age 53. At the Michigan race two weeks later, which is usually the team's homecoming, the team raced a red and white Cartoon Network (the sponsor in the 1999 season) with the team's driver Jerry Nadeau. On the decklid, a decal said "To Harry!
The public source identifies “Harry Melling (NASCAR owner)” as american businessman and stock car team owner (1945-1999). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Harry, Melling and NASCAR.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16014450. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945, 1999, 1988 and 1975.
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This entry incorporates text from “Harry Melling (NASCAR owner)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.