Chip Ellis had much more than a Wally on his mind Sunday after winning the first Pro Stock Motorcycle race in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship.

The Daytona Beach, Florida, native dedicated his upset victory to bike owner and former NHRA Pro Stock rider Junior Pippin, who has battled cancer in his family the past four years.

In 2012, Pippin left the tour to care for his wife, who was diagnosed with breast cancer. In July of last year, Pippin received his own diagnosis of nasal cancer and is still contending with the disease.

“This is the best win in my career, just for what Mr. Pippin has done,” said Ellis, whose last win came in 2008 at Englishtown, New Jersey. “He’s the reason that we are here.

“(Pippin) tried really hard to win one of these trophies, and he has assembled a great group of guys. I’m just really proud to be a part of his team. It’s an amazing deal for me.”

After surviving the hot conditions at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte all weekend, Ellis punctuated his charge by stopping five-time world champion Andrew Hines in the finals with a pass of 6.879 seconds at 194.888 mph in his Buell.

Hines, the points leader, followed at 6.908 at 193.49 in his familiar Harley Davidson.

En route to his seventh career victory, Ellis defeated Shawn Gann, LE Tonglet and No. 1 qualifier Angelle Sampey.

“I’m ecstatic with our performance today,” Ellis said. “I did get a couple of breaks, against Angelle when her bike broke and LE had some issue or else he probably would have beat us. As a racer, some days you just have a feeling that today’s the day. And today’s the day.”

Pippin, from Conyers, Georgia, has financed his racing efforts through the Junior Pippin Trucking Company. Pippin won seven national championships in the exotic world of All-Harley Drag Racing before joining the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle ranks in 2007.

Sunday was the first victory for the Ellis-Pippin partnership.

According to Ellis, Pippin has undergone 35 radiation treatments along with six grueling chemotherapy sessions.

“He’s been battling, and he had just had a checkup about a month ago where they found another spot on his lung,” Ellis said. “(The doctors) say they’re going to be able to remove this spot without doing any chemo or radiation, so we’re all just praying that he comes through this.(Pippin) wants to get back out here, and this deal right here today just gives him more momentum.”

Moments after securing his win Sunday, Ellis said he placed a call to Pippin at his Georgia home.

“He was excited and asking if we had enough engines,” Ellis said.

It was a busy weekend for Ellis, who made his Lucas Oil Sportsman racing debut in a Mustang Cobra Jet Super Stock car owned by veteran driver Roy Hill.

“I had an amazing time driving that car,” Ellis said.  “It was a real challenge for me because we do everything on the motorcycle with our hands and we don’t use our feet for anything.

“We are a small team. It was a lot on me and my crew to do that because I do a lot of the mechanical stuff on our bike, but I enjoyed it.”

Ellis said his 14-year-old daughter, McKenzie, actually does the clutch work on his bike after every round.

“Every time she services the clutch on that motorcycle we go rounds, so McKenzie is not going to school anymore,” Ellis said.