The team was most notable for fielding cars for Bill Elliott in the 1980s, where he won the 1985 Southern 500 at Darlington to claim the first ever Winston Million bonus, claiming the fastest qualifying lap in NASCAR history at Talladega Superspeedway with a lap of 212.809 mph in 1987, and winning the 1988 Winston Cup championship.

The following season, Coors became the team's new sponsor and Melling Racing responded with three wins with Elliott and another third-place points finish.

Darrell Waltrip clinched his 3rd and final Winston Cup title, having won only 3 races to Bill Elliott's 11.

The team was unable to defend its championship in 1989 after Elliott was injured early in the season and Jody Ridley served as a substitute driver.

Elliott still managed to win three races that year, but the defending Winston Cup champions fell to 6th in points.

Bill Elliott had a very rough year, and fell to a disappointing 11th in points, causing him and Coors to part ways with Melling at the end of the 1991 season.

Without sponsorship, Melling ran Phil Parsons for the first two races in the 1992 season and had a top-ten finish at the Daytona 500.

After that, the team ran a part-time schedule with Dorsey Schroeder, Dave Mader III, and Bill Schmitt driving, before Chad Little finished the season.

Due to a lack of sponsorship, the team skipped races, and ran a total of 26 events with Speed driving 25 and Jeff Davis running at Sears Point.

While practicing at Sears Point, Speed was involved a wreck and had to be replaced by Butch Gilliland that weekend while he recuperated.

After returning for a final race at New Hampshire, Speed retired from driving and was replaced immediately by rookie Jerry Nadeau, who had a best finish of 15th at Watkins Glen International.

Midway through the season, Harry Melling died due to a heart attack, and his son Mark took over ownership of the team.

At Watkins Glen that season, Nadeau gave Melling Racing its first top-five since 1991 with a fifth-place finish, but left after the following week to replace Ernie Irvan at MB2 Motorsports.

In his rookie season, Compton was unable to finish higher than 16th, had to miss the goracing.com 500 due to injuries, and was replaced by Bobby Hillin Jr. for that race.

In a twist of fate for the team, Elliott won at Homestead in November 2001, driving the number 9 car, but this time, with Evernham Motorsports.

Melling began the 2002 season at Daytona with Robert Pressley driving, finishing 22nd in the Brand Source Dodge after a late race engine failure.

[2][3] At the end of the 2002 season, Melling Racing closed its doors for good and eventually sold its shop and equipment to Arnold Motorsports in 2003.