Neil Elliott

Neil Elliott (born November 30th, 1975) is a retired monster truck driver out of Paxton, Illinois. Neil always drove a Team Meents truck, and he drove a second Maximum Destruction for most of his career, along with other identities the team ran. Neil is the husband to Candice Jolly and currently resides in Naples, Florida.

Career[]

Neil began driving for Tom Meents in 2000 by driving Bulldozer.

In 2002, Neil would drive High Roller and Hot Wheels. Due to Tom Meents driving the original Team Meents in Las Vegas, and Eldon DePew debuting Hot Wheels there, he ran Team Meents for that single weekend as a fill-in driver. That same year, he won Rookie of the Year.

In 2003, Neil would begin driving a second Maximum Destruction, debuting his version before Tom did in Houston. Neil's version debuted in Birmingham, one day before the Houston show.

In 2004, Neil would get his first invite to the Monster Jam World Finals driving Hot Wheels.

In 2005, Neil would take his first break from Monster Jam, leading Phil Foster to drive his chassis.

In 2006, Neil drove Hot Wheels at the Monsters on Mainstreet event. He also competed in Monster Jam World Finals VII and VIII under the Hot Wheels truck. In Salinas, he drove TMNT.

In 2008, Neil won the Crash Madness of the Year, after he wrecked his Maximum Destruction truck in New Orleans so bad that the cost was $20,000 worth of damage.

In 2009, Kreg Christensen would be a last-minute replacement for Neil as he briefly exited the sport again. Neil would return in Barcelona, which was his only show that year.

In 2012, Neil won the Monster Jam Stadium Freestyle of the Year award after putting on a thrilling performance in Orlando, Florida, which would also be his first ever double down. Mark Schroeder called one of the saves in that freestyle a ''360 side flip''. He drove Team Hot Wheels on his Maximum Destruction chassis at the Monster Jam World Finals XIII. He drove Monster Mutt in Arnhem that year.

In 2014, Neil drove Doom's Day for the encore in Atlanta, before driving it again in the Doom's Day encore at World Finals XV.

In 2015, Neil would compete in the inaugural Fox Sports 1 Championship Series, which he would win, getting him a spot in at World Finals XVI.

In 2016, Neil drove a red Max-D that debuted at World Finals XVI, and he drove Fox Sports 1 Cleatus on his Max-D chassis at World Finals XVII. For the encore that year, he drove Army on Chuck Werner's chassis.

In 2017, Neil would once again drive the red Max-D in Riyadh in March. Neil also competed at World Finals XVIII, in the racing encore, he drove the Monster Jam 25th Anniversary truck and successfully performed the first forward momentum backflip over racing winner Son-uva Digger. In freestyle, he became the first driver to successfully execute the first reverse backflip, although he would narrowly lose to Lee O'Donnell in Mad Scientist.

In 2018, Neil won Stadium Championship Series 1, earning him an invite to World Finals XIX. For the Max-D 15th anniversary encore at that event, he drove the red Max-D.

In 2019, Neil finished 2nd on Stadium Championship Series 2. At the World Finals, he did a moonwalk into a reverse flip in the skills challenge.

In 2020, Neil competed on Stadium Championship Series 2, he would be declared the champion after the tour was cancelled due to the pandemic. This would end up being his last season.

Retirement[]

In 2021, Neil would, and very vaguely, retire from the sport at the start of the year, posting on his Instagram that "COVID took us out" and thanking everyone for the fun times. He also notably calls himself "former Max-D driver" on his account, proving that he's now retired from the sport.

World Finals appearances[]

Year	Truck	Results
2004	Hot Wheels	Qualifying: 16th (DNQ)	Racing: defeated in Round 1 by Maximum Destruction	Freestyle: 8th (25)
2004	Maximum Destruction	Encore only
2006	Hot Wheels	Qualifying: 5th (16.88)	Racing: defeated in Semi-Finals by Grave Digger	Freestyle: DNC
2006	Maximum Destruction	Encore only
2007	Hot Wheels	Qualifying: 24th (DNF)	Racing: defeated in Round 3 by Batman	Freestyle: DNC
2012	Team Hot Wheels	Qualifying: 5th (16.350)	Racing: defeated in Round 3 by Grave Digger the Legend	Freestyle: 5th (30)
2013	Maximum Destruction	Encore only
2015	Max-D (Red)	Qualifying: 4th (16.319)	Racing: defeated in Round 2 by Monster Mutt	Freestyle: 12th (24.5)
2016	Fox Sports 1 Cleatus	Qualifying: 7th (16.176)	Racing: defeated in Round 2 by Gas Monkey Garage	Freestyle: 18th (22.5)
2016	Army	Freestyle encore only
2017	Max-D	Qualifying: 3rd (16.201)	Racing: defeated in Round 2 by Avenger	Freestyle: 2nd (9.316)
2017	Monster Jam Stunt Truck	Racing encore only
2018	Max-D	Qualifying: 2nd (16.213)	Racing: defeated in Round 2 by Zombie	Freestyle: 8th (8.145)
2018	Max-D (Red)	Racing encore only
2019	Max-D	Qualifying: 5th (13.219)	Racing: defeated in Round 2 by Bakugan Dragonoid	Freestyle: 17th (7.196)

All-Star Challenge appearances[]

2019- Max-D (Team Ice)

Accomplishments[]

2002 Monster Jam Rookie of the Year award.
2008 Monster Jam Arena Wheelie of the Year award.
2008 Monster Jam Crash Madness of the Year award.
2011 Monster Jam Sky High award.
2011 Monster Jam Stadium Freestyle of the Year award.
2012 Monster Jam Stadium Freestyle of the Year award.
2013 Monster Jam Wheelie of the Year award.
2015 Fox Sports 1 Championship Series champion.
2015 Monster Jam Wow Factor of the Year award.
2016 Monster Jam Stadium Freestyle of the Year award.
2018 Monster Jam Stadium Championship Series 1 champion.
2020 Monster Jam Stadium Championship Series 2 champion.

Trivia[]

Neil Elliott's name is frequently misspelled as "Neil Elliot".
When you click his bio below, it incorrectly lists his date of birth as January 1, 2010.