In 1973, Ellington hired Ramo Stott, Charlie Glotzbach, and Gordon Johncock to drive for him, and the team again ran 11 races between the three drivers, but only scored one Top 5 and Top 10, with Johncock finishing fourth at the Firecracker 400 at Daytona. 1974 was much better for the team, with A. J. Foyt, Charlie Glotzbach, Bobby Isaac, and Sam McQuagg splitting up 15 races. Foyt and Glotzbach both scored a single top 5, Isaac finished in the top 10 three times with the team, and McQuagg scored two top tens. The team scored 2 top 5s and 7 top 10s in 15 races.  1975 was when Donnie Allison made his first start with the team. He ran two races with Ellington, finishing third at Talladega in his first race with the team. A. J. Foyt ran seven races with Ellington, scoring an additional top five finish. Glotzbach, Isaac, and Johncock both returned for one race each, but the only top ten was with Glotzbach at Lowes Motor Speedway. The team competed in 12 races, and scored 2 top 5s and 3 top 10s. In 1976, Allison scored Ellington's first win as a team owner at Lowes Motor Speedway in the #1 car, a second team, as A. J. Foyt drove the familiar 28 in that race. Foyt also scored the first pole for the team in that year. For 1977, Allison was hired as the sole driver for the team, with the main car renumbered #1. Allison repaid Ellington with three pole positions, as well as two wins and 10 top 10s in 17 starts. He finished 24th in points despite running a partial schedule. 1978 was another successful year, with Allison winning at Atlanta and finishing 25th in points, again despite running a part-time schedule. The Atlanta win would be his last career win. Allison did not win at all in 1979, but he became a part of NASCAR history when he and Cale Yarborough crashed while racing for the lead on the last lap of the Daytona 500, when, after the wreck, Allison, Yarborough, and Allison's brother Bobby got into a fistfight in the grass infield in front of what was then the largest televised audience for a NASCAR race. Donnie Allison only drove 3 races for the team in 1980 before he left to join Kennie Childers's team.