Andy Houston

Andrew "Andy" Houston (born November 7, 1970 in Hickory, North Carolina) is a veteran of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, scoring three wins. Houston is the son of legendary Busch driver Tommy Houston and the youngest of three brothers, one of them being part-time NASCAR driver Marty Houston and the other being the oldest of the three, Scott Houston. He is also the cousin of team owner Teresa Earnhardt. Houston has also raced in the Winston Cup Series and the Busch Series. Houston is married to wife Lorie and has two children, Collin (born in 1997) and Clark (born in 2001). He is currently the spotter for Austin Dillon in the Sprint Cup Series, who drives the No. 3 Chevrolet SS for Richard Childress Racing.

Early racing career

In 1994, Houston won Hickory Motor Speedway's Late Model Championship and in 1996 he won the Goody's Dash Series Most Popular Driver Award.

NASCAR career

Cup Series

2000 marked Houston's first start in the Winston Cup Series as he competed in five races to prepare for his 2001 rookie campaign with PPI Motorsports. Out of the five races his best finish would come at Lowe's Motor Speedway, a 26th. Houston began the 2001 year well with a 9th place qualifying effort at the Daytona 500 in the #96 McDonald's Ford. It would be one of the highlights of the year, as Houston ended the year with no top 10s and a best finish of 17th at Martinsville; Houston only managed to qualify for 17 races and his team folded after McDonald's pulled its sponsorship late in the season. He has not returned to the Cup Series since.

Busch Series

Houston made his Busch Series debut in 1996 driving the #0 Suburban Propane Ford at Indianapolis Raceway Park. He would start the race in the 21st position and finish in the 24th position, five laps down. He returned to the series in 1998 to make another start this time at Hickory Motor Speedway in the #50 Dr Pepper Ford. He would start the race in 7th and finish in the 20th position. In 2000, Houston made one start for Team SABCO and brought the #82 Channellock Chevrolet home in the 36th position at the Milwaukee Mile. For the 2002 season, Houston was supposed to run the whole season with the Herzog-Jackson Motorsports team, but was replaced by Todd Bodine after 3 races. His best finish with the team was a 9th at Daytona.

Truck Series

In 1997, Houston made his first Craftsman Truck Series start with Addington Racing. He would compete in four races for the team with a best finish of 11th at Martinsville. For the 1998 season, he returned to Addington Racing and ran full-time in the Truck Series. Houston would have a solid year winning his first race at New Hampshire International Speedway and posting 9 top tens, while finishing 12th in points. Houston again returned to Addington Racing for the 1999 season and he scored 14 top tens with an 8th-place finish in points. 2000 was a breakout year for Houston, as he won two races at Homestead and Portland, had 13 top fives, and 18 top tens, finishing 3rd in points to Roush Racing Teammates Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch. He returned to the series in 2002 with Melling Racing where he ran one race at South Boston Speedway. After that Billy Ballew Motorsports hired him to run the remainder of 2002. He would post a best finish of 12th at California out of the five races he competed in. In 2003, Houston was still running races for Billy Ballew and Nelly when Vokal became his primary sponsor, until Billy ran out of money to run two trucks. Ballew kept Rich Bickle, leaving Houston without a ride. Later that year, Ultra Motorsports gave him a truck ride and he did very well, finishing no worse than sixth and earned a pole at Texas Motor Speedway. For the 2004 season, he continued driving for Ultra Motorsports until he was released after the race at Bristol. Andy's best finish with the team that year was a 7th at Dover. For the remainder of 2004 with the exception of Richmond, Houston raced with multiple teams, but with limited success. In 2005, he only ran one race with Key Motorsports at Bristol Motor Speedway, finishing 33rd after a crash in his final NASCAR race.

Post-racing career

Following his racing career, Houston worked as a spotter for other drivers; he worked with Richard Childress Racing, spotting for Austin Dillon in the Nationwide Series in the early 2010s,^[1] moving up with Dillon to the Sprint Cup Series in 2014.^[2]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Winston Cup Series

NASCAR Winston Cup Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	NWCC	Pts
2000	PPI Motorsports	96	Ford	DAY	CAR	LVS	ATL	DAR	BRI	TEX	MAR	TAL	CAL	RCH	CLT	DOV	MCH	POC	SON	DAY	NHA	POC	IND	GLN	MCH 35	BRI	DAR	RCH	NHA	DOV	MAR	CLT 26	TAL	CAR 28	PHO 36	HOM 42	ATL			55th	314
2001	PPI Motorsports	96	Ford	DAY 38	CAR DNQ	LVS DNQ	ATL 21	DAR DNQ	BRI 39	TEX 32	MAR 17	TAL 21	CAL 19	RCH 42	CLT 41	DOV 23	MCH DNQ	POC DNQ	SON DNQ	DAY 43	CHI 43	NHA	POC	IND 43	GLN	MCH 31	BRI 40	DAR DNQ	RCH DNQ	DOV 40	KAN 18	CLT	MAR	TAL	PHO	CAR	HOM	ATL	NHA	46th	1187

Daytona 500

Year	Team	Manufacturer	Start	Finish
2001	PPI Motorsports	Ford	9	38

Busch Series

NASCAR Busch Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	NBSC	Pts
1993				DAY	CAR	RCH	DAR	BRI	HCY	ROU	MAR	NZH	CLT	DOV	MYB	GLN	MLW	TAL	IRP	MCH	NHA	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	ROU	CLT	MAR	CAR	HCY DNQ	ATL							NA	-
1995				DAY	CAR	RCH	ATL	NSV	DAR	BRI	HCY DNQ	NHA	NZH	CLT	DOV	MYB	GLN	MLW	TAL	SBO	IRP	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	CLT	CAR	HOM									NA	-
1996	Houston Racing	0	Ford	DAY	CAR	RCH	ATL	NSV	DAR	BRI	HCY QL^†	NZH	CLT	DOV	SBO	MYB	GLN	MLW	NHA	TAL	IRP 24	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	CLT	CAR	HOM									89th	91
1998	Washington-Erving Motorsports	50	Ford	DAY	CAR	LVS	NSV	DAR	BRI	TEX	HCY 20	TAL	NHA	NZH	CLT	DOV	RCH	PPR	GLN	MLW	MYB	CAL	SBO	IRP	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	CLT	GTY	CAR	ATL	HOM				102nd	103
2000	Team SABCO	82	Chevy	DAY	CAR	LVS	ATL	DAR	BRI	TEX	NSV	TAL	CAL	RCH	NHA	CLT	DOV	SBO	MYB	GLN	MLW 36	NZH	PPR	GTY	IRP	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	CLT	CAR	MEM	PHO	HOM			106th	55
2001	Team Rensi Motorsports	25	Chevy	DAY	CAR	LVS	ATL	DAR	BRI	TEX	NSH	TAL	CAL	RCH	NHA	NZH	CLT	DOV	KEN	MLW	GLN	CHI	GTY 17	PPR	IRP	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	KAN	CLT	MEM	PHO	CAR	HOM		101st	112
2002	Herzog-Jackson Motorsports	92	Chevy	DAY 9	CAR 17	LVS 24	DAR	BRI	TEX	NSH	TAL	CAL	RCH	NHA	NZH	CLT	DOV	NSH	KEN	MLW	DAY	CHI	GTY	PPR	IRP	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	KAN	CLT	MEM	ATL	CAR	PHO	HOM	68th	346
^† - Qualified but replaced by his father, Tommy Houston

Craftsman Truck Series

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	NCTC	Pts
1997	AAG Racing	65	Chevy	WDW	TUS	HOM	PHO	POR	EVG	I70	NHA	TEX	BRI	NZH	MLW	LVL	CNS	HPT	IRP 18	FLM	NSV 24	GLN	RCH DNQ	MAR 11	SON	MMR	CAL	PHO 32	LVS DNQ		46th	441
1998	Addington Racing	60	Chevy	WDW 27	HOM 20	PHO 4	POR 16	EVG 28	I70 10	GLN 15	TEX 2	BRI 28	MLW 29	NZH 15	CAL 4	PPR 18	IRP 26	NHA 1*	FLM 20	NSV 13	HPT 32	LVL 3	RCH 12	MEM 34	GTY 30	MAR 12	SON 6	MMR 9	PHO 5	LVS 11	12th	3188
1999				HOM 5	PHO 3	EVG 14	MMR 19	MAR 17	MEM 7	PPR 4	I70 3	BRI 4	TEX 7	PIR 7	GLN 8	MLW 20	NSV 6	NZH 11	MCH 19	NHA 7	IRP 8	GTY 25	HPT 11	RCH 6	LVS 22	LVL 12	TEX 8	CAL 18			8th	3359
2000				DAY 3	HOM 1*	PHO 3	MMR 10	MAR 11	PIR 1	GTY 24	MEM 15	PPR 3	EVG 8	TEX 4	KEN 9	GLN 6	MLW 5	NHA 5	NZH 11	MCH 4	IRP 26	NSV 6	CIC 4	RCH 25	DOV 4	TEX 2	CAL 2*				3rd	3566
2002	HT Motorsports	17	Dodge	DAY	DAR	MAR	GTY	PPR	DOV	TEX	MEM	MLW	KAN	KEN	NHA	MCH	IRP	NSH	RCH	TEX	SBO 21										38th	578
2002	Billy Ballew Motorsports	15	Ford																			LVS 12	CAL 12	PHO 17	HOM 17						38th	578
2003	Billy Ballew Motorsports	15	Ford	DAY 5	DAR 21	MMR 12	MAR 15																								21st	1487
	Fasscore Motorsports	9	Ford					CLT 30	DOV	TEX	MEM	MLW	KAN	KEN	GTW	MCH	IRP	NSH	BRI	RCH	NHA
	Ultra Motorsports	2	Dodge																			CAL 6	LVS 6	SBO 6	TEX 5	MAR	PHO 10	HOM 4
2004	Ultra Motorsports	2	Dodge	DAY 30	ATL 19	MAR 11	MFD 15	CLT 19	DOV 7	TEX 9	MEM 20		KAN 31	KEN 8	GTW 13	MCH 23	IRP 19	NSH 25	BRI 19	RCH											20th	2540
	HT Motorsports	59	Ford									MLW 19									NHA 33	LVS 14	CAL 21
	Green Light Racing	07	Chevy																					TEX 14			DAR 34
	ThorSport Racing	13	Chevy																						MAR 25	PHO 16
	Ken Weaver Racing	20	Chevy																									HOM 18
2005	Key Motorsports	40	Chevy	DAY	CAL	ATL	MAR	GTY	MFD	CLT	DOV	TEX	MCH	MLW	KAN	KEN	MEM	IRP	NSH	BRI 33	RCH DNQ	NHA	LVS	MAR	ATL	TEX	PHO	HOM			86th	64

References

↑ http://www.darlingtonraceway.com/Articles/2010/08/Austin-Dillon.aspx
↑ Bruce, Kenny (February 20, 2014). "Night spotting adds tough element to Daytona Duels". NASCAR.com. Retrieved 2014-02-24.

External links

Andy Houston driver statistics at Racing-Reference

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