(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 . Andy Houston has also raced in the
Nextel Cup Series and the
Busch Series .
In 1994, Andy won
Hickory Motor Speedway 's Late Model Championship.
In 1996, Andy made his debut in the
Busch Series running one race. He also won the Goody's Dash Series Most Popular Driver Award.
In 1997, Andy went to the
Craftsman Truck Series , where he ran 4 races.
In 1998, he ran full-time in the Truck Series, winning 1 race at
New Hampshire International Speedway , and having 9 top tens, finishing 12th in points.
In 1999, he scored 14 top tens, and finished 8th 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 .
In 2001, Houston made the jump to
Nextel Cup running for rookie of the year with
PPI Motorsports . Houston was viewed to win rookie of the year, with his only challenge being other rookie
Casey Atwood . Unfortunately, Houston failed to finish the year because of sponsorship issues with
McDonald's , and Atwood didn't win rookie of the year either, as
Kevin Harvick went home with the award.
In 2002, Houston was supposed to run the whole season with the
Herzog/Jackson Motorsports team, but was replaced by
Todd Bodine after 3 races. Later on that year, Andy was hired by Melling Racing to run one race in the
Craftsman Truck Series at
South Boston Speedway . After that
Billy Ballew Motorsports hired him to run the remainder of 2002.
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. That was, until
Ultra Motorsports gave him a truck ride in later that year. Houston did great finishing no worse than sixth and earned a pole at
Texas Motor Speedway .
In 2004, seventh was his highest finish with
Ultra Motorsports .
Jim Smith released Andy later that season. Not able to get a ride for Richmond's race, Houston ran all the other races with numerous teams.
In 2005, he only ran one race with
Key Motorsports at
Bristol Motor Speedway . Yes, Houston did attempt two races, but he failed to qualify for the race at
Richmond International Raceway .
In 2006,
Key Motorsports hired
Chad Chaffin , leaving Andy rideless again. Nobody knows Andy's future plans.
Andy is married to wife Lorie and has two kids, Collin (born in 1997) and Clark (born in 2001).
