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. Andy Houston has also raced in the Sprint Cup Series and the Nationwide Series. Andy is married to wife Lorie and has two kids, Collin (born in 1997) and Clark (born in 2001). Since January 2005, Houston has served as the spotter for John Andretti's Busch Series team.
Early Racing Career
In 1994, Andy won Hickory Motor Speedway's Late Model Championship and in 1996 he won the Goody's Dash Series Most Popular Driver Award.
NASCAR Career
Sprint Cup Series
2000 marked Houston's first start in the Nextel 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. However, this would be one of the few bright spots on his season as the team began to struggle and McDonald's did not want to continue it's sponsorship of the team. His team would move to a limited schedule and he only competed in 17 of the 36 races. His best finish of the season came at Martinsville where he finished 17th. He has yet to compete in another Nextel Cup Series race.
Nationwide Series
Houston made his Nationwide 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. He currently serves as John Andretti's spotter for ppc Racing's #10 team.
Craftsman 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 a 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 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. Houston most of the other races with numerous teams and had a best finish of 7th at Dover. In 2005, he only ran one race with Key Motorsports at Bristol Motor Speedway, finishing 33rd after a crash. He has yet to return to the Craftsman Truck Series since the 2005 season.