Marty Houston
Born (1968-01-07) January 7, 1968
Hickory, North Carolina
Achievements1997 HMS Track Champion
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
19 races run over 2 years
Best finish37th (2001)
First race2000 Sam's Club 200 (Rockingham)
Last race2001 Outback Steakhouse 300 (Kentucky)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 0 0
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career
44 races run over 3 years
Best finish12th (2000)
First race1999 NAPA 300K (Pikes Peak)
Last race2003 Ford 200 (Homestead)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 11 0
Statistics current as of July 10, 2012.

Marty Houston (born January 7, 1968, in Hickory, North Carolina) is a former NASCAR driver. His younger brother, Andy and father Tommy Houston have driven in NASCAR as well.

Racing career

Craftsman Truck Series

Marty Houston made his debut seven races into the 1999 Craftsman Truck Series season, replacing Lonnie Rush in the famed No. 75 Spears Motorsports Chevy. His first race was at Pikes Peak, where Marty easily made it into the race with a 13th place starting effort, but his engine blew up and finished 29th midway into the race.[1] Houston could only manage one top-10 in 1999, a 6th at Nazareth, although he did have ten top-20s in nineteen starts.

Despite the struggles in 1999, Houston was invited back for 2000, and Houston made the most of it. Houston came out of the gates leading two laps at the season opener at Daytona and was running in the top-10 when he got caught up in "The Big One." Yet, Houston finished tenth the next race, which proved to be one of ten times in 2000 he would finish in the top-10. The best was his eventual career best 4th at Kentucky, where he also earned his best career start of 3rd. (He also started 3rd at Phoenix) Perhaps most impressively was his average finish of 14.4. His worst position in 2000 was a pair of 25th-place runs, and finished 12th in points. Houston was noticed by Armando Fitz and got a new ride in the Busch Series for 2001, leaving the No. 75.

Houston did eventually make one more start in 2003, but that was clouded in controversy. Driving a fifth Ultra Motorsports Dodge in the season ending Ford 200, Houston started 18th and was running on the lead lap when he got loose in Turn 4 on Lap 100. He came down and slammed Brendan Gaughan, who was leading the points standings going into the race and who could've been overtaken by Houston's teammate Ted Musgrave for the championship. The wreck cost Gaughan the series championship and many Gaughan fans felt that Houston had intentionally wrecked Gaughan, though the team emphatically denied it. Gaughan himself was not happy about the wreck, specifically criticizing the fact that Houston was in the race and that Ultra Motorsports had fielded so many trucks in the race.

Busch Series

Houston, while driving for Spears Motorsports in 2000, agreed to drive the No. 82 Channellock Chevy in the late stages of the season for Felix Sabates. Houston made his series debut at Rockingham, qualifying in 36th and finished 28th. He had a 32nd at Phoenix, and a 14th-place finish at Homestead.

Sabates sold his team to Armando Fitz in early 2001. He started off with an eventual career-best finish of 13th at Daytona. From there, Houston's season went downhill. In 16 starts, the rookie Houston did not finish five times. In addition, Houston only had four top-20 finishes. Houston had been steadily improving though, as 2001 hit mid-season, but Fitz was not satisfied and Houston was released from the team in favor of Ron Hornaday.

Post-racing career

In 2002, Houston had been working on the No. 2 Ultra Motorsports Dodge for three years as tire changer. After the team closed in 2005, Houston went to work as a tire changer for Morgan-Dollar Motorsports on Kraig Kinser's crew.

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.

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 NBSC Pts Ref
2000 SABCO Racing 82 Chevy DAY CAR LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX NSV TAL CAL RCH NHA CLT DOV SBO MYB GLN MLW NZH PPR GTY IRP MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV CLT CAR
28
MEM PHO
32
HOM
14
75th 267 [2]
2001 Fitz Motorsports 11 Chevy DAY
13
CAR
42
LVS
36
ATL
33
DAR
20
BRI
14
TEX
25
NSH
23
TAL
37
CAL
32
RCH
38
NHA
30
NZH
25
CLT
32
DOV
17
KEN
21
MLW GLN CHI GTY PPR IRP MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV KAN CLT MEM PHO CAR HOM 37th 1294 [3]

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 NCTC Pts Ref
1999 Spears Motorsports 75 Chevy HOM PHO EVG MMR MAR MEM PPR
29
I70
26
BRI
23
TEX
26
PIR
12
GLN
21
MLW
23
NSV
13
NZH
6
MCH
21
NHA
21
IRP
20
GTY
32
HPT
20
RCH
20
LVS
13
LVL
20
TEX
17
CAL
20
23rd 1958 [4]
2000 DAY
18
HOM
10
PHO
21
MMR
22
MAR
19
PIR
9
GTY
25
MEM
17
PPR
10
EVG
25
TEX
7
KEN
4
GLN
17
MLW
6
NHA
10
NZH
19
MCH
8
IRP
13
NSV
18
CIC
20
RCH
14
DOV
7
TEX
19
CAL
8
12th 2942 [5]
2003 Ultra Motorsports 10 Dodge DAY DAR MMR MAR CLT DOV TEX MEM MLW KAN KEN GTW MCH IRP NSH BRI RCH NHA CAL LVS SBO TEX MAR PHO HOM
30
121st 73 [6]

Winston West Series

NASCAR Winston West Series results
Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 NWCC Pts Ref
2000 Spears Motorsports 75 Chevy PHO MMR
9
LVS CAL LAG IRW POR EVG IRW RMR MMR IRW 51st 138 [7]

References

  1. Nascar Truck official results Archived 2010-05-02 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Marty Houston – 2000 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
  3. "Marty Houston – 2001 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
  4. "Marty Houston – 1999 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
  5. "Marty Houston – 2000 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
  6. "Marty Houston – 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
  7. "Marty Houston – 2000 NASCAR Winston West Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
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