AK Racing

Not to be confused with Gaming chair brand of the same name.

AK Racing

Owner(s)	Bill Terry, Alan Kulwicki
Base	Concord, North Carolina
Series	Winston Cup, Busch Series
Race drivers	Alan Kulwicki
Sponsors	Zerex, Hooters, Bojangles
Manufacturer	Ford
Opened	1982
Closed	1993
Career
Drivers' Championships	1
Race victories	5

Kulwicki's 1988 car, the car he used for his Polish Victory Lap

AK Racing was a championship-winning NASCAR Winston Cup Series team. It was originally owned by Bill Terry before he sold it to rookie driver Alan Kulwicki, who controlled and raced for the team until his death in 1993. Kulwicki won five races as an owner-driver. Until Tony Stewart won the championship in 2011, he was the last owner-driver to win a Cup Series championship, which he won in 1992.

History

Bill Terry era

The team debuted at the 1982 Cracker Barrel Country Store 420 at Nashville Speedway USA with Bob Jarvis driving it as the No. 32 Clinomint Buick, finishing 28th out of 30 cars. Two races later, the No. 32 ran again at the World 600, with Bosco Lowe qualifying 40th and finishing 16th. Lowe drove the car in the Daytona 500 the following season, finishing 39th after a crash. Tommy Ellis drove their next race, bringing the Big Daddy's Buick to a 15th-place finish at Charlotte. Butch Lindley drove the final race of the 1983 season for the team at Martinsville Speedway, finishing 25th after suffering rear end problems.

Alan Kulwicki era

The team was inactive until 1986, when it fielded a full-time car driven by rookie Alan Kulwicki. The car was now the No. 35 Quincy's Steak House Ford. After 14 starts, Terry sold the team to Kulwicki. After winning Rookie of the Year honors, Kulwicki changed the number of the car to No. 7 and got sponsorship from Zerex. Kulwicki won three pole positions and finished 15th in points. In 1988, Kulwicki won his first career race at Phoenix International Raceway. In celebration, he drove the now-famous Polish Victory Lap. He won once more in 1990, but lost his Zerex sponsorship. After beginning 1991 with no sponsor, he got a one-race deal with Hooters after their regular driver, Mark Stahl, failed to qualify. Hooters then signed up to sponsor the No. 7 full-time and Kulwicki won three races over the next two seasons. The peak of the team's success was 1992, when Kulwicki became the first owner-driver since Richard Petty did so in 1979 to win a Winston Cup championship. Entering the Hooters 500 (coincidentally, Petty's final race) as one of six drivers with a chance, Kulwicki finished second behind race winner Bill Elliott and led the most laps, enabling him to win the Cup by 10 points over Elliott. The car that won the championship carried the "Underbird" branding, which Kulwicki was able to do after obtaining permission from Ford to do so.

Kulwicki died in a plane crash five races into the 1993 season while flying back from a sponsor event. Under his ownership, the team won five races and recorded 75 top ten finishes with the last victory coming at Pocono Raceway the year before.

After Kulwicki's death

Kulwicki left a will which his team was left to his father but he was unwilling to run the team himself, he made the decision with his attorney to appoint Felix Sabates as administer, with Jimmy Hensley and Tommy Kendall driving until midway through 1993, when Bud Moore Engineering driver Geoff Bodine purchased the team's assets and ran it as Geoff Bodine Racing. In 1999, Bodine sold his portion of the team to Jim Mattei and John Porter and moved to drive for owner Joe Bessey, and the team began running Chevrolets. The next year the renamed Mattei Motorsports was bought midseason by Jim Smith, owner of Ultra Motorsports, and brought the No. 7 car into that team's fold. The last member of AK Racing who was still with the No. 7 team, Rich Wolski, was released in July 2000. Smith continued to run the team until 2004, during which time the team switched back to Ford and later fielded Dodges as part of a short-lived alliance with Ray Evernham's team. In 2005, Ultra's Cup Series assets were sold to driver Robby Gordon, who renamed the team Robby Gordon Motorsports and kept Smith as a part owner. Gordon continued to run the team until 2012, when he ran only a partial season and then shut down due to lack of sponsorship and funding. Smith left the team following the 2006 season after he shut down Ultra Motorsports. In 2013 driver / crew chief / owner Tommy Baldwin Jr. started a second team with the 7 number to run with Dave Blaney. Michael Annett, Alex Bowman, and Regan Smith drove the 7 in respective years after until the team became part time in 2017.

As of the end of the 2023 NASCAR season, the #7 car is run by Spire Motorsports. In 2021, the team moved its headquarters to Kulwicki's former race shop in Concord, North Carolina.

Car No. 7 results

Year	Driver	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	NWCC	Pts
1982	Bob Jarvis	32	Buick	DAY	RCH	BRI	ATL	CAR	DAR	NWS DNQ	MAR	TAL	NSV 28	DOV
	Bosco Lowe														CLT 16	POC	RSD	MCH	DAY	NSV	POC	TAL	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	NWS	CLT	MAR	CAR	ATL	RSD
1983				DAY 39	RCH	CAR	ATL	DAR	NWS	MAR	TAL	NSV	DOV	BRI	CLT
	Tommy Ellis														CLT 15	RSD	POC	MCH	DAY	NSV	POC	TAL	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV
	Butch Lindley																											MAR	NWS	CLT	CAR	ATL	RSD
1985	Alan Kulwicki	32	Ford	DAY	RCH	CAR	ATL	BRI	DAR	NWS	MAR	TAL	DOV	CLT	RSD	POC	MCH	DAY	POC	TAL	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH 19	DOV 21	MAR	NWS
		38																										CLT 13	CAR 27	ATL 22	RSD
1986		32		DAY DNQ	RCH DNQ	CAR 15
		35					ATL 14	BRI 15	DAR 11	NWS 18	MAR 4	TAL DNQ	DOV 23	CLT 27	RSD	POC	MCH 16	DAY 10	POC 22	TAL 32	GLN	MCH 14	BRI 10
																								DAR 12	RCH 15	DOV 7	MAR 13	NWS 17	CLT 14	CAR 12	ATL 18	RSD 24
1987		7		DAY 15	CAR 25	RCH 6	ATL 33	DAR 14	NWS 4	BRI 5	MAR 28	TAL 34	CLT 27	DOV 15	POC 30	RSD 28	MCH 31	DAY 32	POC 2	TAL 23	GLN 6	MCH 6	BRI 11	DAR 40	RCH 23	DOV 14	MAR 6	NWS 7	CLT 29	CAR 18	RSD 11	ATL 6
1988				DAY 32	RCH 21	CAR 4	ATL 39	DAR 2	BRI 19	NWS 15	MAR 20	TAL 22	CLT 3	DOV 6	RSD 38	POC 27	MCH 21	DAY 40	POC 8	TAL 19	GLN 19	MCH 36	BRI 5	DAR 15	RCH 5	DOV 31	MAR 2	CLT 25	NWS 29	CAR 26	PHO 1	ATL 25
1989				DAY 7	CAR 2	ATL 16	RCH 2	DAR 7	BRI 20	NWS 2	MAR 22	TAL 13	CLT 23*	DOV 25	SON 36	POC 34	MCH 36	DAY 5	POC 39	TAL 30	GLN 39	MCH 10	BRI 2	DAR 32	RCH 15	DOV 32	MAR 26	CLT 28	NWS 11	CAR 9	PHO 11*	ATL 13
1990				DAY 35	RCH 24	CAR 27	ATL 8	DAR 23	BRI 31	NWS 11	MAR 25	TAL 13	CLT 6	DOV 24	SON 11	POC 34	MCH 6	DAY 2	POC 17	TAL 4	GLN 11	MCH 11	BRI 6	DAR 3	RCH 26	DOV 29	MAR 6	NWS 9	CLT 5	CAR 1	PHO 6	ATL 8
1991				DAY 8	RCH 5	CAR 17	ATL 8	DAR 34	BRI 26	NWS 29	MAR 9	TAL 27	CLT 35	DOV 14	SON 17	POC 16	MCH 24	DAY 14	POC 16	TAL 16	GLN 23	MCH 8	BRI 1	DAR 35	RCH 6	DOV 24	MAR 22	NWS 10	CLT 3	CAR 33	PHO 4	ATL 9
1992				DAY 4	CAR 31	RCH 2	ATL 7	DAR 18	BRI 1*	NWS 7*	MAR 16*	TAL 6	CLT 7	DOV 12	SON 14	POC 1*	MCH 3	DAY 30	POC 3	TAL 25	GLN 7	MCH 14	BRI 8	DAR 8	RCH 15	DOV 34	MAR 5	NWS 12	CLT 2	CAR 12	PHO 4	ATL 2*
1993				DAY 26	CAR 4	RCH 3	ATL 36	DAR 6	BRI Wth
	Jimmy Hensley									NWS 12	MAR 13	TAL 9		CLT 15	DOV 22	POC 17	MCH 23	DAY 34	NHA 11	POC 39	TAL 28		MCH 15	BRI 6	DAR 23	RCH 21	DOV	MAR	NWS	CLT	CAR	PHO	ATL
	Tommy Kendall												SON 22									GLN 25

External links

• Bill Terry owner statistics at Racing-Reference
• Alan Kulwicki owner statistics at Racing-Reference