Marty Houston

Marty Houston
Born	(1968-01-07) January 7, 1968 Hickory, North Carolina, U.S.
Achievements	1997 Hickory Motor Speedway Track Champion
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
19 races run over 2 years
Best finish	37th (2001)
First race	2000 Sam's Club 200 (Rockingham)
Last race	2001 Outback Steakhouse 300 (Kentucky)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career
44 races run over 3 years
Best finish	12th (2000)
First race	1999 NAPA 300K (Pikes Peak)
Last race	2003 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. 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
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

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
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
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

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

External links

• Marty Houston driver statistics at Racing-Reference