Andy Petree Racing (APR) was a NASCAR team that won 12 races. Originally formed in 1985 as Jackson Bros. Motorsports, its ownership changed hands several times over the years, with three different owners from its beginning to its closure in 2004. The team was based out of North Carolina, and was always a steady competitor for the win despite never winning a championship.
Beginnings
The team was formed in 1985 by brothers Leo and Richard Jackson. At the Daytona 500 that year, the team entered the No. 55 and No. 66 cars, sponsored by U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company through its Copenhagen and Skoal brands and driven by another pair of brothers, Benny Parsons and his brother Phil. Benny finished 31st and Phil finished 29th, both suffering engine failure. Phil ran fourteen races with the team that year and posted three top 10s while splitting time with another ride, and Benny ran fourteen races as well and had six top 10 finishes running a limited schedule. The two returned for 1986, when BP had four top tens and won the team's first pole position. Phil ran a limited schedule himself and had five top-tens. After Benny left at the end of the year, his brother moved from the No. 66 to the No. 55. In his first year with the No. 55, Phil Parsons finished a then career-high fourth at Martinsville and finished 14th in points. The No. 66 ran only one race that year, with IndyCar driver Tom Sneva running at Daytona before dropping out with engine failure. In 1988, Parsons improved to a ninth-place finish in points, with the highlight of his year coming with his victory at the Winston 500 despite running out of fuel earlier in the race. In 1989 the team returned to a two-car operation, signing Harry Gant away from Mach 1 Racing with the Skoal sponsorship coming with him. The Jacksons also traded numbers with Mach 1 owner Hal Needham and ran the No. 33 alongside the No. 55. Gant won early in the season at Darlington and finished seventh in points, while Parsons, despite additional sponsorship from Crown Petroleum, only had three top-tens and dropped to 21st in points. At the end of the year, Parsons left for Morgan–McClure Motorsports.
1990–1996 In 1990, Richard Jackson splintered from the team to form his own operation, taking the equipment for the No. 55 with him. The newly renamed Leo Jackson Motorsports still held onto the No. 33 and Gant who won at Pocono but finished 17th in points that year. Phil Parsons also returned to the team briefly following his release from Morgan-McClure, pulling substitute duty for Gant at Bristol. 1991 was much better for Gant, as he finished 3rd in points and won four consecutive races late in the season, which began a "Life Begins at 51" campaign because Gant was the oldest winner in the history of the sport. He followed that up with his final two career wins in 1992 and a fourth-place finish in points. In 1993 & 1994, he didn't win but had a pole each year as well as an eleventh-place finish in points in 1993. During his retirement year in 1994, LJM began grooming his replacement, Robert Pressley, who ran three races for the team in the No. 54 sponsored by Manheim Auctions. His best finish was 31st. He moved to the No. 33 full-time in 1995, where he posted a tenth-place at Bristol, and finished runner-up to Ricky Craven for Rookie of the Year. 1996 was a struggle for Pressley and the team, when Pressley was running decently before having to miss the first race at Dover (he was replaced by Greg Sacks). Around this time, Jackson was contemplating retirement and began looking to sell the team. His buyer was his crew chief at the time, Andy Petree. After one race as an owner, he released Pressley and had Todd Bodine finish out the year for him.
1997–2001
For 1997, Petree selected Ken Schrader to be his driver. Having won four Cup races, Schrader was solid all season long, as he won the pole for both Loudon races and finished tenth in the points standings. 1998 saw about the same result, with eight finishes of ninth or better, and two more pole positions. APR also expanded to a multi-car operation briefly, fielding the No. 55 Oakwood Homes-sponsored Chevy driven by Hut Stricklin in the Pepsi 400. The team became a multi-car full-time in 1999, with Kenny Wallace signing to drive the No. 55 car with a sponsorship from Square D. The year was "up and down" for Wallace, as he posted a career-best second-place finish at Loudon, but could only muster a 22nd-place points finish. Meanwhile, in the No. 33 team, NASCAR's community was shocked when long-time sponsor Skoal announced it would no longer continue its association with the No. 33. After the team signed Oakwood Homes to be a full-time sponsor for the car, Schrader announced he would leave to pursue other opportunities. After a long search, APR decided to hire Joe Nemechek to pilot the car. While he didn't visit victory lane at all in 2000, he did have three top fives and the first top 25 points finish of his career. After nailing just one top 10 that year, Wallace announced he would leave for Eel River Racing. Wallace finished second at the Winston 500 at Talladega, pushing Dale Earnhardt to the win. It was Earnhardt's last victory before his death the following February in the Daytona 500. It wasn't long before Bobby Hamilton was named to handle the driving chores. When the 2000 season came to an end, APR fielded an unprecedented third team, the No. 35 for Geoff Bodine at Atlanta. 2001 was a banner year for APR, as Hamilton won at Talladega in the same car that Wallace finished 2nd in with last fall, and finished eighteenth in points, while Nemechek had ups and downs, breaking a shoulder at Dover and being replaced by Scott Pruett; Wally Dallenbach Jr.; and Bobby Hamilton Jr. (Hamilton's son). When he returned from his injuries, Nemechek was able to rebound with a victory at Rockingham Speedway and had a respectable 28th-place finish in points. Unfortunately, Oakwood Homes had financial trouble and backed out as sponsor, and Nemechek left to join Haas-Carter Motorsports as a replacement driver for Jimmy Spencer in the No. 26 Kmart-sponsored Ford (a ride that Nemechek, again, would lose due to Kmart filing for bankruptcy in 2002 and pulling their sponsorship from NASCAR).
Final seasons Oakwood Homes' financial troubles left the No. 33 without a sponsor for 2002. Mike and Kenny Wallace ran limited schedules in the car, with Mike racing the No. 33 in The Winston, but no full-time sponsor could be located. In addition, several attempts to get Jerry Jones to buy into the team failed. The team's fortunes continued to decline as Hamilton, who was struggling intensely, suffered a broken shoulder in a crash. Ron Hornaday Jr. and Greg Biffle were able to fill in, but despite a tenth-place finish in the season finale, Hamilton was not happy, and he departed to the Craftsman Truck Series to race for his own team taking the Square D sponsorship with him. Christian Fittipaldi signed to drive the No. 33 at the Daytona 500, finishing 35th. The team only started one other race that year, with Paul Menard at Watkins Glen, where he finished 29th. In 2004, Menard and Petree ran in the Busch Series in the hopes of attracting major sponsorship for the team's planned return to the Cup series, but Menard signed a contract with Dale Earnhardt, Inc., and took the sponsorship from his father's company with him. Despite running a couple of truck series races, Petree auctioned off all of his equipment, with most of it, including the number, going to the Kevin Harvick Incorporated racing stable which raced as the No. 33 in the Busch Series. He then went on to race once again, and also became a broadcaster and an executive at Richard Childress Racing.
Driver history
Car No. 33 results NASCAR Cup Series 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 31 32 33 34 35 36 Pts 1985 Phil Parsons 66 Olds DAY29 RCH CAR ATL41 BRI DAR8 NWS MAR TAL34 DOV CLT33 RSD POC11 MCH19 DAY27 POC8 TAL31 MCH6 BRI DAR39 RCH DOV MAR NWS CLT27 CAR ATL14 RSD 21st 2740 1986 DAY24 RCH CAR ATL18 BRI DAR31 NWS MAR TAL5 DOV CLT24 RSD POC31 MCH33 DAY9 POC37 TAL13 GLN14 MCH9 BRI DAR22 RCH DOV MAR NWS CLT10 CAR ATL10 RSD 27th 1742 1987 Tom Sneva DAY CAR RCH ATL DAR NWS BRI MAR TAL CLT DOV POC RSD MCH DAY POC TAL GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV MAR NWS CLT CAR RSD ATL 90th 76 1989 Harry Gant 33 DAY12 CAR31 ATL29 RCH14 DAR1* BRI10 NWS23 MAR12 TAL7 CLT40 DOV23 SON12 POC2 MCH32 DAY32 POC5 TAL8 GLN19 MCH3 BRI4 DAR6 RCH5 DOV38 MAR2 CLT2 NWS4 CAR29 PHO8 ATL17 7th 3610 1990 DAY18 RCH36 CAR11 ATL9 DAR6 NWS13 MAR26 TAL36 CLT25 DOV34 SON19 POC1 MCH5 DAY7 POC14 TAL15 GLN21 MCH13 BRI26 DAR5 RCH36 DOV4 MAR5 NWS28 CLT26 CAR3 PHO37 ATL19 17th 3182 Phil Parsons BRI25 1991 Harry Gant DAY25 RCH3 CAR3 ATL19 DAR27 BRI11 NWS23 MAR5 TAL1 CLT4 DOV3 SON27 POC4 MCH10 DAY23 POC26 TAL39 GLN28 MCH6 BRI19 DAR1* RCH1 DOV1* MAR1* NWS2* CLT4 CAR2* PHO23 ATL4 4th 3985 1992 DAY12 CAR3 RCH3 ATL2 DAR2 BRI29 NWS5 MAR5 TAL24 CLT5 DOV1 SON17 POC23 MCH7 DAY23 POC2 TAL17 GLN18 MCH1 BRI26 DAR16* RCH8 DOV6 MAR19 NWS13 CLT8 CAR6 PHO14 ATL13 4th 3955 1993 Chevy DAY21 CAR31 RCH9 ATL21 DAR37 BRI28 NWS13 MAR31 TAL23 SON19 CLT18 DOV7 POC3 MCH10 DAY21 NHA17 POC9 TAL8 GLN10 MCH30 BRI4 DAR7 RCH11 DOV5 MAR33 NWS6 CLT12 CAR4 PHO12 ATL28 11th 3524 1994 DAY34 CAR37 RCH34 ATL30 DAR8 BRI37 NWS8 MARDNQ TAL23 SON10 CLT7 DOV42 POC16 MCH35 DAY31 NHA17 POC38 TAL21 IND37 GLN10 MCH25 BRI9 DAR41 RCH22 DOV13 MAR8 NWS32 CLT22 CAR31 PHO23 ATL33 25th 2720 1995 Robert Pressley DAY26 CAR42 RCH35 ATL31 DAR30 BRI10 NWS18 MAR17 TAL18 SON30 CLT24 DOV19 POC37 MCH17 DAY11 NHA13 POC34 TAL27 IND28 GLN34 MCH18 BRI24 DAR17 RCH30 DOV14 MAR34 NWS33 CLT42 CAR29 PHO19 ATL41 29th 2663 1996 DAY30 CAR26 RCH16 ATL27 DAR36 BRI17 NWS4 MAR34 TAL7 SON34 CLT33 POC33 MCH23 DAY17 NHA5 POC25 TAL31 IND30 GLN30 MCH41 BRI33 DAR27 RCH26 DOV32 MAR32 NWS33 CLT32 32nd 2485 Greg Sacks DOV27 Todd Bodine CAR20 PHO11 ATL32 1997 Ken Schrader DAY33 CAR18 RCH35 ATL25 DAR8 TEX18 BRI12 MAR10 SON31 TAL12 CLT38 DOV6 POC23 MCH27 CAL34 DAY15 NHA11 POC14 IND11 GLN14 MCH14 BRI6 DAR10 RCH14 NHA37 DOV12 MAR9 CLT15 TAL4 CAR30 PHO4 ATL20 10th 3576 1998 DAY4 CAR23 LVS21 ATL17 DAR18 BRI6 TEX21 MAR10 TAL29 CAL15 CLT10 DOV15 RCH4 MCH28 POC43 SON20 NHA9 POC8 IND10 GLN24 MCH14 BRI14 NHA42 DAR13 RCH4 DOV39 MAR13 CLT40 TAL24 DAY9 PHO22 CAR14 ATL7 12th 3675 1999 DAY6 CAR11 LVS18 ATL26 DAR43 TEX17 BRI20 MAR9 TAL6 CAL14 RCH14 CLT7 DOV41 MCH13 POC27 SON39 DAY20 NHA35 POC34 IND18 GLN17 MCH25 BRI10 DAR9 RCH21 NHA12 DOV26 MAR21 CLT23 TAL25 CAR30 PHO14 HOM29 ATL19 15th 3479 2000 DAY42 CAR30 LVS9 ATL5 DAR41 BRI25 TEX37 MAR17 TAL22 CAL20 RCH23 CLT23 DOV7 MCH18 POC42 SON11 DAY11 NHA2 POC34 IND18 GLN8 MCH23 BRI27 DAR31 RCH40 NHA9 DOV7 MAR14 CLT14 TAL3 CAR10 PHO24 HOM18 ATL25 15th 3534 2001 DAY11 CAR17 LVS35 ATL17 DAR24 BRI43 TEX41 MAR16 TAL6 CAL20 RCH19 DAY27 CHI16 NHA41 POC23 IND20 GLN32 MCH22 BRI24 DAR33 RCH16 DOV7 KAN20 CLT20 MAR23 TAL8 PHO35 CAR1* HOM31 ATL39 NHA20 28th 2994 Bobby Hamilton Jr. CLT39 DOV42 MCH24 Wally Dallenbach Jr. POC Scott Pruett SON 2002 Mike Wallace DAY21 CAR38 LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX MAR TAL42 CAL RCH CLT DOV POC MCH SON DAY41 CHI NHA POC IND GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH NHA DOV KAN 41st 1551 Kenny Wallace TAL33 CLT MAR ATL CAR PHO HOM 2003 Christian Fittipaldi DAY35 CAR LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX TAL MAR CAL RCH CLT DOV POC MCH 44th 857 Paul Menard SONDNQ DAY CHI NHA POC IND GLN29 MCH BRI DAR RCH NHA DOV TAL KAN CLT MAR ATL PHO CAR HOM
Car No. 55 results