Shelby Dean Howard IV (born July 25, 1985) is a

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

driver. He is currently a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

Racing career

Howard began racing in 1996 in Junior Sprints. In his first season in the National Series, he finished fifth in points. He competed in various racing series. He won the points championship in the Mini Cup Series, as well as winning the Mini Cup championship at the Jefferson Speedrome, and the 250cc Mini Sprints Rookie of the Year at Miami County Speedway. In 1998, he moved up to the 600cc Adult Class at Miami County, and simultaneously won the championship and Rookie of the Year honors. He also became the youngest driver to win a feature race at the

Indianapolis Speedrome Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of U.S. state and territorial capitals, state capital and List of U.S. states' largest cities by population, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat, seat of ...

. In 1999, Howard joined the

Jasper Modified Series Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics of jasper and related rocks. – Archaeometry Workshop, 7, 3, 209-213PDF/ref> ...

, and won the Rookie of the Year award and finished fifth in the points standings. He also raced at

Anderson Speedway Anderson Speedway is a quarter mile (400 m) high-banked paved oval racetrack in Anderson, Indiana, United States. The track hosts the annual Little 500 sprint car race and the Redbud 400 stock car race. Weekly racing features several stock ca ...

, winning two feature races and the Rookie of the Year award. He won his first Jasper Modified feature race in 2000 at

Winchester Speedway Winchester Speedway is a half-mile paved oval motor racetrack in White River Township, Randolph County, just outside Winchester, Indiana, approximately northeast of Indianapolis. It seats 4000 spectators. It is also known as the "World's Faste ...

, becoming the youngest driver since

Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...

to win a race in that series. He finished fifteenth in the

Kendall Late Model Series The CRA Super Series is a super late model stock car racing series owned and operated by the Champion Racing Association. It is a touring series based in the Midwestern United States, which competes at paved short ovals. It was formerly known as t ...

points standings as well. He moved up to the

ARCA RE/MAX Series The ARCA Menards Series is an American stock car series, the premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). It is considered a minor, semi-professional league of stock car racing, used as a feeder series into the three national ...

in 2001, becoming the youngest driver ever to compete at the age of 15.ARCA RE/MAX factsheet, Salem
/ref> The next season, he won ARCA's Sportsmanship Award. He won his first ARCA race in 2003, becoming the youngest winner in the series, and finished third in the final standings. That same season, he moved up to NASCAR, making his debut in the

Busch Series The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a ...

Kansas Speedway Kansas Speedway is a tri-oval race track in the Village West area near Kansas City, Kansas, United States. It was built in 2001 and it currently hosts two annual NASCAR race weekends. The IndyCar Series also held races at the venue until 2011 ...

. He finished 20th in the #43

Dr Pepper Dr Pepper is a carbonated soft drink. It was created in the 1880s by pharmacist Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas, and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904. It is now also sold in Euro ...

Dodge fielded by the

Curb Agajanian Performance Group The Curb Agajanian Performance Group is an American motorsports team, currently competing as a co-entrant in IndyCar and IMSA. It is owned by record executive Mike Curb and racing personality Cary Agajanian; son of the late J. C. Agajanian, a ...

. He also attempted his first

Winston Cup The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...

race at

Atlanta Motor Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly known Atlanta International Raceway from 1960 to 1990) is a 1.54-mile entertainment facility in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Cup Series ...

, but failed to qualify. In 2004, he joined NASCAR's

Craftsman Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of th ...

division, driving the new #23

Toyota Tundra The Toyota Tundra is a pickup truck manufactured in the United States by the Japanese manufacturer Toyota since May 1999. The Tundra was the second full-size pickup to be built by a Japanese manufacturer (the first was the Toyota T100), but the ...

for

Bill Davis Racing Bill Davis Racing was a racing team that participated in all three of NASCAR's top divisions until 2009. The team had run Toyota-branded stock cars and trucks in the Camping World Truck Series ( Toyota Tundra) since 2004 and Sprint Cup Series (T ...

. After eight races, he did not finish any higher than 21st, and was subsequently replaced by

Johnny Benson Jonathan Thomas Benson Jr. (born June 27, 1963) is an American retired stock car racing driver and the son of former Michigan modified driver John Benson Sr. Benson has raced across NASCAR's three national series ( Cup, Busch, Truck), and his ...

. He ended the season running five races in the #35

Volvo Trucks Volvo Trucks ( sv, Volvo Lastvagnar) is a truck manufacturing division of Volvo based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Trucks was a separate company within Volvo. The Volvo Group was reorganised on 1 January 2012 and as a part of the process, Vol ...

/ Snap-On

Ford Taurus The Ford Taurus is an automobile that was manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United States from the 1986 to 2019 model years. Introduced in late 1985 for the 1986 model year, six generations were produced over 34 years; a brief hiat ...

for

Team Rensi Motorsports Team Rensi Motorsports was a NASCAR Nationwide Series team owned by Ronnie Russell, Ed Rensi, Gary Weisbaum, and formerly Sam Rensi. The team has also competed in the Winston Cup Series, Craftsman Truck Series, and ARCA racing series. Ed Re ...

. He joined Tony Stewart's USAR team in 2005, and had three poles and four top-tens in USAR's Northern Division. He had three wins in his first USAR season. In

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, he returned to the Busch Series driving for Odle Motorsports at

Memphis Motorsports Park Memphis International Raceway (formerly known as Memphis Motorsports Park) was an auto racing park located near the Loosahatchie River in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, just approximately ten miles south of Millington, and a few miles ...

. He finished 41st after being plagued by

ignition Ignition may refer to: Science and technology * Firelighting, the human act of creating a fire for warmth, cooking and other uses * Combustion, an exothermic chemical reaction between a fuel and an oxidant * Fusion ignition, the point at which a ...

failure. In 2007, he drove two races in the #01 for

Johnny Davis Motorsports JD Motorsports, is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. It is owned and operated by Johnny Davis. It currently fields two Chevrolet Camaro SS teams: The No. 4 for Bayley Currey ...

, his best finishing being a 27th at

Kentucky Speedway Kentucky Speedway is a tri-oval speedway in Sparta, Kentucky, which has hosted ARCA, NASCAR and Indy Racing League racing annually since it opened in 2000. The track is currently owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports, Inc. Before 2008 J ...

. Howard returned to the Trucks with

ThorSport Racing ThorSport Racing is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The team was founded in 1996 as SealMaster Racing and is based in Sandusky, Ohio. Owned by Duke Thorson and his wife ...

in 2008, but only managed two top tens and a single top five before he was released in favor of

Johnny Sauter Jonathan Joseph "Johnny" Sauter (born May 1, 1978) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 47 Toyota Tundra for G2G Racing, the No. 13 Tundra for T ...

Howard started 2009 as a free agent, but was picked up by

ML Motorsports ML Motorsports was an American professional stock car racing team that last competed in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. It was owned jointly by Mary Louise Miller and her daughter, Stephanie Mullen, making it the first confirmed NASCAR team to be ow ...

to drive the #70 Foretravel Motorcoach

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

after the team released Mark Green in late March. He would run a total of 17 Nationwide races with a best finish of 12th at the second

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

race and

. In 2010, Howard returned to ML Motorsports. Despite missing the season opening race at Daytona, Howard and ML ran 21 races with a best finish of 12th at Gateway and Iowa. Howard returned to ML in 2011, but departed from the team after Texas. He has not raced in NASCAR since then.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Winston Cup Series

Nationwide Series

Camping World Truck Series

ARCA Re/Max Series

(

) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Shelby 1985 births Living people NASCAR drivers CARS Tour drivers