Ashton Lewis Jr.

Ashton Lewis Jr.
Lewis in 2005
Born	(1972-01-22) January 22, 1972 Chesapeake, Virginia, U.S.
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
226 races run over 11 years
Best finish	8th (2004)
First race	1993 Fay's 150 (Watkins Glen)
Last race	2006 Ford 300 (Homestead)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 37 1
Statistics current as of May 10, 2010.

Ashton Lewis Jr. (born January 22, 1972) is an American former stock car racing driver who competed in 226 races over 11 seasons. Lewis earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. After his racing career, he earned his MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. As of March 2013, he is chief operating officer for First Team Automotive Group in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Busch Series career

Lewis was a driver who was especially good on road courses. He started out in the Barber Saab Pro Series for the 1992 season. After success in that series, he was offered a scholarship to race in the British Formula Ford championship.

Lewis made his Busch debut in 1993, long before he became known to most Busch fans. Driving the No. 36 Parkway Pontiac at Watkins Glen, Lewis started the race in 29th place. The team had mechanical issues partway through the race, but Lewis got back on track and finished the race in 27th place.

Lewis returned once again to the series in 1994. This time, Lewis drove the No. 80 Commerce Bank Chevy at Milwaukee Mile. Lewis was able to top his debut with a 24th-place effort despite a 38th-place start.

Lewis again made a one-off start in 1995. He had his best weekend at that point in his career, this time back at Watkins Glen. He started the race solidly in the 22nd position and stayed on the lead lap with a 13th-place finishing result.

Lewis raced in eight races in 1996 and earned a 3rd-place finish at Watkins Glen. He led three laps during the race, the first laps led of his Busch Series career.

Lewis did not compete in 1999 but came back in 2000, with a new family owned No. 46 Chevy. He completed an 11-race schedule with a best finish of 17th at Michigan.

With a decent first year under their belt, Lewis Motorsports ran all but one race in 2001, leading to a 20th-place standing in points. Lewis earned three top-10s in 2001: A pair of fifths at Kentucky and Charlotte and a ninth at Memphis, an impressive feat without a full-time sponsor. Lewis earned his best start of 2001 at Las Vegas, with a 5th place starting position. However, Lewis struggled to finish races and had nine DNFs.

Yet, the team was optimistic. The team would run 2002 with new sponsor Civil Air Patrol. Lewis only had one top-5, but it was a solid one. Lewis started 24th at his home track of Richmond International Raceway but certainly ran well, moving to a 2nd-place finish. In addition, Lewis earned a triplet of 8th and another triplet of 9th. Lewis was also qualifying well, with 5 top-10 starts, the best being a 3rd at IRP. The only reason that Lewis finished a lowly 17th was simple: a series-high 12 DNFs.

Lewis set out to better his season in 2003 and did it well. Cutting down his DNFs to five led to a 12th-place finish in points. The highlight of his season came at Gateway. He won the pole and led forty-four laps and was running fifth when Randy Lajoie crashed in front of him and led to a 33rd-place finish. However, Ashton did have better overall finishes. He had two top-5s with a 3rd at Nashville and a 5th at Homestead-Miami. Lewis also tacked on eight other top-10 finishes, to have ten top-10 finishes in 2003.

The team lost CAP after 2003, however, and the team could not attract a sponsor for 2004. The team would end up running the whole season, but Lewis' family team had to shut down following the season. Yet, Lewis made one great swan song at the end of the season. A late-season surge put Lewis in position to win races. That was apparent at Darlington, where Lewis ran a specially painted tribute car to a second-place finish, barely losing to Jamie McMurray. Even though there was some sadness in the team's hearts, Lewis finished 8th place in points, his first career top-10

Lewis would drive the No. 25 Marines Ford in 2005 and 2006 for Ed Rensi. Lewis finished the 2005 campaign 14th in points. The 2006 season yielded a disappointing 15th-place finish in points. Lewis ended his NASCAR career after the 2006 season having competed in 226 Busch Series races over 11 different seasons.

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	34	35	NBSC	Pts	Ref
1993		36	Pontiac	DAY	CAR	RCH	DAR	BRI	HCY	ROU	MAR	NZH	CLT	DOV	MYB	GLN 27	MLW	TAL	IRP	MCH	NHA	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	ROU	CLT	MAR	CAR	HCY	ATL								97th	82
1994	Lewis Motorsports	80	Chevy	DAY	CAR	RCH	ATL	MAR	DAR	HCY	BRI	ROU	NHA	NZH DNQ	CLT	DOV	MYB	GLN	MLW 24	SBO DNQ	TAL	HCY	IRP DNQ	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	CLT	MAR DNQ	CAR								85th	91
1995				DAY	CAR	RCH	ATL	NSV	DAR	BRI	HCY	NHA	NZH	CLT	DOV	MYB	GLN 13	MLW	TAL	SBO DNQ	IRP	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	CLT	CAR	HOM										84th	124
1998	Lewis Motorsports	9	Ford	DAY	CAR	LVS	NSV	DAR	BRI	TEX	HCY	TAL	NHA	NZH	CLT	DOV	RCH	PPR	GLN 3	MLW	MYB	CAL																	53rd	609
	NorthStar Motorsports	98	Ford																				SBO DNQ	IRP	MCH 39	BRI 42	DAR 23	RCH 41	DOV 25	CLT DNQ	GTY 28	CAR 36	ATL	HOM
2000	Lewis Motorsports	46	Chevy	DAY DNQ	CAR	LVS	ATL	DAR 38	BRI	TEX	NSV DNQ	TAL	CAL	RCH 29	NHA DNQ	CLT DNQ	DOV 42	SBO	MYB	GLN 23	MLW DNQ	NZH 28	PPR 29	GTY	IRP 23	MCH 17	BRI DNQ	DAR 30	RCH DNQ	DOV 25	CLT DNQ	CAR 31	MEM DNQ	PHO DNQ	HOM DNQ				51st	848
2001				DAY 31	CAR 33	LVS 30	ATL 39	DAR 19	BRI 27	TEX 11	NSH 42	TAL 31	CAL 22	RCH 32	NHA 29	NZH 14	CLT 13	DOV 40	KEN 5	MLW 32	GLN 37	CHI 43	GTY	PPR 11	IRP 16	MCH 20	BRI 19	DAR 26	RCH 37	DOV 16	KAN 20	CLT 5	MEM 9	PHO 24	CAR 27	HOM 16			20th	2904
2002				DAY 33	CAR 8	LVS 15	DAR 25	BRI 18	TEX 39	NSH 37	TAL 23	CAL 16	RCH 2	NHA 20	NZH 8	CLT 20	DOV 19	NSH 37	KEN 11	MLW 38	DAY 19	CHI 11	GTY 40	PPR 9	IRP 37	MCH 38	BRI 39	DAR 23	RCH 35	DOV 12	KAN 19	CLT 33	MEM 32	ATL 9	CAR 25	PHO 8	HOM 9		17th	3279
2003				DAY 25	CAR 16	LVS 27	DAR 25	BRI 18	TEX 27	TAL 20	NSH 3	CAL 12	RCH 30	GTY 33	NZH 35	CLT 8	DOV 22	NSH 6	KEN 7	MLW 12	DAY 12	CHI 42	NHA 11	PPR 9	IRP 34	MCH 36	BRI 10	DAR 20	RCH 19	DOV 7	KAN 6	CLT 16	MEM 10	ATL 11	PHO 12	CAR 12	HOM 5		12th	3804
2004				DAY 14	CAR 15	LVS 29	DAR 20	BRI 31	TEX 33	NSH 21	TAL 17	CAL 14	GTY 15	RCH 15	NZH 23	CLT 10	DOV 25	NSH 9	KEN 8	MLW 13	DAY 14	CHI 5	NHA 17	PPR 18	IRP 14	MCH 13	BRI 26	CAL 23	RCH 20	DOV 21	KAN 4	CLT 35	MEM 9	ATL 12	PHO 9	DAR 2	HOM 14		8th	3892
2005	Team Rensi Motorsports	25	Ford	DAY 13	CAL 11	MXC 9	LVS 22	ATL 14	NSH 19	BRI 8	TEX 32	PHO 17	TAL 4	DAR 14	RCH 16	CLT 10	DOV 14	NSH 25	KEN 25	MLW 18	DAY 26	CHI 11	NHA 28	PPR 15	GTY 36	IRP 15	GLN 31	MCH 26	BRI 31	CAL 31	RCH 30	DOV 14	KAN 28	CLT 8	MEM 31	TEX 21	PHO 21	HOM 43	14th	3587
2006				DAY 12	CAL 29	MXC 13	LVS 13	ATL 17	BRI 30	TEX 38	NSH 11	PHO 20	TAL 33	RCH 26	DAR 20	CLT 28	DOV 42	NSH 9	KEN 5	MLW 16	DAY 17	CHI 35	NHA 24	MAR 27	GTY 16	IRP 22	GLN 33	MCH 39	BRI 18	CAL 5	RCH 31	DOV 25	KAN 14	CLT 11	MEM 37	TEX 25	PHO 24	HOM 20	15th	3376

External links

• Ashton Lewis Jr. driver statistics at Racing-Reference