# AK Racing

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 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 1982 | Bosco Lowe | 32 | Buick | | | | | | | | | | | | CLT 16 | POC | RSD | MCH | DAY | NSV | POC | TAL | MCH | BRI | DAR | RCH | DOV | NWS | CLT | MAR | CAR | ATL | RSD | | |
| 1983 | Bosco Lowe | 32 | Buick | DAY 39 | RCH | CAR | ATL | DAR | NWS | MAR | TAL | NSV | DOV | BRI | CLT | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 1983 | Tommy Ellis | 32 | Buick | | | | | | | | | | | | CLT 15 | RSD | POC | MCH | DAY | NSV | POC | TAL | MCH | BRI | DAR | RCH | DOV | | | | | | | | |
| 1983 | Butch Lindley | 32 | Buick | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | MAR 25 | 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 | | | | | | | | |
| 1985 | Alan Kulwicki | 38 | Ford | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | CLT 13 | CAR 27 | ATL 22 | RSD | | | | |
| 1986 | Alan Kulwicki | 32 | Ford | DAY DNQ | RCH DNQ | CAR 15 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 1986 | Alan Kulwicki | 35 | Ford | | | | 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 | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 1986 | Alan Kulwicki | 35 | Ford | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | DAR 12 | RCH 15 | DOV 7 | MAR 13 | NWS 17 | CLT 14 | CAR 12 | ATL 18 | RSD 24 | | | |
| 1987 | Alan Kulwicki | 7 | Ford | 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 | Alan Kulwicki | 7 | Ford | 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 | | 17th | 3176 |
| 1989 | Alan Kulwicki | 7 | Ford | 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 | | 16th | 3236 |
| 1990 | Alan Kulwicki | 7 | Ford | 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 | | 10th | 3599 |
| 1991 | Alan Kulwicki | 7 | Ford | 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 | | 14th | 3354 |
| 1992 | Alan Kulwicki | 7 | Ford | 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* | | 1st | 4078 |
| 1993 | Alan Kulwicki | 7 | Ford | DAY 26 | CAR 4 | RCH 3 | ATL 36 | DAR 6 | BRI Wth | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 22nd | 2403 |
| 1993 | Jimmy Hensley | 7 | Ford | | | | | | | 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 | 22nd | 2403 |
| 1993 | Tommy Kendall | 7 | Ford | | | | | | | | | | SON 22 | | | | | | | | | GLN 25 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 22nd | 2403 |