HScott Motorsports: Harry Scott's Four-Series Team and Its Short Cup Run

HScott Motorsports was an American stock car team that last competed in the Cup, Xfinity, K&N Pro East and ARCA series. It was owned by North Carolina businessman Harry Scott Jr., who had earlier owned Turner Scott Motorsports. The team's Cup roots ran back to 1990, when it was founded as Phoenix Racing.

Who owned HScott Motorsports and where did it come from?

Harry Scott Jr. owned the team, which was built on the Cup operation that James Finch had founded in 1990 as Phoenix Racing. Scott bought the Cup team from Finch in mid-2013, and the organisation took its present shape after he took over the Xfinity and K&N Pro Series operations of Turner Scott Motorsports after the 2014 season.

Scott was also the owner of team sponsor AccuDoc Solutions. He died on 2 August 2017, months after the team had sold its charter and closed its Cup and K&N operations.

A team that carried Cup cars, Xfinity cars and K&N champions before a December 2016 sale ended its Cup run.

How did the Cup team start under Harry Scott?

Finch's last race as an owner came at the Atlanta Labor Day event in September 2013. Scott kept the No. 51, Finch's longtime car number, and Ryan Truex drove his first race as owner at Richmond, where he finished 35th.

The team was renamed HScott Motorsports on 5 February 2014. Justin Allgaier drove the car at Chicagoland, Kansas, Talladega and Phoenix in 2013, and Kyle Larson ran Charlotte, Martinsville and Homestead. Larson's best finish that year was 15th at Homestead, where he also led the team's first lap.

What did Justin Allgaier achieve in 2014 and 2015?

Allgaier was announced to drive the No. 51 full-time in 2014 and to compete for Rookie of the Year honours. He finished third in the Rookie of the Year standings, behind Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon, and 29th in the points. His best finishes were 15th at Charlotte and Homestead.

The team failed to qualify for a single race that year, the GEICO 500 at Talladega in the fall, because of an unusual qualifying session that also kept another full-time driver out of the field. The team's sponsorship came from Brandt for 22 races, with Accu-Doc Solutions on the car for five. Auto-Owners Insurance, Sherwin-Williams and SEM Products filled much of the rest of the schedule.

Allgaier returned in 2015 with Brandt still sponsoring. He was lapped at Phoenix but worked his way back onto the lead lap. At Bristol he finished eighth, his first Cup top ten and the first for HScott Motorsports. The team's form faded over the summer, and Allgaier finished 30th in points.

Who drove the No. 46 for the team?

Michael Annett was the team's main driver in the No. 46. Bobby Labonte had run a part-time No. 52 in the 2014 Daytona 500 and finished 15th, but Annett's full-time program began in January 2015, when he brought his longtime sponsor Pilot Flying J with him from Tommy Baldwin Racing.

Annett finished 13th at the 2015 Daytona 500 and had a difficult season after that. His best finish after Daytona was 23rd, and he finished 36th in points. He also missed the fall Talladega race.

In 2016 Annett returned with Pilot Flying J as primary sponsor. The team leased the charter of Premium Motorsports for a short term, guaranteeing a starting spot in every race, and Mike Hillman Jr. was hired as crew chief in July. Annett's best finish that year was 20th at Daytona in July, and he finished 36th in points. Annett then announced in November that he was leaving for JR Motorsports.

How did Clint Bowyer's season with the No. 15 go?

Clint Bowyer took the No. 15 in 2016 after Michael Waltrip Racing folded with a year left on his contract. He carried the car number and his 5-Hour Energy sponsorship with him, and Scott's Accu-Doc Solutions appeared on four races.

The team struggled early when expected help from Stewart-Haas Racing never arrived. Bowyer turned the season around in April when he finished eighth at Bristol, and he then finished seventh at Talladega, the best finish for the team that year. He added a ninth at Daytona, but he still finished 27th in points.

After the season Bowyer announced that he would sue HScott Motorsports for $2.2 million in prize money and commission. Both parties settled the dispute a week later.

Why did the Cup team close?

With no viable sponsor or driver options for 2017, Harry Scott announced on 5 December 2016 that he had sold the No. 15 charter to Premium Motorsports and closed the Cup operation. The K&N operation shut down at the same time, and one of the No. 15 cars was later bought by MBM Motorsports for part-time use in 2017.

The decision ended a short Cup run that had begun with a purchase from James Finch three years earlier.

What was the Xfinity effort with Chip Ganassi?

After financial issues with co-owner Steve Turner ended Turner Scott Motorsports, Scott found a new partner in Chip Ganassi. The two fielded a single Xfinity entry under the HScott name, run from the Chip Ganassi Racing shop with crew chief Mike Shiplett.

Larson, Brennan Poole and Justin Marks shared the ride. Larson began with an eighth-place finish at the Daytona season opener and won the season finale at Homestead. He led 118 laps and got past Austin Dillon with four laps remaining. Poole made his Xfinity debut at Las Vegas, finishing ninth, and later recorded a tenth at Loudon. Marks ran the road course races at Mid-Ohio and Road America.

The team was fully operated by Ganassi from 2016.

How did the K&N Pro Series East program develop?

For 2015 Scott took control of the K&N Pro Series East operation of Turner Scott Motorsports and partnered with Justin Marks to field five Chevrolet teams. The drivers included Scott Heckert, William Byron, Justin Haley and Dalton Sargeant, and Rico Abreu signed for the No. 98 that January. In the K&N Pro Series West that year, Sargeant, Byron and Haley also ran at Sonoma and Phoenix, and Haley won the pole at Phoenix.

Byron won four races and three poles on his way to the 2015 series title. Heckert finished second in points with two wins, and Sargeant finished fourth. The program continued into 2016, when Harrison Burton, the son of former driver Jeff Burton, joined the East effort.

Haley returned in 2016 and won the series championship after winning two races and two poles. He finished in the top ten in all 14 races, the only driver to do so in the series' history.

What did the team do in ARCA?

In 2015 the team fielded Justin Haley in a limited ARCA Racing Series schedule in the No. 74. He ran at IRP and twice at Salem Speedway, where he finished second in his best start.

His best finish was fourth at Salem and IRP, and the ARCA entries closed along with the Cup and K&N operations. The ARCA effort was limited to that single season.