Scott Andrew Speed is an American race car driver. Formerly a driver for the Scuderia
Toro Rosso F1 team, he made his Formula One race debut at the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix;
becoming the first American to race in F1 since Michael Andretti in 1993. Speed later
turned his career towards stock car racing; specifically NASCAR, where he has driven for
Red Bull Racing Team, Whitney Motorsports, and Leavine Family Racing in the Sprint Cup
Series. He currently races in the Global RallyCross Championship.
Personal life Speed currently resides in Mt. Holly, NC,
where he lives with his wife Amanda, and their two daughters.
His brother Alex currently races karts in America and is a 3 time Stars of Karting champion
and a 3 time SKUSA Supernationals winner. Early years
Speed's career started at the age of 10 in karting, his stint there lasting from 1993
until 2001, winning the SKUSA Super Pro Title for JM Racing driving a Tony Kart Swedetech
Honda in 2000 2 IKF Grand Nationals driving a 6-year-old kart, and 3 IKF regional titles.
He also won the 2002 Rock Island GP in 125cc Shifter Karts. He moved up to Formula series
in 2001, competing in US Formula Russell and becoming champion. He drove in both the Formula
Dodge National Championship and Star Mazda Series followed in 2002, finishing third and
eighth respectively. In 2003, the American drove for the ADR team
in British Formula Three after winning the Red Bull Driver Search programme. During that
year he fell ill with ulcerative colitis, a form of inflammatory bowel disease, and
was forced to return to the United States for treatment.
2004 saw two championship titles for Speed, though, with him first winning in Formula
Renault 2000 Eurocup and later German Formula Renault. This was despite his worsening colitis,.
His performances resulted in a drive in the inaugural season of GP2 Series for 2005, as
number two for the iSport team to Can Artam. Speed was later promoted to first driver for
the team, and ended the season third place in the driver championship standings behind
Nico Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen. At the end of 2005, Speed drove the first
three races of the new A1 Grand Prix series for A1 Team USA, achieving a best result of
fourth in the Feature Race of the 2005–06 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Portugal, held at
the Autódromo do Estoril. Formula One
Red Bull
In 2005 at the Canadian Grand Prix, Speed took part as a test driver for Red Bull Racing;
becoming the first American driver to participate in a Formula One event since Michael Andretti's
1993 stint. He was also the test driver at the United States Grand Prix.
Following its purchase of Minardi, Red Bull Racing announced the creation of Scuderia
Toro Rosso with Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi as its drivers in 2006 season.
Toro Rosso In his debut race at the Bahrain Grand Prix,
he finished 13th. A week later at the Malaysian Grand Prix he retired after 41 laps due to
a clutch failure. After the Australian Grand Prix it looked
as if he had scored his and Toro Rosso's first point. Later on however, he had 25 seconds
added to his race time for overtaking under yellow flags, dropping him to 9th place and
out of the points. He was also fined $5000 for using inappropriate language towards David
Coulthard during a post-race stewards hearing. He finished the San Marino Grand Prix in 15th
place. A week later and after a decent run at the European Grand Prix he finished 11th.
He retired from the Spanish Grand Prix with an engine failure and in his first Monaco
Grand Prix he finished 13th. He retired from the British Grand Prix on
the opening lap with accident damage after coming together with Ralf Schumacher. Speed
bounced back and ran rather well at the Canadian Grand Prix finishing 10th.
At the United States Grand Prix he qualified a career best 13th only to be taken out in
a first-lap collision. In turn 2, McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya nudged his teammate Kimi
Räikkönen into a spin. The Colombian then clouted Honda's Jenson Button whose front
right tyre got caught by BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld who was launched into a spectacular
triple barrel roll. Speed was caught up in the resulting melee. None of the drivers were
injured. His teammate Liuzzi finished 8th, and scored the team's first World Championship
point. At the French Grand Prix he finished 10th,
matching David Coulthard's pace throughout, after suffering from back pains and breathing
problems, consequences from a Friday practice accident. After crashing during the first
qualifying session for the German Grand Prix, Speed finished 12th in the race. At the Hungarian
Grand Prix he finished 11th and 4 laps behind the leader in very wet and changeable conditions.
At the Turkish Grand Prix, Speed started in 18th and finished 13th, from 15 classified
runners. At the next round, the Italian Grand Prix, Speed qualified 15th in Scuderia Toro
Rosso's home race and made two places to finish 13th.
At the Chinese Grand Prix, Speed qualified in 11th place in wet conditions, but an equally
wet race saw him slip back to 14th by the end. At the next round in Japan, Speed started
the race in 19th. Suffering a power steering failure with five laps remaining, Speed was
unable to finish. However, as he had completed over 90% of the race distance, he was still
classified in 17th place. Finally, at the season-ending Brazilian Grand
Prix, Speed finished 11th of the 17 cars classified after starting down in 17th.
After much speculation, Scuderia Toro Rosso confirmed on 24 February 2007 that Speed had
signed to continue driving for the team in the 2007 Formula One season. He would once
again team up with Vitantonio Liuzzi. 2007
Speed's 2007 season was largely disappointing, punctuated with poor reliability and several
crashes. He had two separate collisions with Alexander Wurz at Silverstone and at Canada
which put him out of the race. He then spun off in the wet at the European Grand Prix,
in what would be his last race for the team. After the race, it was reported that he was
involved in a physical altercation with team principal Franz Tost, although Tost has since
denied this. Speed also went on a verbal offensive against the team, claiming that they wanted
to get rid of both him and Liuzzi. Speed's future with Toro Rosso remained very much
in doubt for the rest of that season. The doubts were seemingly calmed after continued
testing for the team. From the pre-season through to the Nurburgring, he and the team
had endured constant speculation over the status of his tenure in the no. 19 car.
However, it was finally announced before the Hungarian Grand Prix that he had been replaced
by BMW third driver, Sebastian Vettel. Perhaps the only shining light in Speed's season was
a fighting 9th place at Monaco from 18th on the grid, just missing out on a championship
point but finishing just ahead of the Hondas of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button.
On 31 July 2007 Speed was released from his contract at Scuderia Toro Rosso and replaced
by BMW Sauber test driver Sebastian Vettel, who was under contract to Red Bull's driver
development programme. Speed has said that no amount of money would get him to work with
the Toro Rosso team bosses in the future. Nevertheless, Speed's relationship with Red
Bull as a whole remained good, and he secured a Red Bull-backed drive in the U.S. for 2008.
ARCA Re/MAX Series
In preparation for his impending NASCAR career, Speed entered into the Automobile Racing Club
of America series in selected races in 2007, and a full season in 2008. Driving the Red
Bull-sponsored Toyota for Eddie Sharp Racing, Speed finished 5th in ARCA RE/MAX Series points
in 2008. Speed, along with car owner Sharp, earned the Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge
title in 2008. In 22 career starts since 2007, Speed has 10 top-5 finishes and 18 top-10s
including 4 wins at Kansas Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Berlin Raceway and Nashville Superspeedway,
all occurring in 2008. Speed was a championship contender in the 2008 season, however the
season ended in controversy, and without a championship for Speed and Eddie Sharp Racing.
Controversy During the finale of the 2008 ARCA season,
Speed and fellow competitor and championship contender, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., were battling
for position. Stenhouse hit the rear of Speed's car, sending him into the wall, effectively
ending Speed's chances of a good finish, and possibly a Championship. After visiting the
pits for repairs, Speed's car was well off the pace, and was lapped within 2 laps of
the restart. As Stenhouse came by to lap Speed, Speed accelerated and slammed his car into
Stenhouse, sending both cars into the wall. Neither driver was injured, however ARCA officials
parked Speed for the day, which ended his chances for a championship. Speed was widely
criticized by his fellow competitors, fans and media, as well as NASCAR drivers, for
taking dangerous actions on the track in retaliation. NASCAR
Speed made his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 7,
2008 driving for Morgan-Dollar Motorsports #46 Chevy with Red Bull sponsorship. He recorded
his first career Top 10 finish in NASCAR in just his second race, when he finished tenth
at Martinsville Speedway. On April 25, 2008 he won his first ARCA race at Kansas Speedway
in just his fourth start. On April 26, 2008; Speed recorded a back-to-back top ten finish
in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Kansas Speedway by finishing in eighth place in the
#22 Red Bull Toyota for Bill Davis Racing, and won his first career race the following
week at Dover. Two races after his first win, Speed scored another top five at Michigan
International Speedway. On July 18, 2008 Speed won his second ARCA race at Kentucky Speedway.
On Sunday October 19, 2008, Speed started his first Sprint Cup Series event at Martinsville
Speedway, finishing in 30th place. He finished the season in the #84 Red Bull Toyota Camry
Red Bull Racing Team. For the 2009 Sprint Cup season, Speed's car
was renumbered to #82. He was eligible to race in the 31st Annual Budweiser Shootout
at Daytona International Speedway, as his car was one of the top 6 Toyotas in points.
He began his quest for Rookie of the Year in 2009. He won his first ever Rookie of the
Race honors at the prestigious Daytona 500. Speed won the pole for the Sam's Town 300
in his Nationwide Series debut on February 28, 2009; he also broke the track record with
a speed of 182.451 mph and a lap time of 29.597. Unfortunately, he collided with Kyle
Busch early on and finished 40th.
After failing to qualify for Darlington and Sonoma, Speed competed in Joe Nemechek's #87
Toyota. He failed to qualify for the April Texas race.
Red Bull Racing's #82 finished 36th in the 2009 owner's points standings, missing a guaranteed
entry into the first five races of 2010 by one position. Speed successfully qualified
for the 2010 Daytona 500. He led several laps late in the race after not going to the pits
with about 19 laps to go. The next week at Auto Club Speedway, during a rain caution,
Speed did not pit and it appeared that the Sprint Cup Series was going to have another
first-time winner, but Speed ran out of gas. Speed was in the top 12 after the Food City
500 which guaranteed him a spot in the top 35. During the Michigan race in June, an incident
occurred between Speed and his temporary teammate Casey Mears: When they were running 34th and
35th respectively, Mears collided with Speed and he spun out, causing a caution. Mears
was replaced by Reed Sorenson for the remainder of the season. On November 26, 2010, Speed
was released from his contract at Red Bull Racing to make room for the returning Brian
Vickers who underwent heart surgery in June 2010; causing Speed to file a lawsuit against
Red Bull accusing them of violating his contract. Speed's best finish with Red Bull Racing was
fifth at Talladega in the 2009 Aaron's 499. Speed was without a ride for most of the 2011
season; he drove for Whitney Motorsports for a number of races at the end of the year.
In 2012, he ran a limited schedule for Leavine Family Racing; it was announced in August
that he would return to the team for 2013 to run the majority of the season.
Despite scoring Leavine's first top-ten finish at Talladega, Speed was released from the
team after Atlanta in September. IndyCar
Speed attempted to qualify for the 2011 Indianapolis 500 with Dragon Racing. However, he struggled
to get the car up to speed and was replaced on the final day of qualifying by Patrick
Carpentier, who promptly crashed the car in practice. Speed also turned down a chance
to earn $5 million as part of a promotion at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for drivers not
running the full IndyCar season to participate in the 2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championships.
Just hours after the crash that claimed the life of Dan Wheldon, Speed said it was too
dangerous for IndyCars to run on oval tracks. RallyCross
Speed won a gold medal at the 2013 X Games in Foz do Iguaçu in his first ever RallyCross
race. He won a second gold medal at round 8 of the Global RallyCross Championship in
Charlotte Motor Speedway. Racing record
Career summary * Ineligible for points due to competing in
less than 75% of the races in the championship. † Includes points scored by other drivers
for A1 Team USA. Complete GP2 series results
(key) Complete Formula One results
(key) † Driver did not finish the Grand Prix,
but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.
Complete A1 Grand Prix results (key)
IndyCar Indianapolis 500 results
NASCAR (key)
Sprint Cup Series Nationwide Series
Camping World Truck Series * Season in progress1 Ineligible for series
points See also
List of people diagnosed with ulcerative colitis References
External links Official website
Scott Speed driver statistics at Racing-Reference Profile and 2006 statistics