Butch Miller (racing driver)

Henry "Butch" Miller (born June 5, 1952, in Coopersville, Michigan) is a racecar driver. He drives the #07 Toyota Tundra part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on a limited basis, and is also a crew chief for SS-Green Light Racing. He is a multiple champion in the now-defunct American Speed Association stock car series. Miller also drove a limited schedule in the 2005 Trans-Am Series.

NASCAR

Early career

In 1985, Miller ran his first Busch Series races, driving for LeRoy Throop, driving the #08 MSW Spyders Pontiac in four events. He made four races, and had a 2nd-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway. The next year, in 1986, he went to victory lane at the Indianapolis Raceway Park. That same season, he made his Winston Cup debut, finishing 16th in his first race. He ran two Cup races the next season for Throop, and then two races in the #31 Slender You Figure Salons Oldsmobile for Bob Clark in 1988. In 1989, he returned to Throop in the #51 for nine races. Despite getting sponsorship from Fruit of the Loom, he was only able to finish two races. He signed with Travis Carter Enterprises to drive the #98 Chevrolet Lumina for 1990, with sponsorship from Banquet Foods, IGA, and Piggy Wiggly. He drove in the first 23 races of the season, and had a career-best 8th-place finish at Pocono Raceway, but was released near the end of the season.

He ran his first full Busch Series season in 1991, beginning in the #52 31-W Insulation Chevy with Day Enterprise Racing. He won his most recent race early in the season at Hickory, but left in the middle of the season to join the #75 Food Country U.S.A. Oldsmobile for Henderson Brothers Motorsports. In 1992, as he scored 10 top tens and finished 7th in points. He ran nine races in 1993 before he was released, and spent the rest of the season out of NASCAR. He ran two Cup races in 1994, driving the #55 Ford Thunderbird for RaDiUs Racing.

Truck Series

In 1995, he joined the fledging Craftsman Truck Series, driving the #98 Raybestos/Herrick Racing Ford. He won a race at Colorado National Speedway beating Mike Skinner by 0.001 seconds in the closest finish in series history^[1] and finished 4th in points. He continued to run full-time through 1998. He stayed with Herrick until the latter part of 1996, where he ran some races for Ernie Irvan and Walker Evans. He signed with Evans full-time for the 1997, where he had twelve top-tens in the #20 Orleans Hotel & Casino Ford. In 1998, Miller moved to L&R Racing as driver of the #18 Dana Corporation Dodge Ram. He fell to fifteenth in points, but took the #18 and Dana to Bobby Hamilton Racing for the 1999 season. Miller made nine races in 1999 for Hamilton when he resigned from the team to move back to the Busch Series, replacing Stanton Barrett in the #40 Channellock Chevy for Galaxy Motorsports. He had two top-ten finishes in six starts, but after two consecutive DNQ's, he was released.

More importantly, Butch Miller won the most prestigious stock car race in America - The Snowball Derby - in 1987.

Return to racing

After that season, Miller stayed out of driving until 2002, serving briefly as crew chief for Larry Foyt's ASA team, as well serving as a broadcaster for ASA races. He returned to the Truck Series at Daytona International Speedway, finishing seventeenth in the #61 Delco Remy/Team Rensi Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado. A few weeks later, he returned to Henderson and the Busch Series and made ten starts, his best finish being a fifteenth. After another year out of the series, he returned to drive a pair of Truck races in the #20 Timber Wolf for Ken Weaver and #08 ASI Limited for Gene Christensen, respectively. The following season, he drove in three races for Green Light Racing, and had a tenth-place finish at Mansfield Motorsports Park. He ran another pair of races for Green Light in 2006, but could not finish higher than 26th. After another season off, he drove in nine races for Green Light in the #0/#07 Silverado for SS-Green Light, but did not finish a race. Miller drove for SS-Green Light on and off between 2009–2011, but primarily served under the role of crew chief to the multitude of young drivers piloting the #07

Career results

* Season in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

NASCAR Nationwide Series

Camping World Truck Series

References

External links

• Butch Miller driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Butch Miller crew chief statistics at Racing-Reference