Michael Annett

Michael Annett (born June 23, 1986) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports.

Annett's 2009 Nationwide car

2011 Nationwide car

Early career

Annett started racing at the age of 21 in the American Speed Association series. Annett has two career victories in the ARCA Racing Series. His first win came in the ARCA RE/MAX 250 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 5, 2007. Annett also won the Daytona ARCA 200 at Daytona International Speedway on February 9, 2008.

NASCAR

Camping World Truck Series

Along with a part-time ARCA schedule, Annett competed in a handful of Camping World Truck Series events in 2008. He made his NASCAR debut on June 20 at The Milwaukee Mile, and scored a best finish of 2nd at Kentucky Speedway.

Xfinity Series

Towards the end of 2008, Annett signed with Germain Racing to drive for the team in NASCAR's Nationwide Series. Annett made his debut in the final race of the 2008 season at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he crashed out and finished 36th.

For 2009, Annett ran for Rookie of the Year honors in the No. 15 Toyota Camry, with sponsorship from Pilot Travel Centers and HYPE Energy. He scored four top-tens en route to a tenth-place finish in points, but finished runner up to Justin Allgaier. Annett returned to Germain in 2010, but found less success than in 2009. He accumulated just two top-tens (at Nashville and Iowa) and only led seven laps, finishing 13th in the overall points standings.

Annett left Germain for Rusty Wallace Racing in 2011, driving the team's No. 62 Toyota Camry with Pilot Travel Centers (now Pilot Flying J) sponsoring. He achieved seven top-ten finished, placing him ninth overall in the final points standings. After the shutdown of RWR, Annett moved to Richard Petty Motorsports in 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Series season. He earned 6 top 5 and 17 top 10 to finish fifth in the championship.

The following season, Annett missed eight races due in a hard crash he suffered in the season-opening DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway, suffering what was initially reported as a bruised sternum. Further evaluation showed that Annett had dislocated and fractured his sternum, requiring surgery; Aric Almirola replaced Annett in the No. 43 for the Dollar General 200 at Phoenix International Raceway, with Reed Sorenson subbing after that. Annett backs in Charlotte in May, and recorded one top 5 and 4 top 10s, finishing fifteenth in the points standings.

On November 4, 2016, Annett announced he would be returning to the Nationwide Series – now known as the Xfinity Series – in 2017, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports on a full-time basis.

Sprint Cup Series

In November 2013, it was announced that Annett would be moving up to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the 2014 season, driving for Tommy Baldwin Racing in the No. 7 Chevrolet. It was a rough rookie season however and he had only four top 20 finishes en route to a 33rd-place points finish that year. Annett was replaced after the season by Alex Bowman.

Annett's No. 46 car prior to 2015 Toyota/Save Mart 350 qualifying

Annett announced on January 27 that he was switching teams and would be driving for HScott Motorsports, thus bringing HScott to a two-car team. He began the year by racing his way into the Daytona 500, finishing a career-best 13th. Annett failed to qualify the race at Atlanta thanks to controversy during qualifying, but Richard Childress Racing development driver Brian Scott gave Annett his spot in the race because Scott was running for Xfinity Series points while Annett was running for Cup Series points. The No. 33 was the same RCR car that Scott was supposed to drive, but used all HScott Motorsports personnel and ran under the Hillman-Circle Sport LLC banner.

Annett later failed to qualify again at Talladega in October. This time no one gave up their seat for Annett and he did not race. At the end of the 2015 season, Annett's average finish was worse with HScott Motorsports than it was with Baldwin despite running in a stabled team.

Annett returned to the team in 2016, joined by new teammate Clint Bowyer. Prior to the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, Annett was replaced by former teammate Justin Allgaier in the No. 46 as he had been suffering from flu-like symptoms. On November 1st, Annett announced that he would not return to HScott Motorsports in 2017.

Annett was born in Des Moines, Iowa. His father Harrold is the CEO of TMC Transportation, which has sponsored Michael's racing efforts. Annett played as defenseman for the Waterloo Black Hawks of the United States Hockey League prior to starting his racing career. In 2004, he was a member of the team that won Clark Cup, and he was named "Most Improved Player". His father used to own a dirt track team which fielded drivers including Sammy Swindell, before selling up prior to him starting his hockey career. At 5'10", and 180 lbs, he was considered too small to play at a higher level.

Legal issues

On February 6, 2011, Annett had rear-ended a car Sunday morning in Mooresville, North Carolina that was stopped at a red light. According to police reports Annett was seen eating mints when examined and had a registered BAC of 0.32, four times the legal limit in North Carolina. Annett subsequently resisted arrest as he did not want to be handcuffed. He also claimed that he had been texting, and thus could not stop in time to avoid an accident; a similar incident involving Annett had occurred in 2010. RWR said that they did not condone the incident and that Annett would be facing internal sanctions. NASCAR had also kept in contact with the local authorities as well as Rusty Wallace Racing. Annett issued a formal apology, and did not miss any races.

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Sprint Cup Series

Daytona 500

Xfinity Series

Camping World Truck Series

* Season still in progress
1 Ineligible for series points

ARCA Re/Max Series

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)