are part of the identity of both cars, and pilots. As assigned? What are the most famous? All about the numbers of NASCAR.
The number of points a driver can win a title, the number of team members allowed behind the wall, the number of seconds a car is on pit road.
spin numbers to racing, but the number that everyone knows - that unites the prospect with a driver - is the number in the car.
Since NASCAR began in 1948, the numbers assigned to the drivers and team owners have always been unique, individual stories behind each of them. As a kind of fingerprint, the numbers keep their own history.
For example, the story behind No. 8 will be told for years. Apparently the biggest story in racing history happened last year when Dale Earnhardt Jr. told he would not take the No. 8 Dale Earnhardt Inc. with him at his new job at Hendrick Motorsports.
For Earnhardt, the No. 8 had sentimental value. That was the number his father and his grandfather used when they began their careers in motorsports.
The fans were on the edge of their seats waiting to see what would happen to the popular number or whether or not Earnhardt retain fingerprint in NASCAR.
No such luck, but found another, still attached to tradition, when Robert Yates Racing struck a deal with Rick Hendrick for the No. 88. NASCAR
usually not involved in arrangements that have to do when a team wants another number, but it allows the brackets to keep their numbers from previous years. And sometimes, if a team wants the number of another, NASCAR allowed the arrangement between them.
But at the end of the day, NASCAR owns the numbers of teams.
"People value very much like a number and it all depends on what your situation. Always seemed to work well," said Jim Hunter, vice president of communications for NASCAR.
That was the fate of No. 8, but what about the origins of the dozens other numbers circling the track.
Well, some numbers naturally progressed from 01 to 99 provided by NASCAR. Others requested special numbers for sentimental value or some simply refused to deliver the number with which they arrived.
According to NASCAR historian Buzz McKim, many of the early numbers were brought by NASCAR drivers competing in different categories prior to NASCAR, before this was founded in 1948.
Red Byron, who won the first NASCAR race, controlled by the February 15, 1949 in Daytona Beach circuit, carrying with him the No. 22.
Examples like this abound in the category, but as it appeared the fewest victories in the history is especially interesting. But first, one must know the story behind the numbers that preceded the famous 43, which achieved 200 victories.
The number 42, driven by Lee Petty in 1949 and early 60s, began a string of numbers 42 to 45, that will mark forever the legacy of Petty Enterprises.
When Lee Petty ran his first race, drivers raced with cars driving to the track, then Plymouth. Were cars line up with tuition, which gave rise to the number of Petty.
The car registration beginning with 4 and ended with a 2. Thus was born the No. 42, a number that would win 54 races.
And at No. 43 more than doubled that figure with his son, Richard Petty.
In 1959 Petty drove the No. 43 for the first time at Daytona and he won on 192 occasions, six were with No. 41 and two with the No. 42 according to the team representative David Hovis.
The No. 43, now driven by Bobby Labonte for Petty Enterprises, will always be a part of Richard Petty, as his cowboy hat and sunglasses.
"Winning is the largest number in the history of NASCAR and always will be Petty Enterprises Richard Petty said. "We have used between numbers 42 and 45, but more than anything, that represents the fact that the races are a family business for Petty. We have four generations of NASCAR drivers in the family. From father to son have continued that progression of numbers.
Then why his son Kyle did not take the famous No. 43 of his father?
When Richard Petty stopped running in 1992, Kyle Petty was running for another team. Petty Enterprises not even used the No. 43 in 1993. So the team chose the number again in 1994 to John Andretti and Wally Dallenbach. Then Bobby Hamilton took the win in a couple opportunities in '96 and '97. When Kyle returned to Petty Enterprises jumped to No. 44 and continued progression, now continued to include the current No. 45, as Hovis. Other competitors colleagues
Richard Petty took their numbers in a more picturesque. In 1966, Buddy Baker drove the No. 00 Dodge sponsored by a politician named Hooker, who was running for governor in Tennessee. The "00" was part of "Hooker" that decorated the sides of the car.
Oil companies have had their numbers as symbols.
Sunoco sponsored the No. 94 Cup team of Billy Hagan, as it was a fuel octane Sunoco; entre1989 and 1992 with Sterling Marlin and Terry Labonte behind the wheel. 66 Phillips Petroleum Co. sponsored the team of Cale Yarborough from 1990 to 1992 using the No. 66.
makers of the popular card game "UNO" sponsored by Team Hoss Ellington in the early 80s using the number 1.
When 7-11 stores sponsored Kyle Petty in the order of the Wood Brothers team from 1983-86, broke the tradition and used the number 7 instead of No. 21.
The No. 3 will be linked forever with Dale Earnhardt.Muchas times the original number of the car was linked to the main sponsor of the car.
was not the case of No. 3, NASCAR's most famous number.
Some say the owner Richard Childress, who paid annually to the category to maintain its rights on the issue, chose the No. 3 because it was easier to paint on the car. In the late '70s, cars were not very successful adhesive decorations.
But McKim said that Childress admired the legendary driver Junior Johnson, who raced with that number at the beginning of the 60s.
"He asked NASCAR if that number is available, we wanted" said McKim.
Childress ran with the No. 3 of 1976 to 1981, Earnhardt used it in the last 10 in 1981 while Ricky Rudd raced for RCR between 1982 and 1983. Earnhardt returned to the car in 1984 until 2001. He was killed in an accident at the Daytona 500 that year.
That was the last time the infamous No. 3 ran on the track and will surely be remembered that way. Earnhardt won six of his seven championships driving the No. 3 Chevrolet for RCR, immortalizing that number in the hearts of fans forever.
To date, fans put three fingers in the air in the Daytona 500 in a tribute, showing the importance of numbers in NASCAR.
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