Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Numbers Missing
5:14 AM | 
Posted by
Steve
OK. I'm weird. No question. When I can't sleep I don't count sheep.
I count cars.
I start with the first car number in the Sprint Cup Series and go forward until I drift off. With each number, I think about the driver, sponsor, car owner and anything else I can that is associated with each team. Usually I only make it through two or three cars before I fall asleep. This morning when I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, I began counting. And remembering. And counting. All the way from #00 David Reutimann to #99 Carl Edwards...and still no sleep. Sometimes nothing works.
In doing so I realized something about the 2011 Sprint Cup Season. Many of the most famous numbers in NASCAR history will not be on track this year. Here are a few:
#3 - For obvious reasons. The number has not been run since the untimely death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001. Hard to believe it has been 10 years.
#8 - Dale Earnhardt Jr. made this number famous from 1999 to 2007. His grandfather campaigned the same number. The merger of Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing two years ago saw the elimination of the number.
#10 - Controlled by a few different teams over the past 20 years, including owner/driver Ricky Rudd with the Tide sponsorship in the 1990's.
#12 - Made famous by Bobby Allison in the 1980's, the number has been successfully campaigned in recent years by Jeremy Mayfield and Ryan Newman.
#19 - Downsizing at Richard Petty Motorsports eliminated this number which Ray Evernham brought back to the sport in the 2000's.
#25 - Tim Richmond brought the number tremendous success in the 1980's. After his tragic death from AIDS, teams running the number mostly struggled as compared with the other cars at powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports.
#28 - This is the one I miss the most. Although campaigned by many famous drivers over NASCAR's history including Fred Lorenzen, Buddy Baker and Cale Yarborough, the driver most associated with the number in recent history is Davey Allison. Davey drove the #28 Texaco/Havoline sponsored Ford Thunderbird from 1987 until his death in 1993. He was and remains my favorite driver even though I can't follow him any more. I continued to follow Davey's former team, Robert Yates/Yates Racing until it folded in 2009.
These are a few of the numbers that will not be on the track in 2011. Hopefully at some point we will see some of them reappear in the future.
...and maybe I will be able to sleep tonight : )
I count cars.
I start with the first car number in the Sprint Cup Series and go forward until I drift off. With each number, I think about the driver, sponsor, car owner and anything else I can that is associated with each team. Usually I only make it through two or three cars before I fall asleep. This morning when I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, I began counting. And remembering. And counting. All the way from #00 David Reutimann to #99 Carl Edwards...and still no sleep. Sometimes nothing works.
In doing so I realized something about the 2011 Sprint Cup Season. Many of the most famous numbers in NASCAR history will not be on track this year. Here are a few:
#3 - For obvious reasons. The number has not been run since the untimely death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001. Hard to believe it has been 10 years.
#8 - Dale Earnhardt Jr. made this number famous from 1999 to 2007. His grandfather campaigned the same number. The merger of Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing two years ago saw the elimination of the number.
#10 - Controlled by a few different teams over the past 20 years, including owner/driver Ricky Rudd with the Tide sponsorship in the 1990's.
#12 - Made famous by Bobby Allison in the 1980's, the number has been successfully campaigned in recent years by Jeremy Mayfield and Ryan Newman.
#19 - Downsizing at Richard Petty Motorsports eliminated this number which Ray Evernham brought back to the sport in the 2000's.
#25 - Tim Richmond brought the number tremendous success in the 1980's. After his tragic death from AIDS, teams running the number mostly struggled as compared with the other cars at powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports.
#28 - This is the one I miss the most. Although campaigned by many famous drivers over NASCAR's history including Fred Lorenzen, Buddy Baker and Cale Yarborough, the driver most associated with the number in recent history is Davey Allison. Davey drove the #28 Texaco/Havoline sponsored Ford Thunderbird from 1987 until his death in 1993. He was and remains my favorite driver even though I can't follow him any more. I continued to follow Davey's former team, Robert Yates/Yates Racing until it folded in 2009.
These are a few of the numbers that will not be on the track in 2011. Hopefully at some point we will see some of them reappear in the future.
...and maybe I will be able to sleep tonight : )
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1 comments:
Yep, weird. Your head is a scary place. :) I love my little NASCAR savant.
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