And on Feb. A snowstorm swept across much of the East Coast. Many more families would be staying home this Sunday. Watching television. What they and the , fans at Daytona International Speedway saw was Richard Petty, driving against doctor's orders because he was recuperating from an operation for a stomach ulcer, chalk up the sixth of his seven Daytona victories. Petty took the lead on the final lap after Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough, their Oldsmobile Cutlasses running for the last 10 laps, engaged in a backstretch fender-bender, then Yarborough and Bobby Allison, Donnie's brother, engaged in a post-race fight.
Before carburetor restrictor plates at superspeedways harnessed the thrust of the cars, the best place to be on the last lap was second place. A skilled driver could use the draft created by the lead car to "slingshot" into the lead, tucking up close and then passing the front-runner on the inside.
Donnie Allison knew it was coming, and when Yarborough tried it, Allison closed down the inside line. The cars slammed into each other side by side. Yarborough wound up on the infield grass and, trying to recover, turned into Allison's left side. Both cars spun up the degree-banked track, into the outer wall, then back down onto the grass, a mile from the checkered flag.
Yarborough had a different take, accusing the Allisons of collusion to keep him from winning. But the number is perhaps best known not as a car number, but for its historical significance.
Jimmie Johnson, who drives the No. After his record-setting performance, Johnson became known as "Five-Time. David Pearson even won races in the No. But once again, Jimmie Johnson has overshadowed the significance of the number, winning his sixth Sprint Cup championship this season. Johnson became one of only three drivers to win six championships and is now just one away from matching legends Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.
Since no one had ever won more than three Cup titles, many thought Petty's record might never be broken. And then along came Dale Earnhardt, who won seven Cup titles from Their seven championships have been one of the most sacred records in the sport, but Jimmie Johnson is close to matching it after winning his sixth title in But it was Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt took over the No. From , the No. Earnhardt left DEI and the No. But the No. NASCAR's top female star struggled in her rookie season, but made history at Daytona when she won the pole and finished eighth in the Daytona Even if Patrick continues to struggle, her green GoDaddy machine will continue to be one of the most recognizable and most followed cars on the track.
Cale Yarborough dominated the mids, winning three straight championships from in Junior Johnson's No. Darrell Waltrip replaced him and won championships for Johnson in and ' The car number has been popular and successful from the early days of the sport, with drivers like Fireball Roberts, Ned Jarrett and even Johnson winning races with it.
In , NASCAR expanded the field to 12 drivers and then tweaked the system again in with the final two drivers making it through wild cards based on race wins. But in , the Chase featured a bizarre twist. After a cheating scandal at Richmond during which Michael Waltrip Racing and perhaps other teams tried to manipulate the finish of the final regular-season race, NASCAR made the unprecedented move of adding a 13th driver to the Chase. Jeff Gordon, who might have earned one of the two wild cards had MWR and others not tried to manipulate the Richmond race, was awarded an extra spot in the Chase.
But Darrell Waltrip made the car famous when he drove the Tide-sponsored No. Ryan Blaney's triumph in the debut for the Charlotte Motor Speedway road-course layout was the first win by the No. Master mechanic Smokey Yunick scoffed at the bad-luck number with a series of sinister, black-and-gold No.
Until recently, team owners shied away from No. Without a clear front-runner for a lightly used number, the edge goes to Yunick -- we get he's not a driver -- over Casey Mears' longevity seven seasons and more than a third of the No. One came at Atlanta in ; the other fell in the Daytona the following year.
When he formed his own team in , Stewart opted to honor his hero, A. Foyt, with his choice of No. Notable: Amazingly, the No. Speedway to Tony Stewart's first as an owner-driver in at Pocono. None of A. Foyt's seven Cup Series victories came with the No. Few drivers spent more than three seasons with the No. Notable: Bobby Allison scored 14 wins with No. No other driver of the No. Buddy Baker has the most pole positions with the No. Included with that list were two dominant triumphs at Darlington Raceway.
Kenseth's stats are no slouch either, including the Cup championship and a pair of Daytona wins , with Roush Fenway Racing. He also has the most starts in the No. Honorable mentions: David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip. Notable: Only four drivers have won in the Cup Series with the No. Bobby Labonte is second-best, with all 21 of his Cup Series wins coming in the No. That victory came courtesy of California driver Marvin Burke on Oct.
It would be just over 41 years until the No. Premier-series starts for the number: 1, Premier-series wins for the number: 16 Analysis: Among the 25 most-used numbers in Cup Series history, the No. Carl Edwards' five victories made him our initial pick, but Martin Truex Jr. Notable: Henley Gray's association with the No. Smoke captured two championships and 33 wins with the number.
Matt Kenseth is a not-so-close second with 15 wins in a five-year span with No. Honorable mentions: Matt Kenseth, Clyde Lynn. Notable: Before Stewart's first Cup victory in the fall of , the No. But that lone win was a big one, with Marvin Panch stunning the Daytona field in a year-old Pontiac prepared by Smokey Yunick.
He recorded 43 of his wins in a seven-plus-year stretch, an even more impressive feat considering that the team ran only partial schedules during the s. Notable: Trevor Bayne's surprise win in the Daytona ended a nearly year drought for the No. The first Cup Series winner to carry No. Of his 33 career wins, 30 came with that car number, including the Daytona Allison and Logano each secured championships with the number. Logano has scored 24 of his 26 career wins with the No.
Frank Mundy enjoyed a brief window of success in stock-car racing's early days, driving Perry Smith's No. Honorable mentions: Jimmy Spencer. Notable: The last win for a No. Among his more noteworthy distinctions in the No.
Jimmy Spencer scored eight top-five finishes in starts with the No. Jeff Gordon is only one of two drivers to win with the No. It also elevated his car number to legendary status in stock-car racing history. Honorable mentions: Cecil Gordon, William Byron. Notable: Jeff Gordon's iconic number was actually an 11th-hour switch. According to his longtime crew chief Ray Evernham, Gordon's car was initially supposed to don No.
The closest he came to victory with the number was a second-place finish at Dover in , ending up seven laps down to race winner David Pearson. William Byron won in the regular-season finale at Daytona in , becoming just the second driver to carry the number to victory. Hendrick enjoyed eight more wins with No. Honorable mentions: Ken Schrader, Jabe Thomas.
Notable: All nine of Richmond's wins in car No. The number stayed in the family upon his retirement from driving with his son, Ronnie, wheeling No. No other driver has more than two wins with the number. Champion drag racer Kenny Bernstein fielded the No. The last driver to win with No. Wallace posted 18 of his 55 career wins and marched to the championship in the No. Junior Johnson is the only other driver to reach double digits in the No. Notable: Five of Wallace's 18 wins with the No.
International Raceway in Legendary car builder Banjo Matthews' No. Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, A. Fred Lorenzen's win tally in the No. That stretch included back-to-back Daytona wins in The first of his five premier-series wins was in a Holman-Moody-prepared No. With the sports world still staggered by the loss of Dale Earnhardt in , the No. His victory at Atlanta just three races after Earnhardt's passing provided a comforting moment that all of the garage needed.
Harvick's 23 wins with the number are the most all-time. The splendid Dick Hutcherson is next-closest with Honorable mentions: Dick Hutcherson, Nelson Stacy.
Nelson Stacy won just four times with No. Harvick has the most all-time starts with the No. The closer link and most extensive history with the car number, though, are Michael Waltrip's ties over a nine-season span Waltrip holds the most top fives and top 10s with the No.
Notable: Cale Yarborough made three starts with No. Waltrip's closest brush with victory in the No.
Plus, Burton has the most all-time starts with the number: from Mike Skinner holds the mark for most poles with the No. Jeff Burton isn't the only keeper of the No. His brother, Ward, made 46 starts with No. The last of those wins was etched in dramatic, fender-scraping fashion by. Craven also is the only driver to win a pole position with the number, snagging three in a race span from Honorable mentions: Dick Brooks, Brownie King.
Notable: Dick Brooks held the No. Brooks holds the mark for most top finishes in the No. Hall of Famer Alan Kulwicki made his premier-series debut with No. Gant accounts for 18 of the 23 victories for the No. He also tops the No. Honorable mentions: Clint Bowyer, Ken Schrader.
Notable: Gant's first win in April at Martinsville broke a nearly year drought for the car number, dating back races to Lou Figaro's only Cup Series triumph. Gant finished second six times in the No. Besides Gant, Clint Bowyer is the only other driver with multiple wins with the No. Bowyer won three times -- including twice at Talladega -- during his three-season run with Richard Childress Racing The lone African-American driver to win a premier-series race faithfully flew the number for of his Cup Series starts from That included his only triumph, posted in December at Jacksonville, Florida.
Honorable mentions: Jim Roper, David Ragan. Roper was declared the winner after Glenn Dunaway's first-finishing Ford was disqualified. After Scott's historic win, it was plus years until the No.
The most recent No. Scott holds the most top-five and top finishes with the car number. That brief stint with Hendrick Motorsports, however, produced six top-five finishes, more than the No. Parsons also placed the No. Honorable mentions: Alan Kulwicki. Notable: The only premier-series pole position by the No. Parsons finished second three times in an effort to help the No. His most prominent runner-up result came in the Daytona That's where Ernie Irvan's mark of three pole positions in nearly two seasons with the No.
The eye-catching Skittles paint scheme on those MB2 Motorsports entries also helped to cement part of that legacy at the end of Irvan's career. Bailey, Ken Schrader. Notable: Tommy Irwin came closest to notching a victory with the No.
Irwin also claimed two poles with the number. Larry Thomas holds the most top finishes with the No. Thomas, 29, lost his life in a highway crash in January on his way to a Goodyear tire test in Atlanta.
The number does not have a rich history, but Andretti contributed one of its two poles, starting first in the Southern at Darlington. Honorable mentions: Tiny Lund, Chris Buescher. Notable: Bobby Isaac gathered the lone victory on the No. That triumph -- posted at Columbia S. Speedway in -- was the second of his 37 Cup Series victories.
No driver has posted more than three top-five finishes with the No. But Elliott Sadler's two wins combine with longevity to form a stronger bond. Sadler drove Robert Yates Racing's No. Notable: The most recent win for the No. David Gilliland holds the all-time mark for most starts with the No. His father, Butch, also used the No.
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