NASCAR Car # Countdown to the 2008 Daytona 500

[James J.]

#71

Found at LivingLegendsOfAutoRacing.com


Found at HowStuffWorks.com

Car # 71 Stats
Races 1042
Wins 44
Top 5s 182
Top 10s 303

Spotlight: Sara Christian

Oh sure, there were many drivers who had far more starts with the #71 (such as Dave Marcis and Bobby Issac).  But as I said earlier in this thread.  I'm not always going to spotlight the person who may be the most recognized with the car number.  How about we mix it up a little and again show some diversity in NASCAR back before it was so politically correct.  You see, Sara Christian was the first woman driver in NASCAR.  And during the Daytona Beach Road Course in 1949, Sara was joined in the field by Ethel Mobley and Louise Smith to mark the first NASCAR race in which there were three women drivers!  No, no, no... Sara didn't have a long career as she only had 7 starts (six in 1949 and one in 1950).  But she did have one top five and one top ten in those seven career starts.  The one top five finish that she had is also the only top 5 finish by a woman in NASCAR history too!

[James J.]

#70

Found at a J.D. McDuffie memorial site

Car # 70 Stats
Races 729
Wins 0
Top 5s 14
Top 10s 118

Spotlight: J.D. McDuffie

This time we will focus on the person with the most history with the car number.  For car #70 that would be driver J.D. McDuffie.  Between 1966 and 1991 a car #70 ran 630 races.  Of those 630 races in that time frame, 625 of them were with J.D. behind the wheel.  With so many starts, you might would think ol' J.D. would have at least backed into a win at least once, but you'd be wrong.  Nor can he lay claim to being beat out in a photo finish 2nd place run.  Nope, J.D.'s best finish was a 3rd place. He had 12 top fives, and 103 top ten finishes with the #70 on his door.  His total career spanned 653 starts, he ranks #1 on the "All Time Never Had a Win Driver" with the most number of races ran. Truly a determined man who loved racing!

In 1991 NASCAR lost J.D. McDuffie at the age of 55 during a fatal accident at Watkins Glenn in 1991.  While entering turn 5 J.D.'s car lost a wheel and the car sped off course slamming into the retaining fence flipping it up into the air and down onto it's roof. The fatal accidnet led to a new bus stop chicane shortly before Turn 5 to slow down cars entering the turn.

Just the night before J.D. won a celebrity race at a track near Watkins Glenn.

ESPN Race Coverage of the accident.

[James J.]

#69

Found at Eagle Eye:  All American Drivers

Car # 69 Stats
Races 100
Wins 0
Top 5s 5
Top 10s 19

Spotlight: Lee Roy Yarbrough

On the list of car numbers with race starts, the #69 ranks next to last with the fewest starts.  I mean c'mon, that just blows! Considering all the men in the sport over the years it really surprises me the number isn't ran any more often than that.   Hmmmm...   Okay, okay.....  seriously now.  Let's see who likes 69 enough to stick it on their race car. {you in the back, put your hand down. This is not the time for audience participation.}.

First, let me start by clarifying that Lee Roy Yarbrough is not related to Cale Yarborough.  The spelling is not a typo.

Lee Roy only had two starts in a car #69.  He's probably most remembered for driving the #98 for Junior Johnson.  However, his 5th and 17th place finishes in car #69 gives us the opportunity to spotlight this driver in the Car # Countdown.

Lee Roy's NASCAR stats cover 198 races in which he took the checkers 14 times.  He finished in the top five 65 times, and in the top ten 92 times.  His career covered 1960-1972.   Born and raised in north Florida's Jacksonville, Lee Roy claimed that he wanted to be a race car driver since the age of twelve.  In the early part of his career he would skip from car to car, owner to owner until eventually working with such well known car owners as Bud Moore and Junior Johnson.

1969 was a great year for Yarbrough and the Junior Johnson team.  He won such iconic races as the Daytona 500, Darlington's Rebel 400, the big Charlotte World 600, the 400 mile race again at Daytona.  But he didn't stop there.  In all that year, Yarbrough won seven races including the southern 500 and at Rockingham he came from one lap down to end up winning the race by a full lap!

After the phenomenal 1969 season Yarbrough's success quickly faded over the next three years.  It was reported that he was often treated in the hospital with memory lapse.  After making one final attempt to race, he dropped out of the NASCAR scene only to be occasionally mentioned as being back in a hospital for the treatment of memory lapses and violent behavior.  The violent behavior reached such an elevated degree that he nearly choked his own mother in 1980.  After being committed to a mental hospital by a judge, Yarbrough died in 1984 after a blow to the head occurred during a seizure.

For more on Lee Roy Yarbrough, check out Vito's article right here on the Frontstretch.com

[James J.]

#68

Found at ThunderPlex.com

Car # 68 Stats
Races 403
Wins 0
Top 5s 10
Top 10s 56

Spotlight: Bobby Hamilton Sr.

Oddly enough, Bobby Hamilton drove a car #68 a total of..... sixty-eight times. During those sixty-eight races he failed to score neither a win nor a top five, but did have six top tens.  However, Bobby scored four wins in Cup competition during his career which spanned over 15 years and 371 total races.

Of those four wins, two were quite memorable due to their relation or association to both of NASCAR's 7 time cup champions Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.  You see, Richard Petty's #43 won it's last race in 1984 with Richard at the wheel.  It would be twelve long years until Bobby Hamilton would drive the #43 into victory lane in Phoenix in 1986.  Then, in the aftermath of loosing Dale Earnhardt in the Daytona 500 earlier in the 2001 season Bobby Hamilton would drive the #55 car for Andy Petree to the checkers at the Talladega 500.  This was significant because for two main reasons.  One being that everyone's hearts and minds were on Dale Earnhardt and his death at Daytona, and now the series was racing at another of Earnhardt's "playgrounds."  And second, because of it being Talladega there's usually the "Big One" and combined with loosing Dale, a lot of attention was on this race.  The race was ran the entire 500 miles without one single caution!

In January of 2007 Bobby Hamilton passed away due to neck cancer that he was diagnosed with in early 2006.  Bobby Hamilton's son, Bobby Hamilton Jr., is current racing in the Nationwide Series.

Bobby Hamilton was the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series Champion and the 1991 NASCAr Rookie of the Year.

Interview with Bobby discussing his cancer
Slide show and video tribute to Bobby Hamilton

[James J.]

#67

Found at Wikimedia

Car # 67 Stats
Races 636
Wins 0
Top 5s 23
Top 10s 113

Spotlight: Buddy Arrington

Buddy Arrington raced the #67 a whopping 482 races in a career that spanned from 1965 to 1988.  During that time he recorded zero wins, 11 top fives, and 85 top tens.  If you've been reading along in this thread then you may remember that J.D. McDuffie held the number one spot for "All Time Never Had a Win" stats with 653 races.  Well ladies and gentlemen, meet the 2nd guy on that list.  A 563 race career with no wins puts him safely in second place in that category.

Buddy was an independent on the Cup circuit, meaning he didn't receive factory support.  But if decided to change his last name to Mopar nobody would have been surprised.  He was arguably the most loyal driver for Mopar/Chrysler ever!  His crew were most always unpaid volunteers.  His cars and equipment were often hand-me-downs from the Petty's.  His equipment was often used and pieced together... and NASCAR didn't cut him any slack.  This was a time when Chrysler was going through bankruptcy so he wasn't getting any support from them either.  The Chrysler cars at the time used leaf springs, and because of that NASCAR would not allow him to install a spring suspension setup even though there was nobody making chasis with leaf springs.  Still, Buddy remained loyal to the Mopar brand and just kept repairing old parts.  And it wasn't just under the fenders that needed help.  Buddy was picking up engine blocks from the salvage yards to build his race car's engines! 
Still, Buddy Mopar Arrington remained loyal to the Mopar brand.

For more information on Buddy Arrington and images of him and his cars, check out MoparStyle.net

You can also check out Vito's article here on the Frontstretch.com

I don't remember Buddy Arrington, but here is A Bone Headed Move by Buddy Arrington in the 1986 Miller 500 at Pocono

[SMOKEN14]

Thanks Sunlist I Really Enjoy reading the History of these car numbers

[HUDSON HORNET]

DITTO what SMOKEN20 said.

And I'd like to add, this is MORE fun than a human being should be allowed to have.

Uhhhhh, any chance y'all could work a WINSTON GIRL in there ---- SOMEwhere?
I sure do miss their smiles.     

Thanx Man!

[James J.]

#66

Found at Nashville420.com

Car # 66 Stats
Races 544
Wins 1
Top 5s 11
Top 10s 58

Spotlight: Phil Parsons

Phil Parsons, younger sibling of Benny Parsons, had 56 starts in a #66 car, and 202 starts in his Cup series career.  In his 13 year cup career he had only one win, but it was not in a car #66. It was in an Oldsmobile and the win came in 1988 at Talladega while driving for Leo and Richard Jackson (same team and owners, they changed to the #55 though). A very good amount of his racing days were with Skoal/Copenhagen sponsoring his car.  He finished second to Rusty Wallace in the 1984 Rookie of the Year standings.  His Cup series career in the 1990s was full of one or part season runs with several different teams owners.  After returning to the Busch series in the mid '90's he eventually followed in his brother's footsteps and traded in the steering wheel for a microphone.  He's now working for SPEED calling truck races for the broadcast.

On a personal note, I always thought the Skoal and Copenhagen cars were some of the best looking on the track over the years. 

[James J.]

#65

Found at NASCAR.com

Car # 65 Stats
Races 94
Wins 0
Top 5s 1
Top 10s 9

Spotlight: Charlie Glotzbach

We've reached the bottom of the barrel as far as car number starts.  There are no car numbers with a lower number of starts.  As one might expect, the other stats aren't that great either.  Zero wins, 1 top five, and 9 top tens for car #65.  So, if you're a driver and are looking for a number to write a  history for with your name  all over it, the #65 is your number!

I'll admit,  I was starting to get a little nervous on finding someone to spotlight.  I'd either find very little to no information on the possible subjects, or the information was.... well, boring.  However, I finally came across a driver who had only four starts in the  #65.  Driver Charlie Glotzbach's racing career in Cup spanned over 15 years, during which he collected 4 wins, 38 top fives, and 50 top tens.  Charlie put his name in the record books as the 1964 ARCA Rookie of the Year.  But that wouldn't be the only record he'd record.  There is another one that was established back in 1971 that has yet to be beat.  In 1977 Cale Yarborough came close to beating the record, but over the last 30 years no one has even come close!  Therefore, Charlie holds a 36 year record for the fastest Bristol race at 104.589mph (current race speed averages are in the 80-90mph range).  The 500 lap race was completed in 2 hours, 38 minutes and 12 seconds.  There were no cautions and Charlie's margin of victory was 3 laps over the second place car.  There were only 13 cars left running of the 30 that started the race.  In addition, this was the 22nd race ever held at Bristol and was the very first win for a Chevrolet at the Bristol track.  Chevys went on to win the next 6 races in a row at Bristol.

Charlie was the kind of driver to "go for it."  So much so he was often referred to as "Chargin' Charlie."

Watch Charlie loose it on the inside of King Richard Petty during the '92 Winston 500 at Talladega with the race called by Ned Jarrett and Benny Parsons.
I LOVE this "old" footage when the cars still looked pretty much like actual stock cars.

NASCAR.com did an article on Charlie back in 2001 HERE