Car Number Histories: No. 44

ATLANTA -- The No. 44 has fallen upon hard times recently, but during the 1980s, it was solid as ice.

Terry Labonte won seven times in the No. 44, including twice during his NASCAR championship season in 1984. He had a string of seven consecutive top-10 seasons, starting in 1979.

But the history of the No. 44 goes all the way back to NASCAR's first season. In 1949, Bill Blair was fifth on the Daytona beach course in a Lincoln and Frank Mundy piloted the No. 44 Cadillac to a fourth at Langhorne.

A year later, Mundy and Gayle Warren shared driving duties, with Warren winding up fifth at North Wilkesboro.

Jack Smith drove a No. 44 and No. 44X Hudson during the 1951 season, while Ray Duhigg took over the number for the next two years in a car owned by Julian Petty, Lee's brother and Richard's uncle.

Petty then fielded No. 44 Chevrolets for a number of drivers over the next few years, including the legendary Curtis Turner, Bob Welborn, Marvin Panch, Junior Johnson and Jim Paschal. Johnson was second at Greensville and Paschal third at Martinsville during the 1955 campaign.

In 1957, West Coast driver Lloyd Dane won at Eureka. He would drive the No. 44 for five seasons, culminating in a victory at Riverside in 1961. At the same time, Rex White, Frankie Schneider and Welborn split duties back east, with a pair of wins in 1958.

Paschal drove a Petty Pontiac to victory in Nashville in 1961 and Welborn returned to the No. 44 in 1962 with a 10th in the Daytona 500.

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Then after Tommy Irwin drove a No. 44 Ford for one season, Larry Hess took over the numeral in 1965. He finished seventh in the 1965 Firecracker 400 in a Ford, then switched to Ramblers by 1966, running only 15 races over a three-year span.

Dub Simpson, Dick Gulstrand and open-wheel star Larry Dickson all made single appearances in the car, in addition to David Pearson -- who finished second at Hickory -- and Red Farmer.

By the mid-'70s, such forgettable names as Richard Brown, Gary Johnson and Robin Schildnecht drove the No. 44 without success.

Then Labonte burst upon the scene, with his -- and the No. 44's -- last victory coming in 1986.

Sterling Marlin drove the No. 44 for three years, starting in 1987. Then the numeral once again fell on hard times.

Jim Sauter, Jack Sellers, Jimmy Horton, Irv Hoerr, Jeff Davis and Jimmy Hensley all gave the No. 44 a shot, as did Bobby Labonte, Kenny Wallace and Jeff Purvis.

In 1993, Petty Enterprises brought out the No. 44 for Rick Wilson, who finished 28th in the standings with one top-10 finish in 29 starts.

Four years later, Kyle Petty climbed into the driver's seat and found limited success for the next four years: two top-five finishes in 1997.

Since then, Steve Grissom, Buckshot Jones, Jerry Nadeau, Ted Musgrave, Christian Fittipaldi and Greg Biffle have all piloted the No. 44.