Car Number Histories: No. 36

ATLANTA -- After 53 years, the No. 36 is still looking for a driver to drive it into Victory Lane.

Tommy Irwin has come the closest, finishing second at Columbia in 1959. Since then, top finishes have been few and far between.

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The No. 36 was around at the start, as both Jimmy Thompson and Archie Smith drove No. 36 Chryslers in 1949. Californian Danny Letner took the numeral for a four-race West Coast swing in 1951, finishing ninth at Gardena in a Hudson.

New Yorker Ken Johnson picked up a 14th-place finish at Rochester in 1956 and was third at Busti, N.Y., in 1958.

Tiny Lund tried out the No. 36 at North Wilkesboro later that year, then started the 1959 season by finishing seventh at Fayetteville.

Pete Kelly drove a No. 36 Chevrolet in the first Daytona 500 that year, ending up 52nd.

But it was Irwin who gave the numeral its first taste of success. Driving a Ford, Irwin rolled up 14 top-10 finishes -- including runner-up at Columbia -- and wound up 14th in the final standings.

He was even better the next year, putting together a string of 10 consecutive top-10 finishes, but only ran a total of 16 races, leaving him well back in the standings.

By 1961, Irwin ran the opener at Charlotte in the No. 36, then switched to the No. 2, leaving the seat for Brian Naylor at Daytona and Frank Secrist for three more starts, including a third-place run at Sacramento.

Larry Thomas started running a No. 36 Chevrolet later that season, posting a seventh at South Boston in 10 starts.

Thomas then competed full-time in either a Dodge or Plymouth for three consecutive years, winding up eighth in the standings in 1964. He was fourth twice in 37 races in 1962, had a third at Richmond in 1963 among his 27 starts and two thirds in a 32-race schedule in 1964.

But his promising career was cut short in January of 1965 when he was killed in a highway accident.

H.B. Bailey was the next to slip behind the No. 36's steering wheel in 1966. From then until 1993, Bailey ran selected races in his Pontiacs, usually at places like Daytona and Darlington.

He was 17th in the 1966 Southern 500, 18th in the 1968 Daytona 500, 10th in the 1969 Firecracker 400 and 11th at Texas World Speedway in 1973.

Don Tarr only drove the No. 36 one time, but his Plymouth was sixth in the 1970 Firecracker 400.

In 1971, Bailey put Frank Warren in the car for one race and he finished fifth at Houston.

Starting in 1976, Bobby Wawak drove 20 races over consecutive seasons, posting nine top-10 finishes, including a ninth at Ontario.

But until 1997, a small group of drivers made no more than a handful of starts in the No. 36: Ron Hutcherson, Bill Green, Marty Robbins, Dick May, Kenny Wallace and Butch Gilliland.

That year, Derrike Cope ran a 31-race schedule, including a fifth-place finish at Atlanta and 27th in the final standings.

In 1998, Ernie Irvan was let go from the No. 28 and found a home in the No. 36. He promptly posted 11 top-10s in just 30 races, placing him 19th in the final standings. But a pair of crashes late in the season forced him to sit out the final three races, with Ricky Craven taking over.

Irvan was off to a similar start the next season, with five top-10s in 22 races when he was injured during Busch Series practice at Michigan. Jerry Nadeau finished the season with 11 starts and Irvan was forced to retire from the sport.

Ken Schrader then drove the car for the next three seasons, earning seven top-10s in 106 races.

But the number went on hiatus at the end of 2002, when sponsorship dried up and ownership switched to car to No. 01.