Car Number Histories: No. 5

ATLANTA -- The No. 5 has two divergent histories, one of constant change and the other of steady success.

In the last 20 years, just five drivers have slipped behind the steering wheel of the No. 5 -- and two of those were injury substitutes. Contrast that to the years before 1984, when the numeral was bounced from driver to driver.

Three drivers shared the numeral in 1949. Frank Mundy's Oldsmobile was third at Daytona's beach course, Ray Erickson's Mercury was second at Hamburg and Felix Wilkes' Lincoln finished 24th at Hillsboro.

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Cotton Owens finished 14th in a Plymouth at Daytona in 1950.

Gene Darragh took over the No. 5 for two seasons in 1951, mainly running Darlington. He was 51st in the 1951 Southern 500, 62nd in the Labor Day classic the following year.

Jimmie Lewallen made 10 starts in the numeral in 1954, with a pair of seconds at Spartanburg and Weaverville. Chuck Meekins ran the No. 5 at Gardena, finishing 28th.

Lewallen returned for eight more races in 1955, running fifth at Hickory and High Point. Ralph Liguori was eighth at Raleigh while Dick Rathmann finished 24th at San Mateo.

Pee Wee Jones wound up 64th in the 1956 Southern 500.

Bill Champion, Jim Blomgren and Darel Dieringer shared the numeral in 1957. Dieringer was eighth at Hickory in five starts while Champion's best was 22nd at Langhorne in a pair of appearances. Running races out west, Blomgren was fifth at San Jose in three events.

Owens came back to finish 43rd in the 1958 Southern 500.

Tiny Lund's Chevrolet made 18 starts in 1959, with a best of second at Charlotte and Columbia. He returned in 1960 to finish 21st at Columbia.

Owens and Blomgren also drove the No. 5 in 1960: Owens winning at Spartanburg and Blomgren finishing eighth at Phoenix and Sacramento.

Owens drove his No. 5 Pontiac to another victory in 1961, winning at Spartanburg and finishing second at Weaverville. Woodie Wilson was 14th at Charlotte, while Ralph Earnhardt was 35th at Atlanta.

H.G. Rosier acquired the numeral beginning in 1962 and drove six races over the next two seasons. His best finish was fourth at Augusta in 1963.

Billy Wade took over the No. 5 for the remainder of the 1964 season, running 28 races. He had 14 top-10s, including second at Nashville. He returned in 1964 with a third at Augusta in two starts before switching to the No. 1.

When Wade left, an assortment of drivers took over for the rest of the season: Jim Paschal finished fifth in the 1964 Daytona 500, while Cotton Owens won at Richmond and was second at Hillsboro. In addition, Earl Balmer was fourth at Nashville, Lund was seventh at Hickory and Bobby Isaac second at Augusta.

Gene Davis ran fifth at Riverside in his only 1965 appearance. Mario Andretti was 31st in a Dodge at the 1966 Daytona 500, while Butch Hartman finished 14th at Charlotte that same season.

	Terry Labonte celebrates his 2003 Southern 500 victory at Darlington. Credit: Autostock

Hartman returned in 1968 for two more races, including a 10th at Atlanta. Earl Brooks ran eighth at Hillsboro in nine races that season, then was 12th at Montgomery in two more 1969 appearances.

Buddy Arrington ran the No. 5 19 times in 1970, including a sixth at Darlington. He was one of three drivers to run cars bearing the numeral in 1971. Jim Vandiver ran a Plymouth at Charlotte and Doc Faustina was 18th at Talladega.

Faustina ran five races in 1972, with a best of 20th at Michigan. Dick Simon then ran three races over a two-year span, starting in 1973. His best finish was a seventh at Talladega that year.

Over the next three seasons, Neil Castles, Faustina, Jim Thirkettle, Jimmy Means, Bruce Blodgett and James Hylton all steered the No. 5 without cracking the top 10. But in 1977, Neil Bonnett began the first of three seasons with the numeral.

Bonnett won at Richmond and Ontario, and also collected three poles in 12 starts in 1977. He ran the full schedule in 1978, parlaying 12 top-10 finishes into 12th overall.

Bonnett started the first three races of 1978, then moved to the No. 21.

Sterling Marlin, Clay Young and Joe Ruttman shared the No. 5 in 1980. Then Morgan Shepherd and Joe Millikan combined for 29 starts in 1981, with Shepherd visiting Victory Lane at Martinsville and winning a pole at Richmond.

Jim Sauter, Robin McCall and Rodney Combs added their names to the roster in 1982, while Greg Sacks ran five races in 1983.

Then in 1984, Geoffrey Bodine began a six-year association with the No. 5. He won at Martinsville, Nashville and Riverside, three of his 14 top-10s that season.

He went from ninth in 1984 to fifth in 1985 despite not winning a race, mainly because of 10 top-fives, including three second-place finishes. Bodine also won three poles that season.

Bodine captured the 1986 Daytona 500, won at Dover and collected eight poles, finishing eighth overall. Despite two poles and 10 top-10s, Bodine slipped to 13th in 1987.

However, he won at Pocono in 1988 and North Wilkesboro in 1989, capping a pair of top-10 finishes in the final standings before moving on to the No. 11 for 1990.

Ricky Rudd then took over the No. 5 starting in 1990 and had four consecutive seasons where he won a race and placed in the final top 10. He won at Watkins Glen in 1990 and added poles at Richmond and Sonoma.

In 1991, Rudd finished second in the standings to Dale Earnhardt, winning at Darlington and posting 17 top-10s.

He had 18 top-10s and a win at Dover in 1992, then won at Michigan in 1993, one of his 14 top-10s that season.

Rudd started his own team and used the No. 10 in 1994, so Terry Labonte switched over from the No. 14. Labonte won races at North Wilkesboro, Richmond and Phoenix in 1994, finishing seventh in the points.

He moved up one notch to sixth in 1995 with another three-win season, this time winning at Richmond, Pocono and Bristol.

In 1996, Labonte won twice -- at North Wilkesboro and Charlotte -- but parlayed 21 top-five finishes in 31 starts into his second NASCAR championship.

Labonte continued his top-10 points streak the next two seasons, winning at Talladega in 1997 and Richmond in 1998. He had a total of 35 top-10s during that span, including 13 in the top five.

He slipped to 12th in 1999, despite a victory at Texas and in The Winston, then had his consecutive races streak snapped at 655 when he was injured during the 2000 Pepsi 400 at Daytona.

Ron Hornaday and Todd Bodine filled in for Labonte that season, with Hornaday scoring a 15th at Watkins Glen and Bodine running 15th in the Brickyard 400.

Labonte struggled the next two seasons, posting seven top-10s in 72 races while slipping out of the top 20 for the first time in his career.

But he capped a rebound season in 2003 with a victory in the Southern 500, one of nine top-10 finishes, that left him 10th in the final standings.