Number a driver's identity but change is imminent

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- In NASCAR, it's all about the numbers.

Or is it?

With Dale Earnhardt Jr. just 13 races from giving up his signature No. 8 ride for a car number to be named later, much of the talk Friday around the Nextel Cup garage at Bristol Motor Speedway was about not what's in a name but what's in a number.

Junior out of the 8

DEI and Hendrick were unable to come to an agreement for the rights to the No. 8 meaning Dale Earnhardt Jr. will race in 2008 in a new number.

• Complete story, click here
• Junior: Teresa wants control

Answers to the question were varied.

After watching driver Kurt Busch motor the No. 2 Dodge of Penske Racing to victory last Tuesday in the rain-delayed 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Rusty Wallace, the legendary former driver of the No. 2, dropped a phone call to his successor.

"That looked like me out there driving the car," Busch said Wallace told him.

Wallace said he later took a phone call from team owner Roger Penske, pretty much saying the same thing.

That's good and bad. When Busch took over for the retiring Wallace after the 2006 season, he took some heat from fans loyal to Wallace who weren't necessarily Kurt Busch fans. Some of those fans are still hot over the switch in drivers, a point that Wallace confirmed Friday.

"I think there is a lot in the number. I think when people keep looking at that number, they keep thinking of Rusty Wallace in that particular number," Wallace said. "I almost wish Kurt and Roger would have stylized their own No. 2 and let it be their own identity -- because, yeah, unfortunately everyone keeps comparing Kurt to me.

"Looking back at it, if we ever made a strategic mistake, it was that we should have taken that stylized No. 2 and that would have been what Rusty ran forever -- and let Kurt have his own design. Just change the way it looked."

Wallace said that Fred Wagenhals, founder of Action Racing Collectibles, even suggested precisely that to give both the retiring Wallace and Busch their own identities in what, in fact, is the same racecar. Of course that should, in theory, have helped fuel separate sales of No. 2 die-cast cars and other racing souvenirs -- which really is what is at the heart of the matter when it comes to Earnhardt getting out of the No. 8.

Earnhardt said he had hoped to keep the No. 8 next season, despite making the switch from driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc. to Hendrick Motorsports. But last week negotiations between DEI and Hendrick over the No. 8 finally broke down for good, and it was announced DEI owner Teresa Earnhardt, the stepmother of Dale Jr., would retain the number.

Now it appears veteran Mark Martin, whose fans were so upset when he left the No. 6 he had driven for Roush Racing for years, is headed for the No. 8 next season. Sources say that DEI plans to run Martin and Cup rookie Aric Almirola in the car, splitting the 36-race schedule. (Continued)