Mears left searching for his identity after shuffle, again

Rusty Wallace fans, for the most part, place him with the No. 2. He made the No. 27 famous before that by winning a title. Of course, when he ran his first full season in 1984, it was in none other than the No. 88, perhaps the most sought-after numeral in racing as of Wednesday.

Of course, now Kurt Busch is driving Wallace's 2.

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Mark Martin was 6. Always would be. Well, almost. He began his career driving full time in the No. 02 in 1982 before switching to 6 when he got with Jack Roush. Now he's 01. And next year, he'll be 8. Today, David Ragan drives Martin's 6.

The 8 was Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s number. Always would be. Well, almost. It's a storyline that's been told in so many various ways that perhaps even the nightly news would tell you Junior was wronged by not being able to take the No. 8 with him from DEI to Hendrick. And on Wednesday, the numbers game came to a peak when Earnhardt and Rick Hendrick, cleverly playing fox and hound, admitted they took out patents and created decals of phony numbers just to throw the story-sniffers off. Whether that's true or not is debatable.

What isn't is the fact that the No. 25 is now the No. 88 in what could be termed the most anticipated numeral announcement in sports. At least recently. "I never thought a car number would create as much excitement as the car number did in this situation," Hendrick said from his table in Dallas.

So in a domino effect that's becoming more familiar in the sport, Martin and Aric Almirola go from No. 01 to 8. Earnhardt goes from No. 8 to 88. Ricky Rudd retires and Travis Kvapil takes over a car to be numbered later. J.J. Yeley goes from No. 18 to 96. Kyle Busch goes from No. 5 to 18. And once again Casey Mears quietly nods his head, will pack up all that gear he's collected since December and move from No. 25 to 5 (read more).

It's all a merry go 'round, one that nobody knows better now than Mears.

For the fourth consecutive year, Mears will be driving a different car -- new number, new sponsor. In his first three years at the Cup level, Mears drove the No. 41 car wearing Target colors. But in 2006, when Chip Ganassi moved Reed Sorenson up to the Cup level, he also moved Mears over to fill the void in the No. 42 Dodge vacated by Jamie McMurray.

Mears would be the new pilot of the famed Texaco-Havoline car -- but even that was a last-minute thing, as he was slated to drive a newly created entry that was set to be sponsored by Home123. The sponsor pulled out, McMurray left for Roush, and Mears grabbed a different steering wheel.

That is, until 2007, when Mears bolted for Hendrick Motorsports and the No. 25 seat.

At Hendrick, the 25 car had been driven by Brian Vickers and primarily sponsored by GMAC. But this year, National Guard came on board to skin Mears' Chevrolet. It's been the most successful season for Mears. He's got four top-fives (career-high) and ranks 15th in points (second-highest in his career). He also won his first Cup race, the Coca-Cola 600 -- a victory that, considering his journeyman-like career among cars, crews and colors, shines even brighter now.

One has to go back to 2003 to find a winning driver with such an inconsistent ride history. That season Robby Gordon won twice, but even he was in the second full season of three and a half years driving the No. 31 RCR car. Also winning that season was Ricky Craven, whose side-by-side battle with Kurt Busch proved to be historic as the most-recent victory by a single-car team. Even that was amid a four-year ride in the Tide 32.