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.

Of course, the numbers always connect as journeyman Joe Nemechek celebrated victory in 2003 in his year-and-a-half stint driving, you guessed it, Hendrick's 25 car.

So in 2008, Mears will celebrate by doing what he's done best and without argument -- move on, this time to Hendrick's No. 5 with Kellogg's and Carquest providing the dollars.

It's no secret that sponsorship dollars lie in the $20 million range, and the trend -- as embraced by Hendrick and most notably Roush Fenway Racing -- has been to secure multiple companies to pay for a season's worth of signage. That's fine for teams. What about fans?

Dale Jr. to No. 88

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What does one wear if Greg Biffle is his favorite driver?

Will Matt Kenseth be in his bumble bee colors as usual this week, or will it be red, white and blue of USG, or red and white of Arby's, or green of R&L Carriers?

Wonder what the DuPont folks thought about all those late-night pics of Jeff Gordon at Richmond with his non-smoking garb on rather than his colorful paint threads?

And then there's Mears, who in addition to sponsor and number, will be handed the task of becoming favorable with a new crew chief. Alan Gustafson becomes the seventh crew chief to work with Mears in his five-year Cup career and third in his year-long stint at Hendrick. Lance McGrew inherited Mears, but mere weeks before the 2007 Daytona 500, Darian Grubb was promoted to the role. Now Grubb will help oversee Earnhardt's outfit.

Prior to joining Hendrick, Mears worked with Jimmy Elledge in the No. 41 car and Donnie Wingo in the No. 42.

Seven crew chiefs, five sponsors (including the would-be created car at Ganassi) and four car numbers all in four years -- it's silly to question why Mears hasn't quite gotten settled in for the long haul in Cup. He's got no identity.

"I think there is a lot in the number," Rusty Wallace said recently in an interview with NASCAR.COM (read more).

"You do get affiliated with a number," Elliott Sadler said, "and you kind of feel like it's yours."

Perhaps those Mears fans out there are fueling the financial fire of his teams, gobbling up all that merchandise up year after year, only to spend the same cheese on the same product with a different color the next season. It happened with Kurt Busch. It happened with Martin. It's surely happening with Junior.

Apples to oranges? Granted, that brief list is of apples is a recent Cup champion, NASCAR's most respected driver and the sport's most popular driver in its near 60-year history. And the orange is a pedigree who has yet to fully prove himself in stock-car racing's demanding deliver-now-or-leave-quietly environment. Then again, Mears has never quite had a home to call his. At least not with a permanent nametag.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.