In NASCAR, numbers often lot more than car's identity

CONCORD, N.C. -- Numbers in NASCAR are paramount -- the number of points a driver can win on the track, number of pit-crew members allowed over the wall, number of seconds a car is on pit road.

Numbers make the sport go round, but the number everyone knows -- the number that bonds a fan to a driver -- is the number on the car.

DEI's No. 8 will have a distinctively different look in '08.

Since the sport was founded in 1948, numbers assigned to drivers and car owners have always had unique, individual stories behind them. Like a fingerprint of sorts, the numbers maintain their own history.

And the story behind the No. 8 will be told for years. The biggest story likely in the sport's history came last season when Dale Earnhardt Jr. was told he would not be taking the No. 8 from Dale Earnhardt Inc. with him to his new job at Hendrick Motorsports.

For Earnhardt, the No. 8 had sentimental value. It was number both his father and grandfather used early in their racing careers.

Fans were on the edge of their seats waiting to see what would become of the popular number and whether or not Earnhardt would hold onto his NASCAR fingerprint.

No such luck, but he found another, still steeped in tradition, when Roberts Yates Racing arranged a deal with Rick Hendrick for the No. 88.

NASCAR typically doesn't get involved in deals arising when one team wants another number, but it does allow teams to have their numbers from the previous year. And on occasion, a team will request another team's number, and NASCAR will allow the teams to work it out.

But at the end of the day, NASCAR owns the team numbers.

"People have a lot of equity in a number, and it all depends on what their situation is. It always seems to work out," said Jim Hunter, vice president of communications for NASCAR.

That was the fate of the No. 8, but what about the foundation for dozens of other numbers flying around the track.

Well, some numbers naturally progressed from 01 to 99 handed out by NASCAR. Others requested particular numbers for sentimental value and some simply refused to give up the number with which they came.

According to NASCAR historian Buzz McKim, many of the first numbers in NASCAR were typically carried over from racecar drivers competing in different series pre-dating NASCAR, before the sport was sanctioned in 1948.

Red Bryon, who won the first NASCAR-sanctioned race on Feb. 15, 1948, at the Daytona Beach Road Course, brought with him the No. 22.

Examples such as these abound in the sport, but how the most victorious number in the sport came about is especially interesting. But first, you must know the story behind the number which preceded that famed number, 43, which amassed nearly 200 victories. (Continued)