Drivers join list of wins matched to car numerals

With Jimmie Johnson winning his 48th Cup race while driving the No. 48 car at California on Sunday, it begs the question: How many other drivers have accomplished a similar feat? Well, it's not as rare as you might think, since Jamie McMurray did the same thing one week earlier by winning the Daytona 500 -- his first race in the No. 1.

In addition, he joins Hendrick teammates Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on that list.

Not surprisingly, it's pretty common for drivers who climb behind the wheel of most of the single-digit car numerals. However, the feat gets much more impressive -- and more difficult -- as the numbers grow larger. In fact, Johnson's No. 48 replaces Richard Petty's No. 43 as the largest numeral with an equal or greater amount of victories by one driver, since Petty drove the No. 43 to 192 of his 200 wins.

The odds are much longer for Junior to repeat the feat with the No. 88, or for Carl Edwards to rack up 99 career victories down the road. Of course, that's better than driving the No. 300 or No. 500, both of which won races before NASCAR settled on car numbers with a maximum of two digits.

Since one win is greater than all numerals that start with a zero, those drivers who have won automatically qualify for the club. That includes two winners in the No. 0 -- Jim Cook and Darel Dieringer -- plus the No. 00 (David Reutimann), No. 01 (Joe Nemechek), No. 06 (Cale Yarborough), No. 07 (Clint Bowyer) and No. 09 (Brad Keselowski).

McMurray joins eight other drivers to have scored at least one win in the No. 1. They include Lloyd Dane, Eddie Gray, Billy Wade (who won four times), Paul Lewis, Donnie Allison (another four-time winner), David Pearson, two-time winner Steve Park and Martin Truex Jr.

Six drivers can claim having won two or more races in the No. 2. Bill Blair was the first to accomplish the feat, followed by Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Tim Richmond, Rusty Wallace and Kurt Busch. Dick Rathmann, Paul Goldsmith, Pearson, Junior Johnson and Earnhardt have three or more victories while driving cars with No. 3 on the roof.

Rex White, Ernie Irvan and Sterling Marlin represent four-time winners in the No. 4, while Geoff Bodine, Terry Labonte and Mark Martin (who did it all in one season last year) have won at least five times in the No. 5.

Marshall Teague, Cotton Owens, Pearson and Martin have driven the No. 6 to Victory Lane a half-dozen times each, while Jim Reed is the only driver who can claim at least seven wins in the No. 7.

Joe Weatherly and Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualify in the No. 8, followed by Bill Elliott and Kasey Kahne in the No. 9. Despite having been used in nearly 1,100 races, the No. 10 has only won 10 times, and so no driver makes the list.

However, the No. 11 more than makes up for that, as Johnson, Ned Jarrett, Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip have won at least 11 races while driving cars with that numeral. In case you're wondering, Denny Hamlin is three wins shy of joining that group.

The No. 12 is represented by Bobby Allison and Ryan Newman, while Fonty Flock scored exactly 14 wins while driving the No. 14. Allison nearly added his name with the No. 15, but ended up with 14 career victories in cars with that numeral.

Greg Biffle could soon join the list, as he has 14 wins in the No. 16. But Roush Fenway teammate Matt Kenseth is already there in the No. 17, along with Pearson. Waltrip just missed, having won 15 times with No. 17 on the door.

A pair of former Joe Gibbs teammates are also on the list. Bobby Labonte's 21 victories in the No. 18 qualify him, as well as the 33 wins scored by Tony Stewart in the No. 20.

The list of drivers to pilot the famous No. 21 for the Wood Brothers is a veritable who's who of the sport, but Pearson's the only one to win 21 or more races with them. Pearson is the king of "wins vs. numerals," having accomplished it with five different numerals. No other driver has more than two.

Fireball Roberts won 33 races, and 30 of them came in a car with No. 22 on the roof. Gordon has piled up 82 victories, all of them in the No. 24. And last but certainly not least, the father-son tandem of Lee and Richard Petty easily won more than 42 and 43 races, respectively.

Fred Lorenzen nearly added his name to the list with 25 wins in the No. 28. And Ricky Rudd merits special recognition for narrowly missing the list several times. He won twice in the No. 3, four times in the No. 5, and six times each in the No. 10 and 15 cars.