Number association..... The owner or the driver?

dpkimmel2001

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3..... What comes to mind, Earnhardt or Childress? 43....., Petty the driver or Petty the owner? 21..... Trevor Bayne or the Wood Brothers?

How do you associate the numbers? For me, I think driver first, owner second.

There's been a lot of talk recently about the number, especially with the fate of the #17 being unknown. We've seen the previous posts on how NASCAR control the number, etc..... How do you think they should be distributed? Do you think a number should be with a driver or an owner? Some drivers have been able to use the same number throughout their career. Would it be a good thing to allow a driver to lay claim to a given number as long as he/she remain active in the sport? I'm talking about even carrying it between the levels of Cup/Nationwide/Camping world. Sure, we're limited currently to 00-99. Why not 3 digits? Letters?

Way off base? Thoughts?
 
I always wanted to see the driver keep their number. But I understand the teams wanting to keep their identity too.
 
The 3 will always be Sr's number IMHO. But the number belongs to Childress as long as he pays the registration fee each year.
 
Interesting question. We all associate the driver to his number and when that changes, all hell breaks loose. Remember back when Jr. was going to change from the number 8 to what ever. Then he went to 88. The association also goes towards the major sponsor. When you think of Dupont, who do you think of? GM Goodwrench? Budweiser has been with so many different drivers that it would probably make a better sponsor for the series than for a driver. My friend has to purchase his two numbers from NASCAR each year and they are given first option.
 
There was a time when I felt that those sponsors were pretty much set in stone. Man I miss that. I hate the constant paint scheme changes and the like.
 
What about the 25, do we think Tim Richmond or Rick Hendrick, Schrader also had some success with that number, along with Vickers. Hendrick still owns that number. I wish KK drove the red 25, like Martin had in the All Star race last year, I do not like the Grey and Blue Farmer's insurance. I guess it all depends on number, 3 is definitely associated with Earnhardt, not to say Dillon can't have some success if given that number.
 
There are many ways to evaluate this question and much of one's opinion will be based upon what era the race fan is most associated with.

I associate the 11 with Junior Johnson as owner.
The 21 is The Wood Bros - and always should be, no matter who drives the car.
Naturally the 3 and Dale are connected but young Mr. Dillon will try to alter that perceptiopn beginning next year.
Jeff Gordon "owns" the 24 and Jimmie-Chad "owns" the 48.
When I see number 9 I think of the stellar runs Bill Elliott had with that number.
The 7 will always be connected to Alan Kulwicki for me! As driver and owner, BTW.
There is only ONE Number 43, be it as driver or owner - for 43 is truly the number of Royalty!

So my aswer to the question:
How do you associate the numbers?
is, it depends!
 
3 - Earnhardt
21 - Wood Brothers and Morgan Shepherd
43 - Petty
2 - Rusty and Brad
25 - Schrader & Tim
24 - for the rest of my life will be Jeff Gordon

I guess the two fir Brad now is because he's became my new favorite driver. I guess I more go with the number fir the driver then the owner besides the 21 and the 43 will always be a petty Enterprises car IMO. 31 I think of RCR,
 
Richard Childress drove the #3 as a tribute to Junior Johnson and I suppose he equates the number differently than we do.
 
It's not broke lets not fix it!
Currently 3 digit numbers will not fit on most scoring pylons butt the original reason for not using three digits was due to hand scoreing and the confusion created by reading numbers on cars as they went by at 100mph plus!
I hand scored ONE TIME....... never again!
 
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