Drivers and Their Numbers

[racincowboy02]

How do drivers come up with their numbers. I know how Bloomquist came up with his but it would be pretty interesting to see how other drivers came up with their numbers. Have any of you heard stories about how they come up with them

[BerckFan]

I'm going to say many fall into these areas:
- Age they started racing
- Year they started racing
- "Family" number
- Finally, "number was on car when I bought it, so I kept it"

[waaac77]

I’ve always thought if someone’s numbers is 1 that they think they’re #1 and it helps them win because they always have that #1 mentality.

[AnonymousNate]

or old sports # baseball/basketball and such....

[Jim11h]

Lotta times it was their favorite drivers # when they was kid

[CIRF]

The driver of the late model we were involved with back in the day used the last two digits of the year he was born.

[dirt crow]

Good question for those drivers of number “69” cars. Lol

[One Man Gang]

Probably from taking a lot of licks and getting hit a lot

[JCSullivan00]

My dad raced for a long time and had a ton of different numbers:

7, that was my age
8, I got a year older, so the number grew by one. lol
22, his dads number
38, drove for someone else
1, it was the only number I could paint on it last minute
00, was a big Freddy fan
22 again, His dad wasn't doing well so he switched back
00 again, decided to retire and wanted to go back to his long time number

He retired and my little brother took over, and uses his football number 41.

Everyone always thought it was weird that he switched numbers so often, but he likes to tell the stories of how he ended up with each number, and there's a memory behind the changes.

[rdcllk]

I used the year I got married. The race car lasted longer then the marriage. Lol

[SLIDING SIDEWAYS]

I used the year I got married. The race car lasted longer then the marriage. Lol

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 good one but oh so true!

[Zonks32x]

Couple DLM examples...that hold true to what has been mentioned above.

Jason Feger... 25 was his Grandpa's #
Taylor Scheffler...10, was Grandpa George's #
Bobby Pierce....32 was Bob Sr's #

Would love to know the back stories behind Marlar and 157
JD and 49
Weaver 116, etc.

[Raceready]

Chub Frank started ran the number 04 in the beginning. He had to switch to the number 1 because his primary sponsors logo was {# 1 Tobber Chassis}. All well and fine until he raced in a big race where there were several number 1s. They had to add something for scorers so Chubs sign painter brushed a yellow star in the middle of the number is how the 1 star came to be. How about Al Richards in the 80s had the number of his car written on there { FOUR }. That was sort of different. Same as the occasional driver that had the number on the quarter panel instead of the door.

[t4g2]

Is like to hear the story on the # 58(c for cents) do remember drivers name it was a late model

[xray]

Is like to hear the story on the # 58(c for cents) do remember drivers name it was a late model

garrett durrett dont know the story though

[mccreadiefan39]

Tim McCreadie's 39 comes from Sweeteners Plus owner Carl Myers. He was a 8 time National and 3 time world champion offshore power boat racer and ran the number 39 during his hall of fame career.

[Dlmfan123]

Couple DLM examples...that hold true to what has been mentioned above.Jason Feger... 25 was his Grandpa's #Taylor Scheffler...10, was Grandpa George's #Bobby Pierce....32 was Bob Sr's #Would love to know the back stories behind Marlar and 157JD and 49Weaver 116, etc. I’m curious about Marlar. I’m a huge fan of 3 digit numbers. How Davenport got his number is on one lap one beer with suave from east bay on dod

[zyoung25]

The marlars have all ran the 57 over the years. Mike's father started it all when he ran the original 57 back in the day. Mike and brother Skylar ran 157 and 257. Cam, which I believe is Mikes nephew used to run 357. He has been running 57 on his late model the last couple years.

There was a shirt with all 4 cars on it a few years back. Cam drove a mod at that time though.

[dirt crow]

I picked 8 when I raced. Simple reason was I wanted a number no one else had. From age 13-15 going to green valley and TST only seen one 8. So my first race when I was 16 we showed up with a four banger with number 8 on the side. And wouldn’t you know it. There was four 8’s in my race. Lol. Go figure.

[Dlmfan123]

The marlars have all ran the 57 over the years. Mike's father started it all when he ran the original 57 back in the day. Mike and brother Skylar ran 157 and 257. Cam, which I believe is Mikes nephew used to run 357. He has been running 57 on his late model the last couple years.There was a shirt with all 4 cars on it a few years back. Cam drove a mod at that time though.I’m pretty sure Cameron is mikes younger brother. You could be right tho

[turnleftandgasit]

Kevin Weaver started driving the 112 after Joe Williams got out of it. The car was owned by Benny Nettleton. They changed the first 1 to a B with tape. That is my understanding how the B12 came about.

[zyoung25]

Kevin Weaver started driving the 112 after Joe Williams got out of it. The car was owned by Benny Nettleton. They changed the first 1 to a B with tape. That is my understanding how the B12 came about.

An old friend told me Jack Boggs done something similar to that. I guess he showed up with a 34 on his car, and told he had to change it because of another car having the same number. So he slapped a piece of tape over the one side of the 3, which made a B.

I'm sure someone older can fill us in on if it's the truth or not

[Hoosier_Dirt]

Saw an article one time about Marlar, said his dad was #57, but the race they went to there were a few #57's, so they put a 1 in front of his.

[PH88N92]

We ran a cow calf operation at the time and our brand was 88. My wife thought that would be a good # for the race car. I told yes it would. And if I ever wound up on my top it would still be 88 (she didn't like that response.)

[Snake X3]

From the Speed Racer episode, The Race for Revenge, the number of the Melange's rebirth...X3

https://speedracer.fandom.com/wiki/Melange

[Krooser]

When I started racing in the Milwaukee area Midwest Speedways promoted all three dirt tracks in the area...Hales Corners, Cedarburg and Slinger. At one time they also ran Waukegan (IL), Beaver Dam, Franksville and the 1/4 dirt track at the Milwaukee Mile.

They had "track champions" at each track and an "area champion" for the guy with the most overall points. It encouraged more drivers to "follow the circuit" which was up to seven nights per week at one time.

Midwest mandated that each driver who finished in the top 50 in the "area" points run that number they finished in the points... first ran #1... 20th ran #20, etc. Car numbers starting with 51 and up were available on a first come first served basis.

Over the years I ran 133, 288, 112, 51 and a few more I can't recall. After Slinger was paved, and Cedarburg was closed Midwest gradually allowed drivers to pick there own numbers.

Since it wasn't unusual to get 100+ cars in two classes back then, hand scoring would have been rough if you had a bunch of duplicate numbers.

[Birdsboro]

my buddy used to use the number to represent the nuber of race car it is. you know this is my 34th race car i built and ran so its number 34....

[AnonymousNate]

seeing that number really does get my curiosity going on my they actually choose that # (69) well when lot people say tht number really only one thing comes to mind! Sure thats not the case for all! Example this 68iou 1 girl that drove still block lates now for sure we all can comprehend what the does mean LOL!

[dirtcrazy4u]

Yea numbers usually trace back to have a connection with a family member somewhere along the line. For me it was my dad. I'd say the longest running would have to be the pierce 32 or Billy Moyers 21.

[over4T]

Ran a 7 on the first car I drove, a borrowed '48 Ford street car I "borrowed"from a college girl, because it was easy to make with some surgical tape. First car I bought was number 70 so ran that for a couple of years, then switched to Phase 3 named after a brewery job we were doing.

Drove a 13 stocker a few times for a friend when that was considered unlucky and we won, I think, all but one or two races we ran. After several years break went to the 4T number because I was by then over 40 and a guy at Santa Maria I admired had a Chevelle numbered 40 and they told him he had to put a number on the roof and he put 4T on it. Been running that number for the last 35 years.