#dale earnhardt jr. jr.

[vetteldixon]

[mensfactory]

Ex-Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1999 Chevrolet Corvette Callaway C12,

Photo via Bring a Trailer

[roe-and-memory]

this is essentially lightnings rusteze commercial in cars 1

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. IROC

[praxcrown5]

Strip Weathers: High Res Images

Strip won round one, so here you go. Bonus Lynda, Tex, Cal, Dale, and Chick

[coimbrabertone]

NASCAR Numerology: How NASCAR's Current Teams Got Their Number: Part Two.

Hello all, this is part two of my little mini-series on how and why NASCAR teams have their current numbers. Last time we did Trackhouse, Team Penske, and I tacked on Wood Brothers because it was topic. Today we're continuing down the list - we covered the teams with the #1 and the #2 yesterday, now to talk about the team with the #3.

Quite possibly the most iconic number in all of NASCAR, when someone says the #3, NASCAR fans always think of Dale Earnhardt in the black intimidator GM Goodwrench Chevrolet...but that's not quite how the #3 car started.

In fact, it started in the early 70s with team owner Richard Childress himself, who would go part time with numbers like #13, #96, and #98 in those early starts. In 1976, however, Richard Childress would go full time in his self-owned car, and the number he chose was the #3.

Why? Well, Richard said it was in tribute to Junior Johnson, who ran the #3 49 times from 1961 and 1964, and won 9 races with it. Junior Johnson owned the #11 and the #27 for his own team, so the #3 was the most notable Junior Johnson available.

Thus, in 1976, the #3 car began.

In mid-1981, Richard Childress was considering retirement. At the same time, Dale Earnhardt in the #2 Osterlund Racing car saw his team get sold to JD Stacy, and thus the partnership that won the 1980 championship collapsed just half a season later.

Dale Earnhardt took over RCR's #3 and brought sponsor Wrangler with him. The #3 wasn't quite to Dale's level though, so for 1982 and 1983, Dale switched to Ford and ran the #15 Bud Moore Engineering car. Ricky Rudd took over the #3 for two years and managed to get RCR's first and second wins, at Riverside and Martinsville.

This was the same number of wins that Dale got at Bud Moore Engineering in the #15, thus, Dale felt it was time to return to RCR and the #3.

Thus, the most famous partnership in NASCAR began, with Wrangler sponsorship through 1987, and then in 1988, the car gained the famous black, silver, white, and red GM Goodwrench sponsorship. It gained a thousand names: the intimidator, the man in black, Darth Vader...this was the most famous car in stock car racing.

And in the 2001 Daytona 500, as the DEI #15 and #8 - numbered after Dale's Bud Moore car and Dale's Busch series car - finished one-two in NASCAR's biggest race, Dale Earnhardt was killed in a turn four wall impact.

A legend had died.

Kevin Harvick was drafted in to replace him, but the paint scheme was changed, and RCR changed the number immediately. The #13 and the #23 were available, but RCR did not want to burden Harvick with a number associated with the #3 at all, thus, RCR chose the #29 instead.

This meant that, for a time, RCR had the #29, the #30, and the #31, a set of consecutive numbers.

In 2014, however, Kevin Harvick moved to SHR (more on that in a moment) and Austin Dillon took over his car...and it was renumbered the #3 again.

Why? Well, Richard Childress once famously announced that the #3 would only come back in the hands of an Earnhardt or a Childress, and Austin Dillon was Richard's grandson via his daughter. Needless to say, this has been controversial.

Lots of people feel that Austin Dillon isn't there on merit, instead he's there by nepotism. They feel that after Dale's death, the #3 should've been retired outright.

Well, they didn't do that and the #3 is back.

And RCR's second car...well, it's not the #30 or the #31 anymore, nor the #07, the #27, the #33, or any other number that RCR has run in the past.

Rather it is the #8...that number Dale Earnhardt ran in Busch and later Dale Earnhardt Jr. made famous at DEI. Why the #8? Well, it was used by Ralph Earnhardt (Dale's father) in his racing days. So how the heck did RCR end up with such an intimately Earnhardt number?

Well, it should be noted that Richard Childress and Dale Earnhardt were close friends.

Furthermore, when RCR brought back the #8, it was initially for Daniel Hemric, who is from Kannapolis, North Carolina - the same town that the Earnhardts are from.

That doesn't quite explain why they kept the #8 for Tyler Reddick and now Kyle Busch, but that's why they brought it back.

Like I said, Earnhardt nostalgia.

Now, onto SHR, who run the #4, the #10, the #14, and the #41.

When Tony Stewart bought into Haas CNC Racing (who had been running numbers like #60, #0, #66, and #70) they completely overhauled the numbering scheme.

Tony Stewart - who had originally come from an Indy Racing League background - wanted the #14 for himself, as that had been the number of his racing hero, AJ Foyt. Stewart succeeded, and he'd pass that number down to Clint Bowyer and now Chase Briscoe, the current driver.

Meanwhile, he wanted the #4 for his teammate, as that had been Tony's karting number. Unfortunately, Morgan-McClure Motorsports still owned the #4 at this time, so Tony's 2009 teammate instead had to settle for running the #39 at the time. It should be noted that Newman had run the #39 Dodge in the second-tier Busch series before at this point, so he did have an association with this number.

Once Ryan Newman left the team at the end of 2013, the team brought in Kevin Harvick and his Anheuser-Busch sponsorship (initially with Budweiser, later with Busch Light) for 2014, and finally managed to change the number to #4. They were rewarded with an immediate championship in 2014.

The #10 car came next, with SHR bringing Danica Patrick over from the world of Indycar. They initially wanted Danica's Indycar number with the #7, but that was unavailable, so they went with the #10 instead, with was one of Danica's karting numbers.

When Danica retired at the end of the 2017 season, they kept the #10 for Aric Almirola (and now Noah Gragson for 2024).

Presumably they felt that since 4+10=14, the number suited their numbering scheme.

Also suiting the numbering scheme is the #41, which is #41 backwards. Despite being Tony's number inverted, the #41 has traditionally been seen as Gene Haas' car in the Stewart-Haas pairing, with Gene bringing in Tony's rival Kurt Busch in for the 2014 season (announcing this while Tony was out injured, no less).

Daniel Suárez would drive the car in 2019, and then Cole Custer (the son of Joe Custer, who manages Gene Haas' racing operations) would drive it from 2020 to 2022.

Tony then managed to get Ryan Preece - a more grassroots kind of driver, the kind of driver Tony likes - in the car for 2023 and 2024, with results staying about the same.

Gene will get the last laugh though, because even as Stewart-Haas Racing is closing its doors, Gene Haas will keep the #41 as Haas Factory Racing, and Cole Custer will return to the NASCAR Cup Series for 2025.

Guess the #41 really was Gene's car all along, huh?

Anyway, that's six cars down today. The next car on the list would be the #5...Hendrick is a four-car team with a ton of history, and they've played a lot of number roulette over the years, so we'll handle them tomorrow. Hendrick, Roush, and maybe Spire to knock out the #5, the #6, and the #7. We did #8 here, #9 is with Hendrick, and the #10 we also covered here, so...it looks like we'll pick up with Joe Gibbs Racing and the #11 on Thursday.

Sounds good?

[music-wrestling-nascar-fan]

Happy 50th Birthday Dale Earnhardt Jr!

[james-is-nasqueer]

he's nowhere near perfect but I think it's both incredible and fucking wild how nascar's most influential driver of the modern era ended up being like. the only slightly left guy in the entire damn sport. defending immigrants. supporting nascar getting rid of the confederate battle flag. having danica patrick drive for him. agreeing with the nfl protests. this tweet. and who's gonna really fight him on it? he's like the goddamn prince of nascar, sure some people might disagree and even stop following him, but that won't even make a dent in his popularity. if he was just your typical average driver, he'd be hated by half the fanbase and forgotten by now. but he's not. hell, some people even want him to become nascar's ceo (seems like a stretch to me, but you gotta admit the france family fucking sucks). He's not untouchable, but he might be the closest thing to it in nascar. And he's actually a decent human being. Dale Jr, folks.

[barbielore]

After exploring the Mad Men tie-in dolls, and the Pussy Galore Barbie, I thought I’d put together a list of the character tie-in Barbies that I find the most unexpected or otherwise remarkable!

Dale Earnhardt Jr Barbie.

Note this is not just a NASCAR Barbie as it would appear at first glance - it is specifically Dale Earnhardt Jr branded and themed.

Alexis from Dynasty

It’s a very nice design, but much like the Mad Men tie-ins, I would not have thought of Dynasty as being a media property ripe for a Barbie tie-in.

Jacob from Twilight

Okay, okay, Twilight is definitely a good product for a tie-in. But the Jacob cracks me up. At least the other character Barbies get to wear clothes.

George Washington

What I love about the George Washington Barbie is that they went with Barbie, rather than a Ken.

Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds

This is from the same collection as the Pussy Galore, and I understand this even less.

[memoryhallows]

a bunch of nascar blogs r seeing my post on roe and memory with the old chase napa 24 ad… pls be moots with me ….

in return, i offer Another ad

[unionrags123]

A couple changes to the Chick’s Picks set:

1) Spotlight! (I got out one of my small flashlights lol)

2) Kori Turbowitz has joined the set

(Lighting is not the best in this pic lol I was holding the camera (aka my phone) for this pic, usually I just hold the lighting (headlamp and flashlight) and prop the camera up)

[domovzy]

Life In The Fast Lane

[jojowasha]

[justlemoney]

Part 6

Pride Masterlist

I'm adding Junior to the mix.

[makingdonalddrumpfagain]