Yates Abandons #28

[JoeBob]

http://espn.go.com/rpm/wc/2003/0117/1494346.html

"Business Decisions" suck.

[Ziggy]

I read it, it makes some sense from a historical point

but this is all I really need to know

"It's hard and a lot of race fans are 28 fans but hopefully they'll switch over to the 38."

So what they are saying is this, NASCAR fans are so enthralled with this sport that they choose their favorites due to a number? I guess I dont see the romance. When I see a ChampCar with the #66, I think of Mark Donohue. It's fleeting. Yet I know Mark was killed, and the man driving the machine is no way Mark Donohue. Zanardi drove #66, and I had no problem with that. I guess I dont get it.

There is a ton of Dale Earnhardt Junior crap out there with #8 plastered all over it. ????????? I refuse to marry the numerical system with loyalty.

Ziggy

[Lizzerd]

I was going to say basically the same thing. I don't get the romance of a number/color scheme. But I'm not a big NASCAR fan, either. Maybe the relative stability of numbers/teams/sponsors/drivers is what makes Winston Cup so popular with their faithful, too. And why WC dominates the North American racing scene...

[Sean O'Gorman]

Remember this is Robert Yates that we're talking about. I remember him getting emotional in the middle of a press conference last year because he misses the Texaco star on the hood of his car now that Chevron owns Havoline.

[cart7]

I don't get it either. When drivers are talking about something that happened in the race, they don't refer to the other driver or the sponsor on the other car that did something they say " It was that 8 car, or I got below the 6" or someother nonsense.

Kind of like saying a car is tight when you mean it's pushing.

Nascar speak.

[JoeBob]

For the record, I'm not a big fan of connecting drivers and numbers, but I do like the connection between teams and numbers.

[mnkywrch]

The #28 had been a poor tribute to Davey Allison for years.

Yates long ago decided the #88 was going to be his top team. The #28 was a joke.

I mean, would you guys want Joel Camathais driving a Players #99... or Buckshot Jones driving a black #3?

[JT265]

Maybe, wrench, but I thought Irvan gave it a good ride in '94 before he met the wall in Michigan.

[Ziggy]

I dont car who drives #99. I also thought that all the hubbub after the fatal accident and folks wanting the #99 retired was just dumb. Its a car number, this aint baseball. #99 was Joe Hunt's number for years.

While I will agree that the number did provide a direct link to the team. #27 was famous at Ferrari's due to death...... huh, wonder if thats the connection????

I guess I dont get it. I have never had a problem learning who was driving what, and who owned what and what number it was. I dont like wrestling either, nor do I watch entertainment tonight, or care who JayLo is shacked up with.

My world is small

Ziggy

[pchall]

Originally posted by mnkywrch
I mean, would you guys want Joel Camathais driving a Players #99... or Buckshot Jones driving a black #3?

I don't give a rat's ass.

But I do have a sneaking suspicion that NASCAR marketing is dying to get Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in a black #3...

[Napoleon]

Originally posted by mnkywrch
I mean, would you guys want Joel Camathais driving a Players #99... or Buckshot Jones driving a black #3?

I don't give a rat's @$$. I may not want them in the series, but the number I could not care less about.

[rabbit]

There were quite a few people who got upset when Herdez Comp. dropped the 16 for 55 last year. It didn't really bother me much, but maybe a little. But then, I've always been the sentimental type.

[DaveL]

Originally posted by pchall
But I do have a sneaking suspicion that NASCAR marketing is dying to get Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in a black #3...

Maybe, maybe not. If would materially benefit NASCAR they'd press for it. #8 was Ralph's number so there is already a posthomous family connection. Basically everything teams do with numbers and paint schemes these days is to sell merchandise. In the same way major league baseball teams have up to 3 or 4 hats just so they can sell more of them, NASCAR teams drum up these special and alternative paint schemes so they can sell more die casts.

[mnkywrch]

Originally posted by JT265
Maybe, wrench, but I thought Irvan gave it a good ride in '94 before he met the wall in Michigan.

... but not since then ...

[IlliniRacer]

I think alot of the hubbub about associating cars and numbers with NASCAR is the fact that the numbers are more visible. NASCAR has used it as a marketing ploy. Remember Brock Yates's ludicrous article (OK, so they're all ludicrous) saying that open wheel cars should be slower and have bigger numbers so the fans could see them?

I number is a number. I relate certain numbers to certain drivers from the past but don't think of them as sacred. I've always said that the best way to honor Greg Moore would be to give the #99 to the Atlantics Champion to carry for a year in whatever series he raced.

[Peter Venkman]

I just can't get emotional about a number.

I agree with Ziggy; I've never had the difficulty in recognizing who was driving what and when.

NUmbers are for scoring.