5 Things you'll never see in NASCAR again

5 Things you’ll never see in NASCAR again

By Brian Cotnoir

In over 70 years of completion we’ve seen quite a few different changes from NASCAR.  Everything from safety improvements, to changes to the points system, to track layouts, and so much more, but there are some things in NASCAR that we will definitely never see again in the sport.

1.) Three-Digit Numbers

In NASCAR’s early days there was no rule on what number a driver in NASCAR could put on their door.  Today a NASCAR driver’s car must run with a car number between 0-99 (including #00-09).   With only 40 cars allowed to qualify for a Cup Series race, there will never be a shortage of numbers on track.   Unlike other professional sports like baseball, football, basketball, and hockey; NASCAR doesn’t “retire” drivers’ numbers.

The most well-known drivers to race with a three digit number on their car were  Hall of Famer, Tim Flock who raced car numbers 300 & 301 in the mid 1950’s, and racing legend Dan Gurney who won 4 NASCAR races at the Riverside Raceway driving for the famous Wood Brothers team in car #121.

The last time a car appeared with a three-digit number in NASCAR was when Darrell Waltrip ran a “Tribute” car called “The Tim Flock Special” in his final race as an owner driver at the Darlington Raceway; Waltrip was trying to raise money for driver Tim Flock who was dying of throat cancer.  NASCAR would have Waltrip change his number before the race back to his car #17.  The only time you will ever see a NASCAR with 3-digits written on the door is in a NASCAR video game.

2.)  5 Championships in a row (or 7 Overall Championships)

Jimmie Johnson is the only NASCAR driver to have ever won 5 Championships in a Row, and he did it in a time when changes were being made to the point’s championship every other season.   He even managed to tie the record of 7 Cup Series Championships a record he hold with the legendary Richard Petty & Dale Earnhardt Sr.  

However with the points system in place to date, it is extremely unlikely that we will ever see another driver win 5 championships in a row.   For that to happen a driver who have to be successful (and lucky) enough to make the Final 4 for the final race of the season for 5 consecutive seasons, then they would have to be the highest finisher for all five of those races in order to tie Johnson.  NASCAR has a slew of talented drivers like Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, and Martin Truex Jr. who have made multiple appearances in NASCAR’s Final 4 for the championship, but I think it would be next to impossible for them to win more than a back-to-back championship.

3.)  Open Face Helmets

In the early days in NASCAR every driver raced with an open faced helmet.   As the years went and safety improved many NASCAR drivers began to switch to the full-faced helmets.   However, drivers like Dale Earnhardt Sr. & Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jimmy Spencer, and Dave Marcis will still racing with open faced helmets into the early 2000’s.    One year after the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr., in 2002, NASCAR made full-face helmets mandatory.  You will never see another driver in NASCAR race with an open-faced helmet.

4.)  5 Drivers from one team in the Chase

Most of NASCAR’s top teams have 3-4 drivers driving for them (Hendrick, Gibbs, Childress, Penske), but for a time in the early 2000’s owner Jack Roush’s, Roush Fenway Racing, ran 5 teams in the Cup Series.   In 2005, the team set a NASCAR record by having all 5 of his cars qualify for the NASCAR Chase for the Cup.  With only 10 entries allowed in the Chase at the time that meant Jack Roush had a 50% chance of winning the NASCAR title as an owner for the 3^rd year in row.

However, Roush would end up cutting ties with defending champion Kurt Busch after he was arrested for reckless driving, with 2 races left in the season.   As for Roush’s other 4 drivers, they would finish 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, and 7^th in the final standings with Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards both failing to beat Tony Stewart by 35 points.  After the 2009 season NASCAR forced Roush Fenway to shrink its operation down to 4 Full-Time entries, and since 2014 they’ve been on a real down swing, and now just run two full-time entries. 

With NASCAR’s strict guidelines in place for how many full-time entries a Cup Series Team can enter, it’s impossible that a team will have 5 drivers make the chase.

5.)  Multiple makes from a manufacturer

I’m actually surprised how long this went on in NASCAR.  Today there are only three Manufacturers competing in NASCAR’s top 3 divisions; Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota.  Each run a single make car, but back between the 1960’s and early 2000’s you had multiple makes from manufacturers competing against themselves. 

The Ford Motor Company ran both Ford & Mercury cars to compete against each other in NASCAR in the 1960’s and 1970’s,  Chrysler had their Dodge & Plymouth brands competing against each other in the 1970’s & 1980’s, and General Motors had Chevrolet’s, Buick’s, Oldsmobile’s, and Pontiac’s competing against each other in various forms from the 1960’s to the early 2000’s!  The last time a two cars from the same manufacturer competed in a NASCAR race was in the 2004 season when General Motors had both Chevrolet’s and Pontiac’s competing.  

I don’t know why any car company would want to compete against themselves in some races; it’s bad enough if you lose to your completion, but if one of your cars loses to another car that your company makes it doesn’t really look good!  For those reasons, I guarantee you will never see anything like this in NASCAR again.