The #3 is unofficially retired and the #28 won’t be around this season. Change sweeps through Winston Cup racing in many ways, but perhaps none so dramatically as those missing numbers. No one has raced the #3 in Cup since Dale Earnhardt died on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. This year, the #28 won’t be competing. Robert Yates Racing had the #28 but will switch to the #38 for Elliott Sadler this season. At one point it appeared the number might go with sponsor Havoline to Chip Ganassi Racing and the car driven by rookie Jamie McMurray. Those plans changed, leaving the number in limbo. “My first reaction was, ‘There’s no way under the sun,'” Yates said of allowing the number to move to another team. “I was allowing everybody to have their wishes, but I wasn’t gonna let them have the 28. I’ve got 15 years tied up in that, so, no way, I wouldn’t even consider it. I laid awake at night and talked to [wife] Carolyn about it and … she said, ‘It’s not a bad idea just to get a good, fresh start and start over.’ So I said, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’ They then came back to me later and said, ‘Why don’t you just keep it [the 28],’ and I was like, ‘No way, we’re gonna make this new package work. We’ve got a great number on it and I wouldn’t go back to that. We can have all the good memories of that 28 car, but yet we’re starting a new package with the 38.” Ricky Rudd, who drove the #28 car the past three seasons, says he’s sorry to see the number disappear this season. “It’s a pretty sad deal that the 28 is not out there any longer,” said Rudd, who took that number to Victory Lane three times while with Yates. “That car has a tremendous following and the fans are the ones who deserve to see the 28 run around the race track.”( Roanoke Times )(2-8-2003)
