in part from an ESPN.com article: 82 drivers have run the #8, beginning with Billy Carden, from Mableton, Ga., started third and finished 15th in NASCAR’s second-ever Strictly Stock (now Nextel Cup) race, run on the grueling 4.15-mile beach and road course in Daytona. The #8 has run a total of 1,264 Cup races, steered by two Jacks, three Joes, six Dicks, and guys named Possum, Pop, Tiny, Skip, Banjo, Elmo, Bud, L.D., J.D., E.J. and D.K. Earnhardt is the third Junior to drive the car and isn’t even the first Dale Earnhardt. Senior made one start at Charlotte in ’75. Dale Jr. is not the racer responsible for the majority of the #8’s visits to Victory Lane. That distinction belongs to Little Joe Weatherly, considered by some to be the most talented driver ever to own a NASCAR license and by most to be among the greatest partyers in American history. Weatherly slipped into the #8 in 1961, having already won four races with other teams and numbers as he bounced from team to team. But it was in car owner Bud Moore’s Pontiac that Weatherly became a legend. From 1961 to ’63, he started 109 races in the #8, earning 20 wins, 16 poles, and back-to-back championships in ’62 and ’63. For those of you scoring at home, that means Little Joe tops Little E in wins, poles, championships. Unfortunately, Weatherly died behind the wheel of #8 at the Riverside, Calif., road course only five races into the ’64 season and the numeral went into a nosedive. For the next 35 years, the number won only one race despite having some all-time all-stars behind the wheel. However, between Weatherly’s last win on Oct. 27, 1963, and Dale Jr.’s first on April 2, 2000, one other man was able to celebrate a victory as Driver #8. On July 27, 1986, at Talladega Superspeedway, Hillin was the original, check that, only young gun in the Winston Cup Series. On a wild day that saw 26 different leaders and an epic multicar crash on the final lap, the pride of Midland, Texas, became the third-youngest driver to win a Cup race. Of the 82 men who have driven the #8, his win is one more win than 79 of them. Totals (as of Watkins Glen, Aug. 17): 1,264 starts, 38 wins, 300,817 laps run, 8,465 laps led $41,227,649 won. (see full article and list of drivers who have driven the #8 at ESPN.com)(8-20-2007)
