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| Because the weather won't cooperate |
In honor of the throwback race that may or may not happen tonight (well, not for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., spoil-sport) let’s take a look back at one of the least-used numbers in Nascar Cup history—69.
***ALLOWING TIME FOR READERS TO GIGGLE***
OK, now that we have THAT out of the way, let’s do a Q&A on the history of this relatively-unused number.
JUST HOW LITTLE-USED WAS THE NUMBER 69? Cars bearing the number 69 have only been run 104 times in Cup, the second-least-used number in the series 70+ year history (only ahead/behind of number 65).
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| Note the misspelled name |
WHO’S THE MOST-FAMOUS PERSON TO RACE NUMBER 69? Probably a toss-up between LeeRoy Yarbrough and Hershel McGriff. Oddly they’re at two different ends of the longevity spectrum—LeeRoy having posted one incredibly successful year in (ironically) 1969, while Hershel raced in Cup sparingly from 1950 through 1993 and has continued to make cameo appearances in developmental series to this day.
WHO WAS THE MOST-SUCCESSFUL DRIVER OF THE 69? Johnny Allen, who posted a pole and a runner-up finish (amongst other top-tens) during a part-time run in the 69 from 1960-61. The last top-ten posted by a driver in a #69 car was the aforementioned Hershel McGriff in 1977.
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| The last run for number 69 |
WHO WAS THE LAST DRIVER TO DRIVE A CAR NUMBERED 69? Road racer Denny Wilson, who did so at Watkins Glen in 1992.
WHY HASN’T ANYONE RUN THE 69 SINCE? Well, its likely the reason you think. Sponsorship drives Nascar and few traditional companies want to associate with such an innuendo-laden number. Meanwhile, Nascar both controls number assignments and reserves the right to block offensive sponsorships, so even if someone DID come in wanting to use the number, Nascar could put a stop to it (as was rumored when Big Johnson sponsored a Busch Series car in the 90’s).
WHO RUNS IT TODAY? Will Kimmel runs the 69 car for his own team in the midwest, most-notably on occasion in the ARCA Series. the Kimmel family has a history of using number 69—in fact, Bill Kimmel Sr. ran it in Cup at Daytona in 1969 and 1970.