The #1 of Earl Arnold at Wake County Speedway in 1974, the #1 of Mac Mangum at Wilson County Speedway in 1976 and the bright red #M1 of Plymouth, NC's Shelton McNair at Wilson in 1976 are shown below in these Tim Hamm photos:
Tony Hirschman's #1 has the inside line on the #69 of Brian Ross in Winston Modified Tour action during the Winston Twin 200s at Richmond International Raceway on April 8, 1990:
I decided a while back that Jeff Gilder counts days like Fox TV counts laps when they tell me a green-white-checkers restart involves 3 laps of racing, rather than the actual two!!!
I was at Beltsville, Maryland the night of June 15, 1966 when Bobby Allison debuted J.D. Bracken's 1965 lightweight 327 cu. in. #2 Chevelle with a 4th place qualifying run. The car hadn't been lettered and had adhesive tape numbers. Bobby blew up the small block that night, but would score his first Grand National win in the same #2 Chevelle less than a month later at Oxford, Maine during the annual "Northern Tour." That's the car (now with painted numbers ) below chasing Big John Sears during the 1966 Northern Tour.
The #2 6-cylinder ride of Raleigh's Walter Simpkins at Wilson County Speedway in 1975:
Tim Hamm photo
The #2X fuel injected coupe of legendary northeastern NASCAR modified driver, "Steady" Eddie Flemke, inventor of the Flemke Front End and the mentor and hero of Daytona 500 winner, Pete Hamilton and Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year, Dennis Zimmerman:
George M photo
Wrangler sponsorship appeared in NASCAR for the first time at the final race of the 1980 Cup season on the #2 Rod Osterlund ride driven to the 1980 Cup Championship by Dale Earnhardt. It was Earnhardt's first Championship and the final Cup race ever at Ontario.
The Earnhardt/Osterlund #2 looked quite different when it returned as the ride of the defending Champion for 1981. The cars had been downsized to a shorter wheelbase, Osterlund switched from Chevy to Pontiac and Wrangler created their own graphics package (using their corporate colors) , designed by a contract artist at Sid Morris' Morris-White Associates on East Boulevard in Charlotte.
Statsman Photo
The famed 1963 "Mystery Chevy" #3 fielded by Ray Fox for Junior Johnson. It was said Ford Motor Co. spent millions trying to catch the porcupine head 427 powering the Mystery Chevy.
Ray Fox returned briefly to Chevy in 1965 fielding this #3 for LeeRoy Yarbrough.
Dale Earnhardt strapped into Richard Childress' car #3 for the very first time on August 16, 1981 at Michigan. His 1982-1983 car owner, Bud Moore walks by in the background.
John Betts photo
3-time NASCAR National Modified champion (1967, 1968, 1969) Bugs Stevens (Carl Bergman) ran car #3 before he started running #15 (just as Dale Earnhardt - above).
At Richmond's 1991 Busch Series Pontiac 200, Jeff Gordon's Carolina Ford Dealers car fielded by Bill Davis carried #4 , not the #1 the car ran the remainder of the year. Modified star, Tony Hirschman had #1 at Richmond that weekend.
Anybody (Woody Delbridge, Ray Lamm) have a photo of Gordon's only NASCAR career outing in #4?
Model posted for sale on ebay
The #4 Limited Sportsman and Late Model of Goldsboro, North Carolina's Durwood Peele are shown at Raleigh's Wake County Speedway in the top photo by Racin_Girl-22 posted at Local Race Chat and in the bottom photo by Tim Hamm at Wilson County Sppedway. Durwood, a one-time Wilson promoter, burned to death in a Wilson crash in the early 80s.
