SM Staff

For much of the season, the focus was on the big teams – Roush-Fenway Racing, Kevin Harvick Incorporated, Turner Motorsports and others.

While there have been many drivers in the No. 80 car, including Dave Blaney, Joe Ruttman, Mike Bliss, Randy LaJoie, Carl Long, Ted Christopher, Mario Gosselin, Andy Hillenburg and Aric Almirola.

The recent announcement from Penske Racing that said that Kurt Busch would no longer be the driver of their #22 Dodge, in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, effective immediately caught many observers a little off guard.

Only 83 days remain until the green flag waves at Daytona. The number 83 has seen spans of usage surrounded by long gaps of time where the number was used rarely, if ever.

As Chase Elliott blew out the candles on his birthday cake during his surprise party for his 16th birthday, he had just one wish in mind. He wished he could win the 44th running of the prestigious Snowball Derby.

Kurt Busch is no longer the driver of the No. 22 Dodge. The dismissal will be immediately and leaves the Penske organization without a driver for their highly sponsored stock car

84 days remain until the green flag drops on the Daytona 500 and that’s the number that’s the focus of today’s article. The number has seen relatively little use in NASCAR’s 62 year history; totaling only 220 starts.

With just 85 more days to Daytona, the focus can be on none other than Jeff Gordon’s 85th historic win this season. With his 85th victory, Gordon moved from being tied with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip to sole position in third on the all-time career win list.

It came as an email from Ford’s PR guy, Dan Zacharias, Friday evening. Former NASCAR driver Fred Lorenzen is going to be honored by the Illinois General Assembly at Chicagoland Speedway on December 7, 2011

As we continue the countdown to Daytona, we’ll look at the brief history of number 86, and then take a look at a second number—97—that didn’t get covered due to it being a higher number.