Having your number retired is the ultimate honor in sports. It's the ultimate nod to what that number, and subsequently the athlete, meant to the sport.
While individual teams in the major sports retire numbers almost to the point of diluting the honor, only the rarest of rare get their number retired by an entire league. Major League Baseball retired No. 42 in 1997 to honor pioneer Jackie Robinson. The National Hockey League in 2000 retired the No. 99 of Wayne Gretzky.
Some numbers are a tough call because multiple drivers had success in the same car number.
The No. 11, for example, found victory lane with Denny Hamlin (58 wins), Cale Yarborough (55 wins), Ned Jarrett (48 wins), Darrell Waltrip (43 wins). That No. 11 means different drivers to different fans... which in our mind disqualifies it from this particular list.
Bobby Allison has a massive number of wins (85), but he never scored more than 25 wins with the same car number (12). He also drove the 22, 28, 2, 15, 88, 16, 24, 6, 29, 14, 09, 11, 40, 37, 49, 07, and 1. It's ways good to bave Allison on any NASCAR honor list, but hard to say there was ever a definitive Bobby Allison car number.
Here's seven drivers whose success, association with a specific car number or pioneering impact on the sport are deserving of having their number retired:
No. 43 - RIchard Petty
Richard Petty was, and always will be, NASCAR's GOAT. No one will come close to 200 career wins and no one with any sense of NASCAR history can look at the No. 43 car in the Cup Series and not at least have a flashback to Petty. Petty is NASCAR's Babe Ruth, Tom Brady and Bill Russell. He'll always be the 43.
No. 3 - Dale Earnhardt
No one should be allowed in the No. 3 car. That's Dale Earnhardt's ride, forever. Many fans (me, included) will never be comfortable seeing Austin Dillon—or anyone else, for that matter-—in the No. 3 car. Earnhardt was a seven-time champion, and his untimely death at the 2001 Daytona 500 will forever be etched in the minds of his fans. More than two decades later, the Intimidator is still in the top 10 in terms of driver merchandise sales.
No. 24 - Jeff Gordon
No offense to William Byron, the current caretaker of the 24, but Jeff Gordon will always synonymous with the No. 24. Gordon's four Cup championships are fourth most in series history, and his 93 wins in the No. 24 checks in third.
And maybe it would be appropriate to retire any future rainbow paint schemes in honor of NASCAR's Rainbow Warrior.
No. 21 - David Pearson
Four-time Cup champion David Pearson, with 105 wins, is second on the all-time wins list and had 43 wins and his greatest moments in the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 in the 1970s. Pearson showed up for the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame announcement for the 2010 Hall Class only to be snubbed.
Let's not snub the late Pearson and his most famous car number from this list.
No. 34 - Wendell Scott
Wendell Scott broke the color barrier in NASCAR, driving the No. 87 Chevy at Hub City Speedway in Spartanburg, S.C in 1961. Nearly the rest of Scott's career was spent in the 34 car, and he drove the 34 into victory lane at Jacksonville in 1964.
The only other time Scott drove in Cup in a car outside the 34 was his in his final Cup race in 1973, where he drove the No. 5 in the National 500 at Charlotte.
It would only be fitting to forever remember the 34 in honor of a true trailblazer.
No. 48 - Jimmie Johnson
Forever in the minds of man NASCAR fans, the 48 will be Jimmie Johnson and Lowe's. It was a car number and sponsorship that brought the majority of Johnson's 83 wins and record-tying seven championships.
Sorry, current Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman, that 48 belongs to Jimmie Johnson... and the fans.
No. 71 - Sara Christian
Sara Christian, the first woman to start a NASCAR Cup Series race, finished 13th in the inaugural season championship in 1949. Her husband, Frank, finished in a tie for 26th.
Christian is still the highest-finishing woman in a NASCAR Cup Race. She finished fifth at Heidelberg Raceway, near Pittsburgh, in 1949.
Sara and Frank are the only couple honored by the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.
How about NASCAR giving Sara a nod, too.
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