How many drivers have left one team for another and taken their number
with them? How many championship drivers have done this? And how many
that have never shown the ability to win a championship have taken
their number from one owner to another?

--
"Any illiterate maniac, any worthless moron who commits some revolting
murder, gets shrieks of sympathy from us and marshals an army of
humanitarian defenders. But a man of genius is guilty by definition."
- Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

Thoth <Thoth (AT) Thoth (DOT) egy> wrote in news:66k1d31p8u57bi5cihaeak4qt8kl8347nd@
4ax.com:

Very few. But it's only in fairly recent times (say the last couple
of decades) that we've associated the number with the driver. Before
that the car, number, and owner were grouped together (Junior's 11,
Bud Moore's 15, the Woods' 21, Cotton Owen's 6) and the driver was
seperate.

John

"John McCoy" <igopogo (AT) ix (DOT) netcom.com> wrote

The only "big name" driver that I can recall taking his number with him was
DW when he left Hendrick. Although I think DW may have bought the entire #17
operation from HMS, number included, since HMS went from three team down to
two until JG came along 2 years later.

"armpit" <armarmpitpit (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote in
news:K5idnZfcJ_g8WkzbnZ2dnUVZ_u6rnZ2d (AT) comcast (DOT) com:

I think you're correct that Hendrick sold him the team - in fact,
I think Waltrip ran Hendrick chassis and motors as long as he
was an "independant".

But Waltrip is a good example of a driver and a number not being
associated. When I think of Waltrip, I never think "#17". I think
of Waltrip running Junior's #11, or the Di-Gard #88, the two cars
he had the most success in.

John