Throughout NASCAR's history we have seen drivers race with a number on the side of their car, we know certain drivers for one number, like Dale Earnhardt with the 3 or Richard Petty with the 43. Today in part five of this series I will be looking at the numbers 61-75 and picking the best driver to ever race that number.
61: This number has minimal success and has not been seen since 2006 when Stanton Barrett, Chad Chaffin and Kevin Lepage raced with the number. In the 61's 232 races the number scored five top 5's and 29 top 10's, split between 15 drivers, with the last coming from Clarence Lovell in 1971. My selection for the 61 ran 15 races with the number, scoring one top 5 and seven top 10's. This driver is Sherman Utsman, who ran the number in 1962 and 1963.
62: Most fans would associate this number with Brendan Gaughan, but he has actually only ran this number 20 times from 2015-2020. The number has always been a part-time number, never running a full season, coming the closest in the 1960's. Compared to the last number, this number has much more success, as in the numbers 327 races it had one win, 13 top 5's and 58 top 10's. The win this number had was scored by Frankie Schneider in 1958. While he scored the only win, he is not my selection. My selection for the 62 is Curtis Crider, who ran 136 of the 327 races it has been entered. In his 136 races he scored seven top 5's and 36 top 10's.
63: This race has almost no success and has not been on track since 1996 when Dick Trickle raced it once. The number has been ran 147 times, scoring two top 5's and 15 top 10's. The driver I am selecting for the 63 is Terry Bivins, who in his eight races with the number scored one top 5 and three top 10's.
64: Compared to the numbers mentioned above the 64 has a lot more success. In the 64's 951 races it scored two wins, 62 top 5's and 209 top 10's. Despite the number being used quite rarely, running just 22 races since 1993, one driver has a majority of the success. Elmo Langley, raced the number on and off between 1962-1979, won both of the numbers races and scored 53 top 5's and 165 top 10's. Due to the success Elmo Langley is my selection for the 64.
65: The 65, similar to most numbers in the 60's, has minimal success. The 65 has a singular top 5 and just nine top 10's. This number has not been seen in the NASCAR Cup Series since 1993 when Jerry O'Neil ran the number for just two races. With the small amount of success you would assume the selection for the 65 would be the driver who scored the singular top 5, but I will actually be going with a driver who scored four of the 65's nine top 10's. My selection is Carl Adams, who ran 19 of the number's 94 races in 1975.
66: As we continue to run through the 60's we move to 66, which actually did score a win. The lone win for the 66 came from Larry Frank in 1962. Frank scored another top 5 and seven top 10's total, but he is not my selection. My selection is Phil Parsons, brother of 1973 NASCAR Champion Benny. Parsons scored one top 5 and 11 top 10's in 57 races.
67: Once again we see another number that has gone without a win in the NASCAR Cup Series. The 67 has been run 641 times, scoring 23 top 5's and 114 top 10's and was last run by Travis Pastrana in the 2023 Daytona 500 for 23XI Racing. The selection for the 67 is actually quite obvious, after running 481 races with this number and scoring 11 top 5's and 85 top 10's my selection is Buddy Arrington, who ran the number between 1966 and 1988.
68: This number has been run 400 times, scoring no wins, 10 top 5's and 56 top 10's. In 71 races Bob Derrington scored three top 5's and 21 top 10's. While the most top 5's is close, Derrington scored the most top 10's, having 18 more than the next driver. Derrington is my selection for the 68.
69: The 69 has not been seen in the NASCAR Cup Series since 1992 and has not run more than 10 races since 1961. As with most number mentioned in this part it has scored no wins and only has five top 5's and 20 top 10's. My selection for this number is Johnny Allen, who in 26 races scored four top 5's and 13 top 10's. This is Allen's second selection, after being chosen for the 58 in the last part.
70: The number 70 in the 2000's was driven mostly by Johnny Sauter for Haas CNC Racing, the team now known as Stewart Haas Racing. In terms of NASCAR history one driver has 95 percent of the success. The number has been run 760 times, having 14 top 5's and 118 top 10's. J.D. McDuffie ran the number for 624 times and scored 12 top 5's and 103 top 10's. It is without a doubt that McDuffie is the best driver to use the 70 in the NASCAR Cup Series.
71: From numbers 49 through 70 scored 39 wins, an average of one point seven wins per number. The 71 destroys that, scoring 44 wins and had 182 top 5's and 305 top 10's. The 44 wins for this number were split between four drivers, Buddy Baker, Bobby Isaac, Dave Marcis and Fireball Roberts. While winning 35 races and scoring 114 top 5's and 134 top 10's would likely be enough to secure his spot of the best to use the 71, Isaac's case as best to use the number is locked down because he won the 1970 NASCAR Cup Series championship using the 71. This is Isaac's second selection as he also was selected for the 37.
72: As we move from the 71 to the 72 we see more success than a majority of the 60's combined. In 576 races the 72 won 14 time and scored 145 top 5's and 237 top 10's. One driver, Benny Parsons, scored 12 of the 14 wins and scored 125 top 5's and 177 top 10's. While those are monster stats, Parsons also scored the 1973 NASCAR Cup Series championship.
73: Compared to the 71 and 72 there is not a lot of success for the 73, but the number still has a couple of wins and a few handfuls of top 5's. Johnny Beauchamp won the two races for the number, scored five top 5's and seven top 10's. As the top 5's and top 10's are relatively close, having the two wins gives Beauchamp the advantage and is my selection for the 73.
74: As we move to the next number, we have another number to never have scored a win in the NASCAR Cup Series. While the number has a decent amount of success, having seven top 5's and 73 top 10's. One driver, L..D. Austin has over 50 top 5's and the next closest is Tom Pistone with five top 5's. Due to this L.D. Austin is my selection for the 74.
75: Unlike how we started this section of the list, we end the list with a number that has scored wins in the NASCAR Cup Series. The 75 had six wins, 63 top 5's and 194 top 10's in 823 races, most recently in 2017, with Brendan Gaughan. Neil Bonnett scored four wins, 18 top 5's and 39 top 10's and Jim Paschal scored one win, 17 top 5's and 26 top 10's. Those two are the only options for best driver to run the 75. While the top 5's and top 10's are the relatively close, Bonnett having four of the 75's wins in the NASCAR Cup Series gives him the advantage over Paschal.
We are now at the end of part five of the series, through 76 numbers we have seen 66 different drivers selected for best in each number. We will see soon the sixth of seven parts to see what drivers are selected and which can get a second or even third number.
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