#SrigleyStats Countdown to Daytona: 49 Days!
Sunday, December 31st, 2023 -- 49 Days Until Daytona!
49 DAYS UNTIL THE 2024 DAYTONA 500!
Let’s take a look back at the history of the #49 in NASCAR’s National Series.
FIRST USAGE:
NCS: 1949-04 (Langhorne) - Walter Minx
NXS: 1983-02 (Richmond) - Wayne Patterson
NCTS: 1996-01 (Homestead) - Rodney Combs, Jr.
BEST FINISH:
NCS: P1 - 7 NASCAR Cup Series Victories (Most: Bob Welborn - 5)
NXS: P4 - 1984-02 (Richmond) - Wayne Patterson
NXS: P4 - 1997-11 (Talladega) - Kyle Petty
NCTS: P5 - 2018-19 (Talladega) - Wendell Chavous
BEST START:
NCS: P1 - 8 NASCAR Cup Series Poles (Most: Bob Welborn - 5)
NXS: P4 - 1991-31 (Martinsville) - Ed Ferree
NCTS: P4 - 1996-20 (North Wilkesboro) - Rodney Combs
IS THE NUMBER ACTIVE?
In 2023, the #49 was not utilized in a single NASCAR National Series event. However, it was used in both the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series West.
MBM Motorsports last utilized the #49 in the October 2020 event at Texas Motor Speedway, with Chad Finchum behind the wheel — the final of three starts for the entry that season, after running Fall events at Las Vegas and Kansas.
In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the #49 hasn’t been seen on-track since November 2011, when Mark Green drove for Jay Robinson Racing — more recently known as Premium Motorsports — at Phoenix Raceway, finishing 36th, retiring after 15 laps.
Mark Green would attempt to qualify for the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway but failed to make the show, one of four DNQs for the #49 in the final five races.
In a very unique situation, G2G Racing and CMI Motorsports technically share the honors of the last time the #49 raced in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, that being the Bristol Dirt Race in 2022.
A chassis registration issue when the team unloaded for practice forced Tim Viens to make a call to Ray Ciccarelli, former NASCAR Truck Series owner, and have him enter the No. 49 in the event, for Andrew Gordon — who was supposed to run under G2G Racing.
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Jeff Smith and Brad Smith Motorsports were the first to put the #49 on-track for NASCAR this season — provided you lump ARCA in with NASCAR. The entry, a spare car out of Brad Smith Motorsports, competed in two races, completing a total of two laps between Berlin and Michigan.
Monty Tipton dipped his toes into the ARCA Menards Series West for a pair of events in 2023, driving the No. 49 Chevrolet SS for Kenneally-Keller Motorsports at the LVMS Bullring and Madera, where he finished 18th and 12th-place.
WHO HAS MOST FREQUENTLY USED THE #49?
NASCAR Cup Series: G.C. Spencer - 237 Starts
NASCAR Xfinity Series: Mark Green - 49 Starts
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series: Wendell Chavous - 38 Starts
MISCELLANEOUS STATS ABOUT THE #49 IN NASCAR
The #49 hasn’t won a NASCAR National Series event since Bobby Allison won the 1971 Myers Brothers 250 at Bowman Gray Stadium — 52 years ago.
Timmy Hill — while driving the #49 for Premium Motorsports — became the first driver to lead laps in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series while using the #49 at Daytona International Speedway in 2016.
From 2007 to 2011, the #49 was only running at the end of nine NASCAR Xfinity Series events.
With a 17th-place result in the 2007 Food City 500, Mike Bliss is the last driver to have finished inside the top-20 in a NASCAR Cup Series event while carrying the #49.
The last time the #49 earned a top-20 finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Ray Ciccarelli mustered a ninth-place finish at Michigan International Speedway in 2019 — the only top-10 result that he or CMI Motorsports scored.
Shawna Robinson is the only driver to utilize the #49 in each of NASCAR’s National Series — Best Finishes: NCS - 24th, NXS - 30th, NCTS - 18th.