Motorsport team numbers based off of sponsors

[GrayJ12]

I've been thinking about this the past few weeks. Motorsports (like IndyCar, F1, NASCAR, ISMA, etc.) are in an interesting position where their sponsors can dictate what number a car can run. Here are a few examples I've thought of:

Dario Franchitti - drove #50 for the 2012 Indy 500 (which he won) to celebrate the 50th university of Target:


Dave Blaney/Clint Bowyer/Casey Mears - all drove the 07 in the late 2000's in the NASCAR Cup Series, corresponding to their sponsorship with Jack Daniels:


Does anyone have any other instances of this happening?

[stumpygremlin]

 

For the 2011 All-Star race, Jimmie Johnson ran the #5 for Lowe's because of some 5% off special

[stumpygremlin]

 

Kamui Kobayashi ran the 50 at COTA in honor of Mobil 1's 50th anniversary

[stumpygremlin]

Somewhat sponsor-dictated, but Ricky Craven ran the 50 car in 1998 because Budweiser was the official beer of NASCAR and NASCAR was celebrating their 50th anniversary that year.

[sky1324]

In the Xfinity series:

[mjarvie]

13 hours ago, sky1324 said:

In the Xfinity series:

That's his normal number. So that just happened to be a coincidence. But the ones I can remember is Kyle Busch running 75 in the all star race for M&M's 75th anniversary and there was a Best Buy car that was 66 because that was the year it was founded.

 

To the original poster, I didn't know Target had a university, let alone one that had been around for 50 years, Do they have an athletic program? I'm curious.

[infrared41]

18 hours ago, mjarvie said:

To the original poster, I didn't know Target had a university, let alone one that had been around for 50 years, Do they have an athletic program? I'm curious.

 

You read it wrong, the number 50 was to celebrate the 50th university of Target. Apparently, Target has 50 universities. I'm assuming some are older than others. As far as I know, none of them have athletic programs which is a shame because that logo would look sharp on a football helmet.

[Germanshepherd]

On 5/28/2024 at 8:49 AM, GrayJ12 said:

Dave Blaney/Clint Bowyer/Casey Mears - all drove the 07 in the late 2000's in the NASCAR Cup Series, corresponding to their sponsorship with Jack Daniels:


Does anyone have any other instances of this happening?

When I was a kid I thought that car was number “Upside Down 20”

[mjarvie]

4 hours ago, infrared41 said:

 

You read it wrong, the number 50 was to celebrate the 50th university of Target. Apparently, Target has 50 universities. I'm assuming some are older than others. As far as I know, none of them have athletic programs which is a shame because that logo would look sharp on a football helmet.

Well, whatever they teach at these Target universities it apparently isn't customer service or how to look professional. I swear Target is just filled with a bunch of people wandering around looking like they grabbed their clothes from dirty clothes pile and threw them on. 

[dont care]

There was Michael Waltrips 99 Aaron’s dream machine that was kind of a thing for Aaron’s.

[DCarp1231]

M&M’s celebrating 75 years at the 2016 All Star Race

[LAWeaver]

On 5/28/2024 at 8:49 AM, GrayJ12 said:

I've been thinking about this the past few weeks. Motorsports (like IndyCar, F1, NASCAR, ISMA, etc.) are in an interesting position where their sponsors can dictate what number a car can run. Here are a few examples I've thought of:

Dario Franchitti - drove #50 for the 2012 Indy 500 (which he won) to celebrate the 50th university of Target:


Dave Blaney/Clint Bowyer/Casey Mears - all drove the 07 in the late 2000's in the NASCAR Cup Series, corresponding to their sponsorship with Jack Daniels:


Does anyone have any other instances of this happening?

On a similar note to Franchitti's Target anniversary car, Bill Elliott ran a special #50 during the 2012 Daytona 500 in honor of Walmart's 50th anniversary:

 

 

Other than the recent TMT/AmeriVet entries, it seems like the #50 is typically used for one-off anniversary cars (except for when Hendrick rebranded the 25 to the 50 in '98 for the full season).

[stumpygremlin]

1 hour ago, LAWeaver said:

On a similar note to Franchitti's Target anniversary car, Bill Elliott ran a special #50 during the 2012 Daytona 500 in honor of Walmart's 50th anniversary:

 

 

Other than the recent TMT/AmeriVet entries, it seems like the #50 is typically used for one-off anniversary cars (except for when Hendrick rebranded the 25 to the 50 in '98 for the full season).

It went wonderfully...

[LAWeaver]

Robby Gordon also ran the #83 Red Bull Chevy during one of the Busch Series' trips down to Mexico. The 83 was in reference to Red Bull's cans being 8.3 ounces (notice the small red decimal between the two numbers):

 

 

Later on when Red Bull fielded their own Cup Series program, they debuted with the numbers 83 and 84 (yes, Red Bull also has 8.4 oz cans).

 

[Bomba Tomba]

 

 

 

[stumpygremlin]

14 hours ago, Bomba Tomba said:

 

 

 

This Mobil 1 car is just coincidentally numbered 1. Tricon Garage has run the number since 2021 with Hailie Deegan, which was before the Mobil 1 sponsorship was there.

[Bomba Tomba]

I know, it's just one of my favorite examples of number/sponsor matching