NASCAR Cup Series

History of the No. 2: Drivers who've scored big with it

Published Nov. 26, 2015 1:51 a.m. ET

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Tom Jensen

Team Penske has a long and successful history with the No. 2 dating back to 1991, when the team signed Rusty Wallace and resumed racing full time in NASCAR for the first time since 1976. The highlight, of course, was Brad Keselowski's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in 2012, the only NASCAR Premier Series title for Team Penske so far.

But Keselowski's championship wasn't the first for the No. 2.

That honor belonged to the late Dale Earnhardt, who won his first of seven Cup titles in 1980, driving the No. 2 Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Mike Curb.

And go back a little further and you find the No. 2 competed in the very first NASCAR Strictly Stock Series race at the old Charlotte Speedway dirt track, where Sam Rice started 14th and finished fourth in a 1949 Oldsmobile.

In terms of race winners, the No. 2 has been driven to Victory Lane by some of the most revered names in NASCAR history. Wallace has the most wins in the No. 2 at 37, followed by Keselowski (16), Kurt Busch (8), Bobby Allison (7), Earnhardt (6), Bill Blair (3) and Tim Richmond (2).

David Pearson, Jim Paschal and Herb Thomas each had a single victory in the No. 2.

Thomas was the first to put the No. 2 in Victory Lane for a NASCAR Premier Series race, winning at Heidelberg Raceway in 1951 in an Oldsmobile.

By the numbers for the No. 2:

Races: 1,768

Drivers: 130

Wins: 82

Top fives: 460

Top 10s: 800

Poles: 63

Laps led: 28,668

Laps run: 436,757

DNFs: 415

* All stats per DriverAverages.com

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