When Roush Fenway Racing driver Greg Biffle takes the green flag at Daytona International Speedway 16 days from today on FOX, he will be attempting to do something no one else has before: Win the Daytona 500 driving the No. 16.
Yes, it's true.
Both the No. 15 and the No. 17 are three-time Daytona 500 winners, with Bobby Allison winning in 1978 with the No. 15 and Michael Waltrip doing it in 2001 and '03, while the No. 17 won the Great American race with Darrell Waltrip in 1988 and Matt Kenseth in 2009 and '12.
And Biffle has won in the No. 16 at Daytona before, winning the July Daytona race as a rookie in 2003. But never has the No. 16 won the Daytona 500.
Throughout the history of NASCAR, Biffle has enjoyed more success in the No. 16 than any other driver, winning 19 Sprint Cup races.
Five other drivers have combined to win 13 Cup races in the No. 16, and they include some big names: Darel Dieringer won five races in the No. 16, while NASCAR Hall of Fame members Glen Wood and Bobby Allison won three times each. Two-time NASCAR Grand National -- now Sprint Cup -- champ Joe Weatherly won once in the No. 16, as did Mark Donohue in a Roger Penske-owned red, white and blue AMC Matador. Donohue's victory came on the old Riverside, Calif., road course in 1973.
For you history buffs, the No. 16 appeared in the first NASCAR Strictly Stock race at the old Charlotte Speedway on June 19, 1949. There, Bill Snowden finished 22nd in the No. 16 Mercury.
The first victory for the No. 16 came on Nov. 6, 1960, when Weatherly won a 100-mile race at Southern States Fairgrounds, a long-defunct half-mile dirt track in Charlotte.
By The Numbers, for No. 16 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series:
Starts: 1,035
Wins: 32
Top fives: 166
Top 10s: 328
Poles: 30
Average start: 17.40
Average finish: 17.77
Drivers: 88
Stats by driveraverages.com.
