This is a topic I have always been intriqued with. Information about which car the drivers were assigned to for driver introduction is almost nonexistent for most years. Because of this, I started collecting photos of the drivers during the introductions to help document the vehicles they were in. Using this information, I was able to put together the following charts which show a pattern of how the drivers were assigned to the Festival Cars.









If anyone has any information not shown here, could you please let me know. Placing the drivers in the vehicles can hopefully lead to being able to determine the actual Festival Car number.

So does that mean that Jeff Burton rode in my #22?

Greg, I'm sorry, the charts should have been labeled to show the number beside the drivers name was the starting position. I had added a column for the car number and the titles here at home, but didn't think to change what I had posted online earlier.

The information shown in the charts came from pictures showing the drivers during the introduction of each years race. Unfortunately, these photos are only able to determine who was in a car and not the Festival Car number. The arrows between the drivers names indicate they were both in the same car. There are several exceptions to knowing the Festival Car numbers, however. In 1998, Jeff Gordon was in car #24 and in 2001, Kurt Busch was in car #14. Mike Rhudy has also said in 2000 that Ricky Rudd was in car #9. Mike owns this car and helped at the track so I think that he would know.

The 2001 chart is a little different then the other years. As you know, some drivers were in Festival Cars and others in Trucks. I've shown this by highlighting the drivers name in red or green to distinquish the type of vehicle. If I remember correctly, didn't I hear you say Ricky Craven was in your car? Chris Latham, Car #10, mentioned on this site that Bobby Labonte was in his car. I didn't include this information on the chart because I was unsure of it.

The purpose of these charts is to enable this site to have a record of this information that is as accurate as possible. I had to start somewhere, so using each years starting grid and placing the drivers in vehicles seemed to be the most logical place. Hopefully down the road, we will able to update the list with the car numbers as they become available.

Edit: I found some more photos this afternoon that show Bobby Labonte was in a truck.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PeterPar,

Peter, I heard from Jim Hairston from another pace car site that Ricky Craven rode in my car but cannot confirm that.

quote:

Originally posted by 2002Z4CSS:
Peter, I heard from Jim Hairston from another pace car site that Ricky Craven rode in my car but cannot confirm that.

I would think that would be pretty reliable information, myself. Outside of Howard or Scott, I don't know who would be more knowledgeable than Jim. So far, I have not found a picture of Ricky Craven in 2001. If I do, I'll send you a copy of it.

That would be sweet Peter.

Stumbled across these forums when investigating the history of my "new to me" SS festival car. I recently purchased....car #15 from 2000 Brickyard. I had seen a post that had mentioned an "older gentleman" trying to sell his car #15 in the Indianapolis area about three years ago, I realized "That's my car!" Excited to find out my cars place in history. Any information or leads would be great.

Welcome to site! I remember this car, congratulations on your purchase. Start a new tread and we'll see what we can help you find out.

Great purchase. Welcome to the group. I'm sure you'll learn a lot about your car from some very knowledgeable members on here.

Welcome. Maybe Howard can chime in with more information on all of our cars.