Name that car: Nicknames or numbers?

The number stenciled on the dashboard of Ryan Newman's car means one thing: That car has yet to win.

In fact, the garage at Penske Racing South is full of numbered cars. That means they haven't won, either.

Car owner Roger Penske started a tradition years ago of giving cars nicknames, but only after they win. A car with a name has character. It has history. It has a proven track record.

When they come off the assembly line, they're given numbers. Jimmie Johnson's car in last Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 was 48- 363. That means it was the 363rd car produced at Hendrick Motorsports since that racing organization opened its doors in 1984. But unlike Newman, Johnson's car always will be 48-363. No matter how many times it may take Johnson to Victory Lane, the Hendrick team doesn't want to get too personal with their cars.

Others feel a nickname creates a deeper connection between man and machine.

"Usually the driver has the input on the naming of it," Newman said. "When Matt (Borland) was crew chief, he named a couple of them. It's all about the situation. We actually had a car that hadn't won, but it ran so good and it should have won so many times, we called it 'Patches' because it had been patched up so many times. It hauled the mail whenever we took it to the track.

"It's a Penske tradition."

The first car Newman named was "Olive Oyl," because that was his wife's nickname. The team stuck with the Popeye theme by naming another car "Poopdeck Pappy" after Popeye's father, as well as "Popeye" himself.

"Another one of my favorites was 'Thumper.' That was the Busch car I won my first Busch race with," Newman said. "It was 'Thumper' because it put the hammer down."

Some of Newman's other cars were named "Goldie Locks," "Silver Locks," "Faith" and "Patience."

Rusty Wallace's favorite cars at Penske were "Captain," "The Predator" and "Midnight." Darrell Waltrip's favorite car was called "Big Bertha." It wasn't easy, but Davey Allison learned to love "Fido." Allison didn't like "Fido" at first and his team played on that. Allison called it "Fido" because it drove like a dog, and his team had fun by putting a dog collar and dog tag in it after making repairs.

Allison won with it, and it became one of his favorites in the Robert Yates Racing stables.

Allison's favorite cars, however, had a spectacular demise. "James Bond 007" was destroyed at the finish line in a crash with Kyle Petty in the 1992 Nextel All-Star Challenge. "James Bond 007" finished on its roof; Allison celebrated in the emergency room of Carolinas Medical Center.

Not all nicknames are nice. Johnny Sauter said he's used a lot of names for his car, and most of them included profane names of is cars with "Son of a ..."

"I've had a lot of cars that have won races, but I've never named one," Sauter said. "I've called race cars names, but I've never named one. I don't know what makes a good car other than it will drive like you want it to. Then there's cars no matter what you do to it, they don't run any good."

One of the most famous nicknames was "Grover" for a Pontiac driven by Kyle Petty. Car owner Felix Sabates taped a $1,000 bill featuring president Grover Cleveland to the dashboard to entice Petty to drive hard.

Dale Jarrett once called a car "Lawnmower" because he could run so close to the grass along the track apron.

Jeff Green hasn't given a car a name since he won the Busch Series championship in 2000. After thinking about it, he's now considering about doing it again since he hasn't won since moving up to the Nextel Cup Series in 2002.

"I got so many cars, it's hard to keep up with them," Green said of his current ride at Haas CNC Racing. "We had a car in Busch, back in the Nesquik days, we called 'Bonus.' The guys got a bonus because every time we run it, it seemed like we were in the top five. We ran that car to death. Now, they're all by number. I've got 20-something cars so it's hard to come up with names.

"But thinking about it, maybe we should start thinking about it. We had a lot of success when we did."

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