For the 88th time...

This isn't exactly the 1st rodeo for a No. 88 in the Earnhardt family.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s grandfather, Ralph Earnhardt, drove a No. 88 in a 1-off deal for Petty Enterprises in 1957. Ralph drove an Oldsmobile in the Virginia 500 at Martinsville Speedway, and then drove a No. 188 for seven other races that year. He was winless in all the starts.

This probably qualifies as old news now, but the list of former drivers to sit behind the wheel of a No. 88 in what is now the Cup Series is pretty remarkable -- Bobby Allison (former Oxford Plains winner), Donnie Allison, Buck Baker, Buddy Baker, Geoffrey Bodine (an Oxford 250 winner), Ernie Irvan, Dale Jarrett, Benny Parsons, Fireball Roberts, Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip, just to name a few.

"I like the fact that the number has some history. That makes me feel very proud to have it," said Earnhardt, whose JR Motorsports fields No. 88s in the Busch Series. "I'm very excited about it. That was what some of the other options sort of lacked, was that they didn't have any true history or true greatness behind them, no substance.

"So this was really sort of a gold mine, in effect, for me because of the heritage that it had."

The No. 88 has a pretty impressive resume in NASCAR racing. In addition to its 65 Cup wins, ranking 9th among car numbers all-time, it has 52 pole positions, 315 top-5s and 526 top-10s in 1,264 starts.

Here's one of the stats I like best -- the No. 88 has logged nearly 350,000 miles in Cup

competition. I'm no math whiz, but that's a lot of lefthand turns.