According to the
2008 USAC rules, Appendix C - Silver Crown Championship, Section 232 - Car Numbers, Subsection D.
"To be eligible to retain a number an entrant must have entered and/or made an effort to compete in 51% or more of the scheduled races in the previous season. "

64% of the 2007 races were on Pavement. Anyone who didn't buy a New Style Car has to reapply for their number. Some of these teams have run the same numbers for over 20 years.

Was this intended to force the Crown Car Owners to buy a New Style Car or to just alienate them?

Nice way to treat your loyal, long time supporters USAC!:loser:

That rule has been in effect for many, many years.

Whether you ran "more than" or "fewer than" 51% of the races, you still have to reapply each year. Running more than 51% just reserves the number until a certain date. If you fail to reregister the car by that date, then another car owner can apply for it.

Believe it or not, the Ugly Step Mom will still most likely grant any requests to the "dirt only" car owners to retain their previous numbers.

What car number do you own, or are you just whining for the sake of whining?

Oh, so I have to be an Owner to care? Which one do YOU own?

Bubzilla -- You are dead wrong about this. The new rule about running more than 51% of the races to reserve the number was a new rule that was instituted in 2006 or 2007. Everyone has to reapply every year -- that hasn't changed, but what changed is that an owner has to run more than 51% of the races to hold onto their number. Formerly, as long as you got your entry in by the end of January, you could retain your number. The former rule had nothing to do with the number of races, just as long as you renewed by a certain date.

Reference an article written by Jeff Swindell about a year ago in Sprint Car & Midget magazine lamenting on how the Galas Motorsports SC entry #12 would have to relinquish their number to Western Speed (Roger Penske backed). Note that Billy Wease ran the #12 this year in Silver Crown competition and Galas Motorsports had to forfeit their long-running #12 and mark it #112.

A similar dispute started when the RE Technologies/Carl Edwards team tried to swipe the #99 from the Mucci-Matczak Seals-It car. The Carl Edwards backed car driven at Homestead in March 2006 did list the #99 on their car, until Mucci Matczak filed a dispute and got their number back. In 2007, the Seals-It #99 ran a majority of the races, so apparently they were allowed to keep the #99. If you look at the Homestead Qualifying Results from 3-25-2006, http://www.motorsport.com/news/artic...917&FS=USAC-SC, Pete Shepherd is listed as qualifying 4th in the #99 car:
4. Pete Shepherd III, 99, Edwards/RE - 31.429

Take a look at the Springfield qualifying results from 2006 (8-19-06):
http://www.motorsport.com/news/artic...627&FS=USAC-SC

Springfield 2006:
Jeff Swindell qualified 17th in the #12 Galas entry:
17. Jeff Swindell, 12, Galas - 31.106

Then take a look at the Springfield qualifying results from 8-18-07:
http://www.motorsport.com/news/artic...809&FS=USAC-SC

Springfield 2007:
Hud Cone qualified 28th in the #112 Galas entry and Billy Wease qualified in the #12 Western Speed (Roger Penske backed) entry:
17. Billy Wease, 12, Western Speed - 31.479
28. Hud Cone, 112, Galas - 32.371

After looking at the FACTS listed above, it would appear that the new rule about numbers clearly was written to benefit the newest NASCAR-related contingent who are running NEW GEN cars. It is also equally biased against dirt cars. I am sure there are some historians who frequent this message board who can tell us how long the Galas Motorsports #12 has been running dirt champ cars/Silver Crown.

UNINVITED PARTICIPANT

I don't know when they started but Kevin Thomas got the Galas entry it's first win on July 5, 1996 at Terre Haute.

For a minute I thought this was about NASCAR's Modifieds!

From the Official USAC Rule Book, 2002:

(I can't get the "Bold" button to work, but see "D" below).

Appendix B
2002 Silver Crown Championship Division Technical Specifications

231 Car Numbers
A. All car numbers are assigned by the Director of Competition or his designate.
B. Every car must carry its assigned number prominently painted on the nose and on each side of the tail.
C. The numerals shall be white on black background or black on white background or contrasting equivalents. The final decision on the adequacy of the numbers will rest with the Director of Timing and Scoring.

D. Numbers 2 through 99 will be assigned to entrants on a permanent basis providing a car registration has been received prior to January 15 of each year.

The number 1 is reserved for the National Champion driver and will not be reassigned. The use of number 1 is not cause to relinquish the competitor's permanent number. Numbers may be reassigned if the number was not actually used the previous season. The Director of Competition may reassign numbers at the conclusion of the season. Any number released by a competitor must be reassigned by the Director of Competition. Other numbers will be assigned in the order that requests are received.
E. After a number is assigned to a particular car and entrant, it will remain with the entrant until the end of the racing season unless reassigned by the Director of Competition.

Both you and Iconoclast are "right" in a way, the 2-99 deal IS, as you pointed out, OLD NEWS BUT the 51% was added after the 2005 season.

Which Car do you own again?

Dwight, what about all those races and championships Gary Bettenhausen got for them back in the 80's? Or was that Delrose/Holt? Was it the same team? I'm not sure.
David.
p.s. Merry Christmas dude! :respect:

Neither am I, Dave. That '96 win was the first with Galas listed as the entrant. And Merry Christmas to you and your family!