In NASCAR Cup Series competition the #31 car has started 1,249 races with 103 drivers and has 8 wins, 10 poles, 100 top 5s, and 310 top 10s.
In 1993 Richard Childress fielded #31 for Dale Earnhardt’s longtime friend Neil Bonnett to help him return to the sport after recovering from a life threatening crash in 1990. At Talladega, Bonnett would be involved in a very spectacular crash that threw his car into the catch fence and brought out a red flag . Neil was uninjured in the accident and joined the CBS broadcast team to call the rest of the race. Bonnett started 1 more race in #31 later in 1993. While practicing for the 1994 Daytona 500 Bonnett crashed James Finch’s #51 into the turn 4 wall and died. The same corner would claim the life of his friend Dale Earnhardt 7 years later.
In 1994 Ward Burton drove the #31 for owner Alan Dillard Jr. Ward was one of a record 10 rookies in the 1994 season. Despite winning his first career pole at Charlotte, Ward would be bested by his brother Jeff for Rookie of the Year. After struggling in most of his first 46 starts, Ward departed the team midway through the 1995 season to drive the #22 for Bill Davis Racing. Greg Sacks, Jimmy Hensley, and Gary Bradberry would finish the season in #31.
In 1996, RCR began fielding #31 part time with the defending Truck Series champion Mike Skinner behind the wheel. In 1997 Skinner began driving full time in Winston (Sprint) Cup with Lowe’s as the primary sponsor. Skinner won the pole for both Daytona races in 1997 and was named rookie of the year, despite failing to qualify for 1 event. Skinner never won a points paying Sprint Cup race, but he won 2 exhibition races in Japan in 1997 at Suzuka & 1998 at Motegi . In 2001 Skinner announced that he would part ways with RCR at the end of the season. At the inaugural race at Chicagoland Speedway Skinner cut a right front tire and hit the wall hard. He would miss several races due to the resulting concussion, injured ACL, and broken ankle. Skinner returned to his car, but after another hard crash at Richmond he elected to miss the rest of the season in favor of surgery to repair his ACL. Skinner started 156 races in #31.
When Skinner was injured in 2001 Childress hired free agent driver Robby Gordon to fill in for him. Gordon almost won a race during a one-off start in the #7 car at Sears Point (Sonoma) earlier in 2001, and caught a lot of interest. While subbing for Skinner, Robby was dominating the race at Watkins Glen when the TV telemetry box in his carcaught fire , ending his day. When Skinner returned it was announced that Robby Gordon would drive the #31 full time in 2002, despite not having a sponsor lined up. When Skinner elected for surgery Gordon was put back in #31 for the remainder of the 2001 season (except for the race at Homestead in which Jeff Green drove to prepare to drive the RCR #30 the next year). After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 NASCAR decided to postpone the New Hampshire race scheduled for that weekend. The race was moved to November 23rd 2001, after the scheduled conclusion of the season. After late race contact with Jeff Gordon , Robby pulled off the upset win to close out the 2001 season.
In 2002 Robby returned with Cingular Wireless as the new sponsor on the car, but the team struggled all year except for a 3rd place finish at Watkins Glen. Robby completed “The Double” in 2002 by driving his #31 in the Indy 500 and driving the Coke 600 in the same day. 2003 was Robby’s best year as he earned 2 wins at Infineon (Sonoma) and Watkins Glen
In 2004 Gordon continued to struggle . In the first race of the inaugural Chase for the Sprint Cup Robby intentionally wrecked Greg Biffle as payback for an earlier incident. The incident took out Tony Stewart and Jeremey Mayfield, 2 chase contenders. NASCAR fined Gordon $15,000 and RCR placed him on probation for the rest of the year. Following 2004, Gordon left RCR to run his own Cup team.
Midway through 2004 Jeff Burton was released from Roush Racing after his #99 team struggled to find sponsorship. Burton was quickly hired by RCR to drive the #30 AOL car which struggled to have a consistent driver. Following Robby Gordon’s departure Burton moved to the #31 Cingular car for the 2005 season. After 3 top 5s in 2005 including a 2nd place at Bristol, Burton had a strong 2006 season winning 4 poles including the Daytona 500 and winning at Dover . Burton finished 7th in The Chase in 2006.
In 2007 Burton won at Texas early in the season. Burton and the #31 team would find sponsorship trouble during the summer though, as Cingular Wireless was bought by AT&T to become AT&T Wireless. Cup Series Sponsor NEXTEL (now Sprint) had an “exclusivity clause” meaning that no new wireless communication companies could sponsor cars in the series, but all existing sponsors (Alltel and Cingular) could continuing sponsor cars. When Cingular was absorbed the logo changed, and NEXTEL saw this as a new company. NASCAR refused to let Burton and the #31 team put AT&T logos on the car, so AT&T sued NASCAR. During the controversy Burton was forced to run an unsponsored car for several races , though the car still bore the familiar orange and black colors. By the Fall, the case had been resolved and AT&T was allowed to sponsor the car, providing that they leave the sport at the end of 2008. In 2007 Burton finished 7th in the standings again.
In 2008 Burton almost won the Daytona 500 until he was shuffled back to 13th on the final restart. He would find victory lane twice in 2008 at Bristol & Charlotte.
In 2009 Caterpillar signed on to be the new full time sponsor of #31 as AT&T was forced out by Sprint. Burton would not win another points race, but he came close several times. In 2010, the usually calm Burton and Jeff Gordon ended up in a shoving match after they wrecked at Texas . In 2011 he won his Gatorade Duel Daytona Qualifying race after getting a push from his teammate Clint Bowyer. Following the 2013 season Burton announced his semi-retirement by leaving RCR to driver part time for MWR. Burton has the most career starts in #31 with 324.
In 2014 Ryan Newman began driving the #31 Car. While he failed to win in his first year he became the underdog to win the championship after a last corner pass at phoenix promoted him into the Final 4 for the championship. He would finish second in the 2014 Chase after Kevin Harvick won the finale at Homestead. Newman made the chase again in 2015, but was eliminated after the second round. After a sub-par 2016 season, Newman shocked skeptics when he announced a multi-year contract extension and a new paint scheme for 2017.
This extension was rewarded with Newman’s and RCR’s first victory in four years with his triumph in the Camping World 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. A race dominated by Kyle Busch, a late caution for Joey Logano’s blown tire with five laps to go set up a final restart. Newman elected to stay out and held off Kyle Larson to claim the win. The win marked Newman’s 18th and RCR’s 213th Cup victory, ending 127- and 112-race winless streaks, respectively. Newman was eliminated in the first round of The Playoffs, after finishing only 2 points behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
On September 15, 2018, it was announced that Newman would not return to RCR in 2019. Newman barely missed the Playoffs for the first time since 2016 and wound up 17th in the final standings, while also concluding a season with zero top-five finishes for the first time in his career. Newman started 180 races in #31.
In 2019, RCR renumbered the #31 team to #8 with driver Daniel Hemric. However, they fielded the #31 car as an extra entry in 2 races with driver Tyler Reddick. At the Daytona 500 Reddick would be involved in an incident entering pit road, wounding the car. Later, he would be collected in “The Big One.” At Kansas, Reddick drove to a 9th place finish. Reddick replaced Hemric as the driver of RCR’s #8 car for the 2020 season.
In 2022, Justin Haley started 36 races for Kaulig Racing in car #31. While Haley was not considered a rookie due to his numerous starts in car #77 for Spire Motorsports, many considered him an “unofficial rookie” due to this being his first season soley focued on Cup racing, and in competitive cup equipment. In the Daytona 500, Haley found trouble with the new single-lug wheels, becoming the first driver to have a wheel fall off of the next-gen car. Haley scored 3 top-5’s and 4 top-10’s in his first season for Kaulig in Cup. He returned in 2023 to score 1 top-5 and 6 top-10s. Haley will drive for Rick Ware Racing in 2024 and Daniel Hemric will take over the Kaulig 31.
Jim Vandiver started #31 a total of 59 times from 1970-1977.
Other notable names in #31
Cale Yarborough, 12 starts
Jim Sauter , 12 starts
Ralph Earnhardt, 10 starts
Joe Ruttman, 9 starts
Morgan Shepherd, 2 starts
Johnny Beauchamp, 2 starts
Curtis Crider, 1 start
Slick Johnson, 1 start
