In NASCAR Cup Series competition the #33 car has started 1162 races and has 23 wins, 24 pole, 147 top 5s, and 306 top 10s.
Harry Gant has the most starts in #33 with 397 starts from 1981-1994, and 18 wins including 4 straight in September 1991 (in addition to 2 XFINITY wins that month) earning him the nickname Mr. September . Gant believed in walking away a winner rather than watching his glory days fade. Gant retired from Winston Cup and Busch Series racing at the end of the 1994 season, the prime of his career. He would later drive his #33 Truck in the Truck Series and subbed for the injured Bill Elliott in the 1996 All Star Race. Gant appeared as himself in the racing movies “Stroker Ace” and “Days of Thunder.”
After Gant retired, car owner Richard Jackson hired Robert Pressley to take over the #33 car for the 1995 season. Towards the end of 1996 Jackson was looking to follow Gant into retirement, so he sold the team to longtime crewchief of the #33 Andy Petree. After 1 race as owner, Petree fired Pressley who made 58 starts in the number. Todd Bodine and Greg Sacks drove the car for the final 4 races of the year.
For 1997 Petree hired Ken Schrader to pilot the #33 car. Schrader drove the #33 for 99 starts from 1997-1999, but struggled earning only 5 top 5s in 3 years. In 2008 Schrader drove #33 one more time as a RCR R&D car at the Coke 600 .
In 2000 Petree hired Joe Nemechek to drive the car. Front Row Joe started the car 65 times in 2 years. 2000 was a steady season for Nemechek, finishing in the top 5 a total 3 times. 2001 saw it’s highs and lows. Nemechek missed 4 races after a crash in Dover left him with a broken shoulder, but he would recover nicely and win the 2001 Fall Rockingham race. Unfortunately, due to lack of sponsorship, Nemecheck would be forced to seek other opportunities in 2002.
In 2003 the unsponsored Petree team fielded #33 in just 5 races with brother’s Kenny & Mike Wallace driving. In 2004 the team ran 2 races with Paul Menard and Christian Fittipaldi before closing up shop.
In 2009 Clint Bowyer and RCR started fielding #33 and started racing Casey Mears in Bowyer’s previous #07 car. This move was necessitated by a sponsor’s request. General Mills did not want Mears, who had been driving in the 2008 season for rival cereal maker Kellogg’s, representing them, so Childress sponsors General Mills and Jack Daniels agreed to the swap for Bowyer. In his 3 years in the car Bowyer earned 3 wins in the number, but only made the Chase for the Sprint Cup once- 2010 with a 10th place overall points finish. Following the 2011 season Bowyer left RCR for Michael Waltrip Racing. He has 109 starts in the #33 car, 2nd most overall.
The #33 has periodically acted as the R&D car for Richard Childress Racing. From 2004-2008, drivers including Kerry Earnhardt , Mike Skinner , Scott Wimmer , Ken Schrader, Mike Wallace, Brian Simo, and Clint Bowyer back when he was driving for RCR in the XFINITY Series. In 2022, Austin Hill made his Cup Series debut in the RCR #33 with an 18th place finish at Michigan. In 2023, RCR fielded the #33 for V8 Supercars driver Brodie Kostecki who made his Cup Series debut at the Indianapolis Road Course, finishing 22nd. He is expected to return for a handful of starts in 2024.
When not fielding Childress drivers (which means without sponsorship support brought in by RCR), Hillman-Circle Sport has fielded the #33 with its own drivers like Alex Kennedy, Stephen Leicht , Landon Cassill , David Stremme, Brian Scott, Timmy Hill, Travis Kvapil, Bobby Labonte, Mike Bliss, Morgan Shepherd, Tony Raines, and Cole Whitt to make starts in the car. In 2015, Michael Annett made 1 start in #33 after failing to qualify his #46 cat Atlanta.
In 2017, Circle Sport (in partnership with The Motorsports Group) fielded the #33 car full-time with Jeffrey Earnhardt behind the wheel for 34 races, and Boris Said acting as a ringer on the 2 road course races.
Roy Mayne drove #33 in 20 starts from 1963-1964.
Wayne Smith drove #33 in 33 starts from 1969-1972.
From 1957-1960 U.S. Army Sergeant George Green drove #33 a total of 20 times for owner Jess Potter. Green was fired when he was caught stealing $600 in “owner’s winnings” from Potter, so he reenlisted in the Army and was shipped to Germany for further training.
Inglewood, CA driver Lou Figaro drove #33 in the NASCAR West Coast Late Model Series (K&N West), but also made 9 of his 16 career Cup starts in #33 including 1 win. He started from the pole and won the first race at Carrell Speedway in 1951. It was his only win. Figaro died in the Wilkes 160 at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on October 24, 1954 in a one-car crash; his #187 Hudson Hornet flipped over onto its roof.
Other notable names in #33
Austin Cindric, 7 starts
Bobby Hamilton Jr., 3 starts
David Pearson, 3 starts
Scott Pruett, 1 start
J.D. McDuffie, 1 start
Phil Parsons, 1 start
Wally Dallenbach Jr., 1 start
Hermie Sadler, 1 start