Dale Earnhardt Jr. gives Shane van Gisbergen his blessing

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

Dale Earnhardt Jr. gives Shane van Gisbergen blessing for No. 88 car

By Samuel Stubbs | Last updated Aug 24, 2024 5:25 PM ET

Shane van Gisbergen will be full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2025, and he'll have an iconic number on the side of his car.

Trackhouse Racing announced that van Gisbergen will run the No. 88 car next season, bringing back the number for the first time since 2020, when Hendrick Motorsports' Alex Bowman ran the number.

The number may be most famous for being run by Dale Earnhardt Jr. from 2008-17 during his tenure at Hendrick Motorsports and the NASCAR Hall of Famer showed his support for the number's return.

I was lucky to run a few numbers with so much rich history. Excited to see @shanevg97 and @TeamTrackhouse add a new chapter to it. 88 will have a good home there.
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) August 24, 2024

Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison, Buddy Baker, Donnie Allison and Ricky Rudd all ran the No. 88 for DiGard Racing in the 1970s and 1980s. Dale Jarrett won the most races with the No. 88 car, winning 26 times in the car for Robert Yates Racing.

Waltrip won 26 races with the number, with Earnhardt Jr. taking the No. 88 to victory lane nine times. Bowman, the latest driver of the number, won twice with the number, at Chicagoland (2019) and Auto Club (2020).

van Gisbergen will run seven of the final 12 Cup Series races in 2024, including Saturday's Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona. The race will go green shortly after 7:30 p.m. ET, with coverage on NBC, Peacock, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Samuel Stubbs

Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024. He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker

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