Re: The #3 Car Returns to NASCAR?
Posted by:
Not a NASCAR fan
()
Date: December 12, 2013 12:39PM
Dale.Fan Wrote:
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> Not a NASCAR fan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What the hell is a #3 car and who cares if it
> > returns to NASCAR? Not following this thread
> at
> > all.
>
> While Dale Earnhardt is not the ONLY driver to
> pilot a car with the #3 on it...he DID drive it to
> 6 NASCAR Winston Cup Championships for Richard
> Childress Racing. (He won a 7th Cup CHampionship
> in 1980 driving for owner Rod Osterlund.)
>
> Additionally, it was in this same Richard
> Childress Racing GM Goodwrench #3 Chevrolet Monte
> Carlo that he died in a last lap crash at the
> Daytona 500 on February 18, 2001.
>
> NASCAR's policies and rules do not allow for car
> numbers to be retired. When a team enters a new
> car in the series, the car is assigned its number
> by NASCAR. If the car owner does not continue to
> register that number each season (whether the car
> races or not) the number goes back into the pot
> and can be re-assigned to the next race team as
> NASCAR wishes.
>
> Following Earnhardt's death, Richard Childress
> (his car owner and boss) said the race team would
> go on. He went out and hired Kevin Harvick who
> drove the GM Goodwrench #29 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
> Harvick's car typically carried an inverted paint
> scheme from that of Earnhardt's #3. Where
> Earnhardt's car was black, Harvick's was white.
> Childress continued to register the #3 so that it
> would continue to be available to a driver in his
> stable and the speculation was that Dale
> Earnhardt, Jr. at some point in his career
> (perhaps his last year), would perhaps sign a one
> year deal to drive for his Dad's old boss, Richard
> Childress and put the #3 back on the racetrack in
> a proper and fitting way and honor his father. And
> it's possible this could still happen. In the
> meantime...
>
> As in indicated in the OP's post, Richard
> Childress' grandson Austin Dillon has been driving
> his grandfather's owned cars in NASCAR's lower
> ranks and will be a rookie this year in NASCAR's
> top division, the Sprint Cup. Austin Dillon will
> be driving the #3 car.
>
> No one...NOBODY should EVER drive a car with a 3
> on it unless their last name is Earnhardt. This
> coupled with the fact that Austin Dillon has more
> dollars then sense and is only where he is because
> of his birthright and not his skill really does
> not sit well with most NASCAR fans.
Thanks for the explanation.