Racer - 2014 Chevrolet Special

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

ust to be clear, Austin Dillon doesn’t get to drive the legendary No. 3 Richard

Childress Racing Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series next year because he’s the team owner’s grandson.

Running that storied number in stock-car racing’s top tier is a privilege that has to be worked for and earned, whoever you are – and Dillon’s earned the right because of what he’s already achieved in NASCAR’s feeder series. In 2011, he won a Camping World Truck Series title with the No. 3 on the side of his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Silverado.

Then, in 2013, he triumphed in one of the most competitive Nationwide Series title battles ever in a No. 3 RCR Chevy Camaro.

For Childress, the magic and prestige of the number predates the late, great Dale Earnhardt winning six of his seven NASCAR Sprint Cup titles in an RCR Chevy with No. 3 on the side. Childress raced with that same number when he was an independent owner/driver and there was a good reason for him choosing it.

“I knew Junior Johnson drove the
No. 3 back in the day,” says Childress,
“and Junior was one of my heroes.”
Now, it’s time for another changing of
the guard, as Dillon will be the first driver
to race the No. 3 in the NASCAR Sprint
Cup Series since Earnhardt’s death in the

2001 Daytona 500.

Dillon’s dramatic 2013 Nationwide championship – he edged out Sam Hornish Jr. by just three points – sealed the deal in his team owner’s mind.

“I think the time is right,” says Childress.

“Austin winning the two championships
helped me make the decision.”
Of course, it also matters that Dillon
idolized his grandfather and Earnhardt.

“As a kid, he was a big Dale Earnhardt fan,” Childress says of Dillon. “I’ve got pictures of him in a Goodwrench uniform, with Chocolate [Myers, Earnhardt’s long-time gasman] holding him and Dale holding him. He was just always like that. He used the No. 3 when he played in the (Little League) World Series; he used it on his go-karts… He’s always loved that number and it’s what he always wanted to use.”

AUSTIN DILLON J
A black Richard Childress
Racing Chevy with No. 3
on its flanks returns to
NASCAR’s headline series
in 2014. Rising star Austin
Dillon will be at the wheel.