Earnhardt first drove for Richard Childress Racing in the latter half of the 1981 season, piloting the No. 3 in Pontiac equipment before leaving at year's end for other opportunities. He returned to RCR ahead of the 1984 season, taking over from Ricky Rudd in the No. 3. The car initially carried Wrangler Jeans sponsorship, maintaining the blue-and-yellow livery Earnhardt had worn at Bud Moore Engineering.
The decisive visual change came in 1988. When Wrangler withdrew its backing and GM Goodwrench stepped in as the primary sponsor, the No. 3 adopted a predominantly black paint scheme with red and silver trim. That combination — dark, severe, immediately recognizable — became inseparable from Earnhardt's aggressive persona and the "Intimidator" nickname he had earned on track.
Between 1984 and 1994, Earnhardt and the No. 3 collected five Winston Cup titles to add to the two championships he had won earlier in his career. The car won at every category of track the Cup schedule offered: the short concrete oval at Bristol, the superspeedways at Daytona and Talladega, intermediate ovals at Charlotte and Atlanta, and the road courses that Earnhardt had historically resisted. He claimed his first road course victory at Sears Point in 1995, a late-career addition to the No. 3's record.
Among the notable wins was the 1994 championship clincher at Rockingham, where Earnhardt won the race to seal his seventh title and equal Richard Petty's all-time record. It was the final NASCAR championship of his career. By that point, the GM Goodwrench black Chevrolet was a fixture at the front of Cup fields, its silhouette immediately distinguishable as the car driven by the most formidable competitor of his era.
Perhaps the single most celebrated moment for the No. 3 came at the 1998 Daytona 500. Earnhardt had attempted and failed to win the race in each of his previous 19 tries, a run of near misses that had become one of the defining narrative threads in the sport. On the twentieth attempt, he led a decisive portion of the race, held off late challenges, and crossed the finish line first. Every crew member on pit road lined up to shake his hand during the cool-down lap. Earnhardt celebrated by spinning the No. 3 in the Daytona infield grass, leaving tire tracks in the shape of the number.
The 1998 Daytona victory stood as his only win of that season and, as it turned out, as one of the final major symbolic victories of his career. He would add two more wins in 2000 — both at Talladega, his record-extending tenth and eleventh victories at that track — but the 1998 Daytona result carried particular weight given its long-deferred nature.
On February 18, 2001, during the final lap of the Daytona 500, Earnhardt was killed in a three-car crash at turn four. He sustained a fatal basilar skull fracture on contact with the outside wall. The No. 3 Chevrolet that had represented dominance across two decades came to rest in the infield; Earnhardt was pronounced dead shortly after at Halifax Medical Center. He was 49 years old.
Richard Childress Racing immediately retired the black GM Goodwrench No. 3 livery. The entry number itself was reassigned to Kevin Harvick, Earnhardt's replacement, who raced as the No. 29 for the remainder of 2001. Harvick's car carried a small stylized No. 3 on its B-posts throughout his time at RCR as a permanent tribute.
Despite Richard Childress Racing holding priority over the number through established NASCAR procedures, the No. 3 disappeared from the series' top level for thirteen years following Earnhardt's death. It returned in 2014 when Austin Dillon, Childress's grandson, was promoted to the Cup Series in the No. 3 car. The stylized version of the number used during Earnhardt's lifetime — a distinctive script-style design — remains proprietary to Richard Childress Racing.
During Earnhardt's absence from Daytona wins, a fan tradition developed of holding three fingers aloft on the third lap of every race. The gesture persisted for years after his death as an informal tribute.
The black No. 3 has been cited as one of the most recognizable logos in North American motor racing. Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo chose the number 3 as his permanent racing number when the rules change allowed driver-chosen numbers in 2014, citing Earnhardt as a partial inspiration. The car's design has been reproduced in scale models, roller coaster theming at Carowinds and Kings Dominion, and in a made-for-TV film released by ESPN in 2004.
The No. 3 under Earnhardt at RCR represents one of the most successful driver-team partnerships in stock car racing history: seven titles, 76 victories, and an immediately legible identity that made the car famous far beyond the boundaries of its home circuit.