Team

Richard Childress Racing

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Richard Childress Racing (RCR) is an American professional stock car racing team that competes in the NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. The team is based in Welcome, North Carolina, owned and operated by Richard Childress, with a 40 percent ownership stake held by Chartwell Investments. RCR has won the NASCAR Cup Series championship six times, all with driver Dale Earnhardt, and the Daytona 500 three times: Earnhardt in 1998, Kevin Harvick in 2007, and Austin Dillon in 2018. The team has maintained a continuous presence in the Cup Series, qualifying for every race since 1972 — the longest such active streak — and is known for its longstanding use of the number 3 on its primary race car.

In the Cup Series, RCR currently fields three Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s: the No. 3 full-time for Austin Dillon, the No. 8 full-time for Kyle Busch, and the No. 33 part-time for Jesse Love and Austin Hill. RCR holds a technical alliance with Rick Ware Racing in the Cup Series. The team has fielded cars for notable drivers including Jeff Burton, Mike Skinner, Ricky Rudd, Neil Bonnett, Ryan Newman, and Clint Bowyer.

In the early years of the Camping World Truck Series (then known as the SuperTruck Series), RCR fielded the No. 3 Goodwrench Chevy. Mike Skinner was signed for the 1995 season and won the series' inaugural race at Phoenix International Raceway, passing Winston Cup driver Terry Labonte on the final lap. He won eight races and the series' first championship by a 126-point margin. Skinner won eight more races and finished third in points in 1996, accumulating sixteen wins and fifteen poles over two seasons.

Jay Sauter replaced Skinner and won four times, consistently finishing in the top 10 in points from 1997 to 1999. After Sauter, the truck program moved to the NASCAR Busch Series. The team returned in 2009 with Richard Childress' grandson Austin Dillon driving the No. 3 Chevrolet Silverado. In 2010, Dillon drove full-time sponsored by Bass Pro Shops, winning five poles and two races (Iowa and Las Vegas), and earning the 2010 Rookie of the Year award. In 2011, Dillon won at Nashville and Chicago, claiming the Truck Series championship over Johnny Sauter.

Austin's brother Ty Dillon took over the No. 3 truck for 2012, winning at Atlanta and finishing fourth in the standings. In the 2013 WinStar World Casino 350K, Ty Dillon won the 100th victory in NASCAR for a No. 3.

In 2013, Austin Dillon drove the No. 39 truck in the inaugural Mudsummer Classic at Eldora Speedway, sponsored by American Ethanol. He led a race-high 63 laps and won after a green-white-checker finish. The truck, the trophy, and a piece of the dirt track are on display at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

ECR Engines — also known as ECR Technologies, formerly Earnhardt-Childress Racing Technologies — is the engine department for RCR, located on the RCR campus in Welcome, North Carolina. The partnership was formed in May 2007 as a cooperation between Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and RCR to develop and build common engines for Chevrolet NASCAR teams. Following the 2008 merger of Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing into Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, ECR was inherited by that entity, but eventually became a wholly owned subsidiary of RCR in 2016.

ECR builds Chevrolet engines for RCR and several teams in the NASCAR Cup Series, O'Reilly Series, Truck Series, and ARCA Racing Series. From 2017 to 2022, ECR produced engines for all Cadillac DPi-V.Rs in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. ECR secured eight straight IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Engine Manufacturers Championships from 2012 to 2018, with five overall wins at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in 2014 and 2017–2020. Current clients include Beard Motorsports, Trackhouse Racing, Our Motorsports, Jordan Anderson Racing, and Big Machine Racing Team.

RCR holds technical alliances with several teams in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, including Our Motorsports, Jordan Anderson Racing, Alpha Prime Racing, Big Machine Racing Team, and Viking Motorsports. Big Machine Racing has shops on the RCR campus in Welcome, North Carolina. RCR's first alliance model was started in 1997 as RAD (Richard, Andy, and Dale) Racing engines, an aerodynamics program shared with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and Andy Petree Racing, which concluded midway through 2004. In 2021, RCR and Hendrick Motorsports formalized a joint venture for engine R&D and a common Chevrolet engine specification, referred to as HCD (Hendrick Childress Development).

RCR has maintained a strong development program since the 1990s, grooming several NASCAR regulars. Most notably, Kevin Harvick — the 2014 Cup Series Champion — and Richard Childress' grandsons Austin and Ty Dillon came through the program. Other notable alumni include Johnny Sauter, Mike Skinner, Clint Bowyer, Timothy Peters, John Wes Townley, Joey Coulter, and Ryan Gifford.

Goodwrench GM Certified Service was a primary sponsor from 1988 to 2007. Cingular Wireless began a four-year sponsorship in 2001. Following the 2007 Daytona 500, Kevin Harvick's winning No. 29 car displayed large Shell Oil logos that angered NASCAR fuel supplier Sunoco, who believed its exclusive fuel rights also precluded other gasoline brands from marketing. The shell scheme was altered the following week with smaller Shell decals and greater emphasis on co-sponsor Pennzoil. A separate controversy arose when AT&T sought to advertise on the No. 31 car after merging with Cingular Wireless; NASCAR refused, citing its Sprint Nextel contract. After AT&T filed a lawsuit on March 16, 2007, a federal judge ruled in AT&T's favor on May 18. A settlement before the Chevy Rock and Roll 400 allowed AT&T Mobility to sponsor the car through the end of 2008.

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