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legendary No. 3 to return with Austin Dillon at the wheel
•David Pearson, Junior Johnson, the late
S?ck Baker and the late Dale Earnhardt
aH have something in common besides
tjaing members of the NASCAR Hall of
Fame.
-'They all won races in the NASCAR divi
aon now known as Sprint Cup in a car
numbered 3. Four other members of the
Hall — Tim Flock, Cotton Owens, Fire
ball Roberts and Cale Yarborough — also
drove cars numbered 3 in NASCAR’s elite
division.
All told, the No. 3 has had 73 differ
ent drivers since Bill Snowden made the
debut run, finishing fifth at Occoneechee
Speedway in Hillsboro, N.C., back in 1949.
Fittingly, it was the third race ever for
the circuit now known as Sprint Cup.
Legendary driver Dick Rathmann got
•_ the first-ever win for No. 3 at Oakland,
Calif., in 1954. He wound up winning a
total of three, with victories at North Wil
kesboro, N.C., and at Santa Fe Speedway
in Willow Springs, 111. They were his final
three NASCAR victories.
David Pearson got the first of his 105
Cup victories in a No.' 3 Pontiac owned by
Ray Fox, and Junior Johnson won nine
times in cars numbered 3.
But since the start of the 1976 season,
the No. 3 has belonged to Richard Chil
dress, who drove the car himself until
midway through the 1981 season when
Earnhardt took the wheel for the final
11 races. Earnhardt left to drive for Bud
Moore at the end of that season, and
Ricky Rudd took over in 1982 and de
livered Childress’ No. 3 its first win at
Riverside, Calif., in 1983.
Earnhardt returned to Childress and
the No. 3 for the start of the 1984 season,
and got the first of his 67 wins in the car
at Talladega in the 19th race of that sea
son. He had won six championships in the
No. 3, plus another for Rod Osterlund in a
No. 2 Chevrolet, before he died in a crash
in the 2001 Daytona 500.
Earnhardt’s final victory in the No. 3,
at Talladega in the fall of 2000, gave that
car 97 career Cup victories, which is third
behind the No. 11, with 203 wins, and the
No. 43, with 198.
Since Earnhardt’s death, the No. 3 has
not been used in Cup, but it will return
next season with Childress’ older grand
son, Austin Dillon, driving. Dillon has
used the No. 3, with the same shape of
the number as his grandfather and Eara
Richard Childress, right, announces Austin Dillon’s move to the No. 3 Chevrolet in the Sprint Cup Series.
hardt used, since he began racing. It was
on his dirt Late Model cars as well as the
truck he drove to a Camping World Truck
Series championship in 2011 and the Na
tionwide Series car he drove to a title this
year.
The move, officially announced last
week, has been common knowledge in
NASCAR circles for months, and there
has been little adverse reaction to Dillon
using the car number most associated
with the wildly popular Earnhardt. Most
fans and insiders in the sport figured all
along that the only appropriate candi
dates to bring back the No. 3 would be a
member of either the Earnhardt or Chil
dress family, and Dillon fits that bill.
Since the earliest races of Dillon’s
career, there’s been speculation that one
day he’d drive in Cup in a car numbered
just like the ones his grandfather and
Earnhardt drovfe. And from the beginning,
Childress indicated that he’d be in favor
of it.
When Dillon made his Super Late Model
debut at a dirt track in Madison, N.C.,
years ago, Childress was asked about the
number.
“I think, it'has to be a special deal to
bring back the No. 3,” he said that night
as he watched the youngster power his
way around the clay oval. “And to me, this
is a special deal.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. also has expressed
support for Dillon and the No. 3 for years.
And as one who is known for his great
appreciation of the history of the sport,
he understands better than most what
car numbers mean in the entire history of
NASCAR.
“The number is more of a bank that yOu
just deposit history into,” Earnhardt Jr.
once said. “It doesn’t really belong to any
individual.”
For his rookie Cup campaign, Dillon will
have veteran crew chief Gil Martin, who
most recently worked with Kevin Harvick
at Richard Chrldress Racing. Sponsorship
will come from Dow and General Mills.
Dillon said he’s ready for the challenges
that come with racing in Cup and is
proud to be making the move.
“To get the opportunity to race in the
Sprint Cup Series doesn’t come around
very often,” he said. “To be able to com
pete in Cup and race for wins and cham
pionships is going to be awesome.
“I’m going to give it my all every time
out.”
NASCAR announces several promotions in key positions for 2014
Brent Dewar, whose career at General Motors saw him rise to
senior vice president of global Chevrolet, has been named the chief
operating officer of NASCAR.
• "Working closely with NASCAR over the last year, I’ve been very
impressed by Brian [FranceJ’s vision for NASCAR’s future and the
- ...hi in Tii." i hi .... i . ..i
Jimmy Small will take over as president of Iowa Speedway.
talented people he has put in place to achieve that vision,” Dewar
said in a release announcing his hiring. “I have great passion
for racing and I look forward to adding my experience, ideas and
relationships throughout racing to help the team drive NASCAR’s
growth and position it for a bright future.”
NASCAR also announced'that Steve Phelps, senior vice president
and chief marketing officer, has been promoted to executive vice
president, and that Steve O’Donnell, senior vice president, racing
operations, has been promoted to executive vice president.
NASCAR’s general counsel, Gary Crotty, has been promoted to
chief legal officer/general counsel. Mike Helton remains NASCAR
president, and as such, is in charge of all racing operations.
NASCAR also announced last week that Jimmy Small will take
over as president of Iowa Speedway, which recently was purchased
by NASCAR.
Small, 28, has worked for NASCAR for six years, most recently
as a business and marketing liaison witnteams and drivers in all
three national series.
Small also helped manage the implementation of the NASCAR
Industry Action Plan, which includes efforts to attract younger
fans to the sport.
Tm honored to be presented with this opportunity to help guide
Iowa Speedway in the next chapter of its life,” Small said in a
release about his new job. “We will continue fanning the intense
passion for motorsports that is prevalent here, and do our best
to showcase Iowa Speedway’s fast, exciting short-track racing in
creative, fan-friendly ways.”
i 'Salute to the King'to
| mark Kinser's final run for
| a World of Outlaws Sprint
| Car Series championship
j Steve Kinser, the 20-time World of
j Outlaws Sprint Car Series cham
| pion and a one-time Sprint Cup .
I driver, announced last week that
| the 2014 season will be his final
j run for a championship.
His final tour will be called the
I “Salute to the King” and begins
j in February on the short tracks of
| Florida. Kinser, 59, has 576 career
| Outlaw A-main victories and drives .
j a car owned by Sprint Cup cham
j pion Tony Stewart, who as a kid
1 idolized his fellow Indiana racer.
“I never missed an Outlaw show
i in the area when I'was growing
i up,” Stewart said. “We waited for
| those nights like they were holi
j days. •
) “It was incredible watching Steve
! race with Sammy (Swindell) and
I Doug (Wolfgang). He was our guy,
being from Indiana, and when he
won, it gave us all something to
; brag about. And he won a lot.
“A few years ago, when we had
the chance to get him to drive for
I [Tony Stewart Racing], it was like a
dream come true.
“When we got him on board, my
goal was for him to drive for us for
the remainder of his career. I’m
really excited for him to go out and
have a great season. He’s the best
ever, and I couldn’t be more proud.”
Kinser, who did not say he is retir
ing completely from racing, said
he’s proud of what he’s been able to
do over the. years.
“Racing with the Outlaws has
been my life for almost 40 years,”
he said. “It’s all I’ve known. My
family has been around it. I’ve had
the pleasure of running up and
down the road racing all across
this incredible country, and even in
Canada, Mexico and Australia,‘with
this series.
“I knew it wasn’t going to last
forever. I feel like we have a great
team here capable of winning a lot
of races and challenging for the
championship this year.”
Speedway Benefits pro
gram off to strong start
Forty-five days after longtime
NASCAR promoter H.A. “Humpy”
Wheeler announced his Speedway
Benefits program for short-track
promoteES, he’s signed 300 tracks to
the program that offers a way for
promoters to work together to save
money on input costs and attract
more sponsorships.
“This proves the idea was sound
and greatly needed,” said Trip
Wheeler, the 20-year-old son of
the company founder who also is
working on the program. “We are
signing up tracks as fast as our
seven-person staff can handle.
You’d never know it, but Humpy
is a great paralegal. While we will
eventually get to 500 or even 1,000
tracks next year, the attendance
our member tracks represent now
makes us very appealing to global
companies.”
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