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P.O. Box 1189, Welcome, North Carolina • 1-800-476-3389 • www.rcrracing.com
by Keith Maney

Let’s start this with a short quiz: What’s the most recognized team in American motorsport? Chances are many of you answered “Richard Childress Racing's #3 with driver Dale Earnhardt.” Sure, the #24 team of Jeff Gordon is well-known, as is Dale Jarrett’s #88 and Mark Martin’s #6. But, love him or hate him, there’s no denying the fact that the black GM Goodwrench Service Plus Monte Carlo with the familiar forward-leaning 3 is indelibly burned into the minds of NASCAR Winston Cup fans everywhere.
Now, Richard Childress Racing and seven-time champ Dale Earnhardt needs no introduction. If, for some reason, you aren’t aware of the team or their accomplishments, you’ve obviously stumbled across this web site purely by accident. Anyone even remotely interested in American automobiles knows the black #3 Monte Carlo and driver Dale Earnhardt, so you’ll get no lengthy reviews of his record here. If you don’t know, you probably didn’t get through the first paragraph anyway.
We thought it would be neat to take a closer look at Richard Childress Racing - to see what goes on behind those familiar racing scenes beamed into our living rooms from around the country most Sundays of the year. Of course, this is easier said than done given the ultra-competitive nature of modern stock car racing. Teams do not maintain competitive advantages by allowing a bunch of nosey car guys poke around their shops with cameras. But that didn’t worry the folks at RCR too much, and they graciously allowed us into their facilities, with our Nikons.
Our host and tour guide was Danny Lawrence, Chief Engine Builder for the #3 Monte Carlo and Assistant Engine Department Manager for all of RCR. When we asked him if he was worried about letting us in and photographing the shop, he replied, “Not really, we don’t have anything to hide." Of course, it didn't hurt that we probably wouldn't understand most of what we might see. Still, as we were watching the guys in the engine shop wring out a small block on the dyno, we knew we were standing where a lot of other engine builders would kill to be, and that made us feel better.
The sprawling RCR complex in Welcome, North Carolina, is currently home to the #3 GM Goodwrench Service Plus and Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse NASCAR Winston Cup teams and the ACDelco and Rockwell Automation NASCAR Bush Series Teams. The RCR complex has grown with it's teams and the popularity of the sport of stock car racing. The complex contains a number of buildings, and resembles a nice, peaceful industrial park more than anything else. Of course, when driving through most industrial parks, you don’t hear engines turning 9,000 rpm on the dyno, or see huge transports loading and unloading race cars, so let’s just say it resembles an office complex where the business is speed, winning races and championships.
Car preparation is a year-round job for each team at RCR.


Nor do most industrial parks have a museum and gift shop. The RCR museum houses a number of race cars, various trophies (from racing and hunting), and a fully operable still from the mountains of North Carolina. The still is there to represent the roots of stock car racing - when a bunch of good ol’ boys built hot-rods to deliver their corn squeezins to thirsty locals. The boys often had to outrun the hated revenuers, sliding their hot rods around dusty mountain roads in the process. Human nature being what it is, it wasn’t long before these moonshiners started racing each other. Bill France recognized a good thing when he saw it (the racing, not the hooch), and NASCAR was born.
The still on display in the museum represents the roots of NASCAR.

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But back to the museum. Dale’s 1998 Daytona 500-winning car sits quietly in the front, greeting visitors as they enter the building. After so many years of trying to win the big race, you get the feeling that RCR and Earnhardt would have the car that finally got it done bronzed if they could figure out how. There’s lots of other cool things in the museum, as the photos will show, including a huge collection of souvenirs and clothing. We’ll be wrapping up plenty of #3 merchandise for Christmas this year ourselves.
RCR's 1998 Daytona 500-winning Monte Carlo is on display at the museum's entrance. At left is the oversize check RJ Reynolds presented to Dale Earnhardt for winning the Winston Cup Championship.