Private company

Richard Childress Racing

Auto-racing company

Richard Childress Racing (RCR) is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. The team is based in Welcome, North Carolina, and is owned and operated by Richard Childress with a 40 percent ownership by Chartwell Investments. In the Cup Series, the team currently fields two Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s: the No. 3 full-time for Austin Dillon and the No. 33 for Austin Hill.² Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1969Founded¹

Websitewww.rcrnetwork.com

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The story

Truck No. 03 history

In 1996, RCR fielded the No. 03 RealTree Camouflage Chevy for Jay Sauter at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He finished 22nd.

Truck No. 2 history

Multiple Drivers (2012)

For 2012, RCR took over the No. 2 truck of KHI that won the Owners Championship in 2011. The truck was split by Tim George Jr. running twelve races with Applebee's sponsoring, with a best finish of ninth, Brendan Gaughan in seven races with a best finish of second, and Harvick at both Martinsville races and Dover, winning at the spring Martinsville race. George Jr. was set to run another partial season in 2013, but he decided to move to Wauters Motorsports instead.

Part Time (2014)

Austin Dillon ran the No. 2 truck at Eldora in 2014 with sponsorship from American Ethanol.

Truck No. 3 history

Mike Skinner (1995–1996)

In the infant years of the CWTS (then known as the SuperTruck Series), RCR fielded its own truck team, the No. 3 Goodwrench Chevy. 37-year-old driver Mike Skinner was signed to drive the truck for the 1995 season. Skinner won the series' inaugural race at Phoenix International Raceway, passing Winston Cup driver Terry Labonte on the final lap of the race. He went on to win eight races, and won the series first championship by a 126-point margin. Skinner won eight more races and finished third in points in 1996. Skinner scored a total of sixteen wins and fifteen poles over two seasons.

Jay Sauter (1997–1999)

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After Skinner moved onto the Cup series, Jay Sauter hopped on board, winning four times and finishing in the top 10 in points all three years. He was the last driver to win for RCR in the NASCAR Truck Series, until July 11, 2010, when Childress's grandson, Austin Dillon, won the Lucas Oil 200 at Iowa Speedway. After 1999, Childress moved the program up to the NASCAR Busch Series.

Austin Dillon (2009–2011)

The truck team returned during the 2009 season as the No. 3 Chevrolet Silverado driven by Childress's grandson, Austin Dillon for the inaugural race at Iowa Speedway. Dillon would start ninth and finish twelfth despite an early spin.

In 2010, Dillon drove the No. 3 truck full-time sponsored by Bass Pro Shops. Austin won an impressive five poles, two wins (Iowa and Vegas), and had fifteen top-tens en route to a fifth place finish in the championship and the 2010 ROTY award.

In 2011, Dillon drove the No. 3 truck to two wins at Nashville and Chicago, winning the championship over Johnny Sauter.

Ty Dillon (2012–2013)

After winning the Truck Series championship, Austin moved up to the Nationwide Series, passing down the No. 3 truck to his brother Ty Dillon for 2012. Ty would take his first win at Atlanta and nearly won the championship at Homestead before crashing while battling Kyle Larson. Ty finished fourth in the standings.

In the 2013 WinStar World Casino 350K, Dillon won the 100th victory in NASCAR for a No. 3.

Part-time (2014)

Ty Dillon returned to the No. 3 truck with Bass Pro Shops for the dirt race at Eldora in 2014. After the Eldora race, Austin Dillon then won with the No. 3 at Pocono, with Yuengling as a sponsor.

Truck No. 8 history

Part-time (1999)

In 1999, RCR fielded the No. 8 truck for Mike Dillon at Watkins Glen and Milwaukee. He finished 30th at the Glen and 32nd at Milwaukee. Jim Sauter run the No. 8 at Michigan. He finished tenth.

Truck No. 22 history

Tim George Jr. (2009–2010)

Childress' second truck entry debuted in 2009 with Tim George Jr. behind the wheel of the No. 22 truck part-time.

Joey Coulter (2011–2012)

In 2011 with Joey Coulter was tabbed as the driver behind the wheel of the No. 22 truck. Coulter stayed consistent throughout the year, having the least DNF's among all other rookies. Coulter would eventually prevail over Nelson Piquet Jr. and Parker Kligerman to win Rookie of the Year. Coulter would get his first win in the Pocono Mountains 125 at Pocono Raceway, his first win in 36 attempts in the Camping World Truck Series.

Truck No. 31 history

Part Time (1995)

In 1995, RCR fielded the No. 31 truck part-time for Bill Cooper at Sonoma. He finished 25th. Dave Marcis drove the No. 31 at season finale at Phoenix. He finished seventh.

Truck No. 33 history

Part Time (1997)

In 1997, RCR fielded the No. 33 truck part-time for Mike Dillon at Phoenix. He started 29th and finished 26th.

Truck No. 39 history

Part Time (2013)

In 2013 RCR purchased the No. 39 owners points from RSS Racing to field the truck for Austin Dillon in the inaugural Mudsummer Classic at Eldora Speedway, with sponsorship from American Ethanol. Dillon led a race-high 63 laps, and won after a green-white-checker finish. The truck, the trophy and the famed piece of dirt track are on display at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The No. 39 owners points were then sold back to RSS Racing.

Truck No. 62 history

Brendan Gaughan (2013)

For 2013, Truck Series veteran Brendan Gaughan drove the truck, now numbered 62, for the full season. Gaughan would come close to finding victory lane on multiple occasions, scoring ten top-fives and thirteen top-tens to finish seventh in points. Gaughan and the No. 62 team moved up to the Nationwide series in 2014.

From Wikipedia’s article on Richard Childress Racing, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.³

Controversies and legal

Sponsorship controversies

Following the 2007 Daytona 500, the paint scheme of Kevin Harvick's winning No. 29 car infuriated NASCAR fuel supplier Sunoco, particularly the large Shell Oil logos on the car and team uniforms. Harvick had also worn his Shell firesuit during the Busch Series race he won the day before. Sunoco believed its exclusive rights to provide fuel to the sport also gave them exclusive marketing rights to gasoline, with other companies' limited to marketing secondary products such as motor oil. The 29 team altered its paint scheme the following week with smaller Shell decals, and larger emphasis of co-sponsor Pennzoil. It is to note that Sunoco sponsored Billy Hagan's race team from 1989 to 1992 with Sterling Marlin and Terry Labonte while Unocal 76 was the fuel supplier. Shell/Pennzoil remains in the sport with Team Penske's No. 22.

Meanwhile, AT&T had repeatedly requested that NASCAR allow them to advertise the AT&T Mobility brand on the No. 31 car following their merger with Cingular Wireless, but NASCAR refused to allow it, citing the Sprint Nextel contract. Cingular and Alltel (the sponsor of Team Penske's No. 12) had been grandfathered in when Nextel entered the sport in 2004, with the drivers wearing white Nextel Cup Series logos on their fire suits, but the change in ownership of the former led Sprint to contest the sponsorship. After trying and failing to get NASCAR to approve the addition of the globe logo to the rear of the car, AT&T filed a lawsuit against NASCAR on March 16, 2007. On May 18, a federal judge ruled that AT&T should be allowed to replace the Cingular logos with AT&T logos, and said that AT&T was likely to win the lawsuit. The AT&T logo ran on the No. 31 at the NASCAR Nextel Cup All-Star Challenge on May 19 and every race afterwards until NASCAR ordered the sponsorship off before the 2007 Sharpie 500. RCR and Jeff Burton went a step further, with Burton showing up in a logo-less firesuit, and the black and orange car ran without Cingular or AT&T logos. A settlement before the Chevy Rock and Roll 400 was made where AT&T Mobility could sponsor the car until the end of 2008.