Dillon to bring Dale Earnhardt’s No. 3 back to Cup series, Start on pole (8th Update)
02/24/14 Mordichai writes, Dear AR1.com, Well how convenient that his daddy's No. 3 sits on pole then on Sunday his car has such a big restrictor plate that the other cars could not even catch him in the draft. Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes headlines and gives NASCAR just the PR they need to start the 2014 season. You just cannot make these things up – it's just so transparent.
I saw this Q&A on your story quotes and thought I would write what should have really been said…
IT SEEMED LIKE THERE WERE A COUPLE OF TIMES YOU WOULD GET SIDE-BY-SIDE WITH FOLKS AND MAYBE GET BACK A LITTLE BIT, BUT YOU WERE ABLE TO BATTLE BACK. WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
"Just the race car was so superior to a lot of the competition out there. It starts in the body shop, the engine room at Hendrick, all those guys that put all that effort in. I keep saying it over and over, but just a reference to how much goes into the body of this car. There are 11 coats of clear coat on top of the decal. These guys work their guts out all winter long on every part of the car from front to rear. It's perfectly prepared. The whole series is like that it is so competitive, but I love this crew that I'm with. We are as competitive as we can be.
Except his answer should have been…
"Well, it was crazy, it just seemed like all I had to do was push the pedal to the floor and our car went faster than all the other ones…go figure. I want to personally thank NASCAR for giving me this much needed victory, because our merchandise sales were beginning to slump, and my daddy's number is back on the track now, and I needed to make a statement." Mordichai Rosen, Los Angeles, CA.
02/20/14 He faded to 19th and would not have made the Daytona 500 if he had not been put on pole by the Timing & Scoring Computers last Sunday to pull at the heartstrings of all those old Dale Earnhardt fans. And of course to sell more race tickets. This is an instant replay of the majority of computer generated NASCAR grids. Mordichai Rosen, Los Angeles, CA.
02/16/14 This rumor is upgraded to 'fact' today. A reader writes, Dear AR1.com, Back on June 26th of last year I wrote you (below) predicting that NASCAR would put the No. 3 on pole for the 2014 Daytona 500. Well qualifying for the 2014 Daytona 500 just concluded and who is on pole? Austin Dillon in the No. 3. Last year it was that wanker Danica for the obvious PR reasons. This year the No. 3. Every year, and almost every race the pole sitter in NASCAR is put there by the timing and scoring computers for a reason. Mordichai Rosen, Los Angeles, CA
11/16/13 A reader writes, Dear AR1.com, Another staged race. NASCAR kept the caution out long enough in today's Homestead Nationwide race to make sure Austin Dillon won the championship. They needed the "3" to win a championship. It was even obvious to my wife. What a joke. Tim DeCesaro
11/16/13 The announcement is "pretty close," Austin Dillon said. Two years after winning a NASCAR Truck series title in a #3 Chevy fielded by his grandfather's NASCAR team, possibly still basking in the glow of a first Nationwide Series title he could clinch on Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the same number for the same organization, the 23-year-old under the ever-present cowboy hat (used to hide how small he is) is expected to steward the iconic number back into the Sprint Cup Series for the first time in 13 years. ESPN
06/26/13 A reader writes, Dear AR1.com, Just like everyone predicted that NASCAR would put Danica Patrick on this year's Daytona 500 (to make her a star), everyone expects the #3 to be awarded the pole for next year's Daytona 500 if Childress runs the number. It's called riding the coattails of Dale Earnhardt Sr. to sell tickets. Everything happens in NASCAR for a reason. Mordichai Rosen, Los Angeles
06/26/13 Richard Childress is still mulling whether to bring Dale Earnhardt's famous #3 back to Sprint Cup competition. Childress, who owns the rights to the car number that Earnhardt made famous, has said since last November that he believes that fans would accept a return of the slanted design that marked Earnhardt's car for six of his seven Cup championships. Speaking on SiriusXM's NASCAR channel Wednesday morning, Childress reiterated that only a member of his family or the Earnhardt family would race the number in Cup. Childress grandsons Austin and Ty Dillon have raced the number in the Truck and Nationwide series in recent years, and Austin Dillon could run a full-time Cup schedule in 2014. "We're definitely in the process of discussing that," Childress told the network Wednesday. "Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon did a great job representing it." He said he wouldn't want to run the #3 in Sprint Cup with just a partial schedule. The #3 has not been used in Cup since Earnhardt's death in 2001. Sporting News
11/11/12
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| Childress will try to build the Austin Dillon brand on the back of Dale Earnhardt's popularity |
33 Sprint Cup car in the Daytona 500 in February.
Which begs the question, when will he race the No. 3, the car number Dale Earnhardt made famous, in a Sprint Cup race?
Dillon, 22, has driven the No. 3 in the Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide Series, but taking it back to the Sprint Cup Series, where Earnhardt won seven championships and became a legend, is another matter. The famous car number is considered sacred to longtime Earnhardt fans, many whom don't want to see it raced again.
But it could return as early as next year and it appears that with each passing day, team owner Richard Childress is leaning more toward bringing it back to Cup for the first time since Earnhardt's death in the 2001 Daytona 500.
Childress indicated in June that if Dillon did drive a No. 3 in Cup, it wouldn't be the stylized, slanted No. 3 made famous by Earnhardt. But Childress wouldn't even rule that out Friday after announcing that Dillon, his grandson, would run the Daytona 500 next year.
"There was no consideration for the 500 (next year) but there is consideration that someday we may end up running a 3 in Cup with him," Childress said. It's not going to be popular with everybody, but so many of the fans, after seeing it on this car, love it and ask for it back.
"It reminds them of seeing Dale. It brings back the memories of Dale. We haven't (totally) made our mind up (on what style of 3)."