Inside Richard Childress Racing's legendary Museum: Exploring Dale Earnhardt's storied career

Spanning over 47,000 square feet in area, the Richard Childress Racing Museum is one of NASCAR's old and most prominent exhibition centers in the United States. Located in Welcome, North Carolina, the 52-acre campus offers a journey back in time where visitors can indulge themselves in Richard Childress' rich racing history, the formation of Richard Childress Racing, and most importantly, the championship-winning days of Dale Earnhardt Sr., with RCR.

Richard Childress spent his earliest days in NASCAR here, and it was at this time that he brought up RCR from scratch. Fast forward to 2024, RCR now stands as one of the sport's most renowned teams.

The museum houses a series of race cars and artifacts from the last 55 years but Earnhardt Sr.'s #3 Chevrolets bring in major tourists. The reason? The RCR Museum has the largest collection of Earnhardt Sr's Goodwrench Chevrolets (as seen in the YouTube video by Stapleton42).

The 1995 Brickyard 400 winning car, and the 1998 Daytona 500 winning car, are some of RCR's most memorable ones. The black Goodwrench #3 Chevrolet from Daytona 1998 brought Earnhardt Sr. and Richard Childress glory that they went on to cherish for a long time.

The glorious and saints-be-praised #3 still stands supreme among hosts of other cars driven by the late NASCAR Hall of Famer and some of them are in untouched, race-used conditions. In a nutshell, the Richard Childress Racing Museum is a goldmine for NASCAR enthusiasts to relish and walk through time.

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Dale Earnhardt Sr. and his Richard Childress Racing connection

NASCAR Cup Series car owner Richard Childress climbs into the car of his late driver Dale Earnhardt Sr. (3) to pace the field prior to the 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Over the course of his career, Dale Earnhardt Sr. was almost synonymous with Richard Childress Racing, the NASCAR team owned by Richard Childress. The Kannapolis-born driver raced for the Welcome-based team for nearly two decades, right until his tragic death in 2001.

After an early stint with RCR in 1983, 'The Intimidator' returned to race for Childress' team again in 1984. Earnhardt Sr. had a total of 76 race wins in that period (1979-2000), out of which 67 were with RCR (1983-2000), all with sponsorships from GM Goodwrench and Wrangler Jeans.

In his lifetime, Dale Earnhardt Sr. took part in 676 Cup Series races where he claimed 76 wins, 22 poles, and 428 top 10s. His last Cup Series win came at Talladega in 2000 when he won the Winston 500.

Earnhardt Sr. suffered an untimely death in February 2001 when he collided with Ken Schrader after making a small contact with Sterling Merlin during the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. He suffered a basilar skull fracture and was pronounced dead at Halifax Medical Centre, at the age of 49.

Even though Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s met an untimely death, two decades later, his legacy still lives on.