RCR Racing

On Saturday morning, we decided to drive up to RCR (Richard Childress) Racing in Welcome, North Carolina.  Since it was a Saturday, the RCR Racing Campus was pretty quiet...

...but of course it would be because everyone is at the track (which this week was Dover, Delaware).  The RCR Racing Museum was open...

...and the first thing you see when you walk in the door is one of Dale Earnhardt's earlier cars when his sponsor was Wrangler Jeans and a bronze picture of Dale Earnhardt and Richard Childress after Dale had won at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The museum is where the RCR Racing Garage formerly was before they moved to a bigger facility on the campus.  There are 47 race vehicles and 29 of them are the No. 3 Chevrolets driven by Dale Earnhardt.

We found one man working.

Not really.  It was a picture on the door of what was the Head Engine Builder's Room with Lou LaRosa (I think) who was formerly the head engine builder.

Notice how clean the museum is?  The actual NASCAR garages are this clean...or cleaner!

The orange "Wheaties" paint scheme was Chuck's favorite.  (Hmmm.  I wonder why???)

My favorite paint scheme was the Oreos car.  :)

Do you think I can get a job on a pit crew as a gas man???  :)

One of the haulers was on display in the museum also...

...so we took a look inside.

Everything the race teams can think of that they might need at a race is hauled in the haulers like springs,

extra engines,

and of course, the race car up on the second level of the hauler.

After leaving the hauler, we walked by the 5th chassis of the No. 3 Chevrolet which was one of the most successful.  The 5th chassis was run in 15 races from March 1987 to April 1989 and finished in the top 10 in all 15 races with six wins!  

We next went through the fabrication room where the bodies of the cars are created.

The other RCR cars displayed (other than Dale Earnhardt's) included this 1937 Plymouth Coupe driven by Richard Childress in his early days of racing.

One of Kevin Harvick's car was on display.  Kevin drove for RCR Racing after Dale Earnhardt's passing away in 2001 until just last year.  The car was just like it was after winning the race...confetti and all.

There was also an old Ricky Rudd car...

and another of my favorites:  The Oreos car driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr.  

After leaving the race car displays, we walked through a wildlife display that included several mounts from hunts that Richard Childress had been on.  The polar bear was from someone else's hunt; but the grizzly bear was his.  

After leaving the museum, we drove by what we think is where the RCR NASCAR Sprint Cup Garage is located.  

As we drove around and by all the buildings on the RCR campus, we even saw these two old race cars out back by a dumpster.  

That sure was an interesting visit!  We are planning on meeting Donald & Anna in Charlotte and going to some of the other NASCAR garages in July.  :)