Richard Childress Racing Museum

Richard Childress Racing Museum
	Dale Earnhardt's 1998 Daytona 500-winning car at the Richard Childress Racing Museum
	Location within North Carolina
Established	May 2003
Location	Welcome, North Carolina, United States
Coordinates	35°54′25″N80°15′17″W / 35.90694°N 80.25472°W Coordinates: 35°54′25″N80°15′17″W / 35.90694°N 80.25472°W
Type	Stock car racing museum
Key holdings	Dale Earnhardt's NASCAR Cup Series cars
Founder	Richard Childress
Curator	Danny "Chocolate" Myers
Owner	Richard Childress Racing
Website	www.rcrracing.com/rcr-museum/

Last updated April 09, 2023

The Richard Childress Racing Museum (RCR Museum) is a stock car racing museum located in Welcome, North Carolina in the United States. It opened in May 2003.^[1]^[2]^[3]

History

Covering 47,000 square feet (4,400 m²),^[1]^[2]^[3] the museum was previously Richard Childress Racing (RCR)'s workshop.^[2]^[3] After it was replaced by a newer and larger facility in 2002, Richard Childress redeveloped it as a museum. RCR won six NASCAR Cup Series championships and 58 race wins while using the current museum as its team workshop.^[2] The museum outlines the history of RCR, beginning with Childress's own career as a driver.^[2] The curator of the museum is Danny "Chocolate" Myers, a former pit crew member for Dale Earnhardt's team, who also often records his Sirius XM NASCAR Radio show at the museum.^[4]

Collections

The RCR Museum contains over 50 race cars, more than half of which were driven by Earnhardt.^[5] It contains the largest collection of Earnhardt's black #3 GM Goodwrench-sponsored Chevrolets anywhere in the world, most notably including his 1998 Daytona 500-winning car.^[2]^[3]^[4] Other Earnhardt cars of note on display include his 1995 Brickyard 400-winning car and all of his non-black cars from NASCAR All-Star Races between 1995 and 2000.^[4]

In addition to Earnhardt's cars, the RCR Museum also includes stock cars driven by Childress, Austin Dillon, Robby Gordon, and Kevin Harvick, as well as a truck driven by Mike Skinner.^[2]^[4] Among these cars is Harvick's first winning NASCAR Cup Series car, which was victorious at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2001, shortly after Earnhardt's death at Daytona International Speedway.^[5] In addition to Cup Series cars, the museum also displays cars that raced in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and ARCA Racing Series,^[4] in addition to one of Earnhardt's car haulers.^[5] As of 2004, every car in the museum had an operational engine.^[5]

The RCR Museum's galleries have been built in the engine workshop, fabrication room, and research and development department of the former team workshop.^[2] Childress's own office has also been preserved as part of the museum. In addition to the museum's primary focus on stock car racing, it also includes a hunting and conservation gallery that displays mounted animals killed by Childress on his hunting trips.^[2]^[5] Animals included in this gallery include brown bears, a cougar, a Cape buffalo, elk, a polar bear, and white-tailed deer.^[3] In 2003, the museum was donating $1 from each admission ticket to a group of conservation organizations that included Ducks Unlimited, the National Wild Turkey Foundation, the North Carolina Wildlife Habitat Foundation, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.^[3]

Gallery

Dale Earnhardt's No. 3 Wrangler Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Earnhardt's No. 3 Atlanta 1996 Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Austin Dillon's 2017 Coca-Cola 600-winning No. 3 Dow Chemical Company Chevrolet SS
Richard Childress Wildlife and Conservation Gallery

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References

1 2 Newton, David (May 16, 2003). "Museum an Earnhardt fan's dream". The State . Columbia, South Carolina. p. 23. Archived from the original on March 19, 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023– via Newspapers.com .
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Hembree, Mike (May 22, 2003). "The house that Dale built". The Greenville News . p. 26. Archived from the original on March 19, 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023– via Newspapers.com .
1 2 3 4 5 6 Higgins, Tom (June 29, 2003). "Earnhardt's love of outdoors memorialized". The Charlotte Observer . p. 72. Archived from the original on March 19, 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023– via Newspapers.com .
1 2 3 4 5 "RCR Museum". Richard Childress Racing. Archived from the original on March 19, 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
1 2 3 4 5 "Richard Childress Racing Museum - Walls Of Wonder". MotorTrend . September 1, 2004. Archived from the original on March 19, 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023.

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[Newton-1] 1 2 Newton, David (May 16, 2003). "Museum an Earnhardt fan's dream". The State . Columbia, South Carolina. p. 23. Archived from the original on March 19, 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023– via Newspapers.com .

[Hembree-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Hembree, Mike (May 22, 2003). "The house that Dale built". The Greenville News . p. 26. Archived from the original on March 19, 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023– via Newspapers.com .

[Higgins-3] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Higgins, Tom (June 29, 2003). "Earnhardt's love of outdoors memorialized". The Charlotte Observer . p. 72. Archived from the original on March 19, 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023– via Newspapers.com .

[RCR_Museum-4] 1 2 3 4 5 "RCR Museum". Richard Childress Racing. Archived from the original on March 19, 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023.

[MotorTrend-5] 1 2 3 4 5 "Richard Childress Racing Museum - Walls Of Wonder". MotorTrend . September 1, 2004. Archived from the original on March 19, 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023.

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