If Junior [Dale Earnhardt Jr.] is gonna drive the No. 3 car someday, could it happen under the DEI roof? If so, Childress would have to give up ownership of the number — and all the potential business opportunities that accompany it. “He’s always said, ever since his daddy got killed, one of these days he’s gonna drive a 3 car,” [Tony Sr.] Eury said of Junior. “Just a remark he made a long time ago. Someday Richard [Childress] might give us the number and we’ll run it out of DEI. Depends on how long Richard wants to keep doing it, you know.” Richard? Any chance of giving up the No. 3? “No. As far as the 3, it’s registered,” Childress elaborated. “It’s one of those deals . . . we’re gonna keep doing what we’ve been doing, what Dale and I talked about years ago. We knew it was our number, and we had plans of doing things with it after he retired. We’re gonna put those plans in effect soon.”(Daytona Beach News Journal)(7-1-2005)
