The impact of Kyle Busch’s death on May 21 still looms large over the entire Richard Childress Racing organization, but none more so than Childress himself. 

Childress spoke to the press at a scheduled media availability session that was meant for RCR and Busch to announce a contract extension into 2027 and beyond. 

Childress was as shaken as he had ever been since Dale Earnhardt died from a basilar skull fracture at the Daytona 500 in 2001. When the press asked how Childress is doing and whether the weight of Busch’s loss felt similar to that of Earnhardt 25 years back, Childress’ tone and reply confirmed what he’s going through.

“It’s challenging. You lost two of the greatest drivers as ever driven a car in NASCAR, and to have to go through it again. I feel so bad for the family, and the employed, and everybody. But yeah, I mean it's ah, I haven’t slept very good lately.”

Childress addressed the media, but in a somber, emotional state where his voice could be heard cracking up as he spoke about both Busch and Earnhardt in the same breath.

The first announcement that RCR made was changing the number of the Kyle Busch car to No. 33 and retiring the number 8 until Busch's son Brexton wished to use his father’s number when he gets to the Cup Series. Childress was then asked about the future of the car for the remaining season. 

Childress said, “We made the decision to not run the 8 car. Kyle helped us design where we told we had the 8 number… He said, 'Let's design it different' and this was Kyle’s design. We showed him a lot of stuff but at the end of the day, this was his design.”

How RCR settled on 29 and 33 after 3 and 8

RCR has replaced the number 8 with 33 as Austin Hill has taken over the responsibilities of the RCR for the course of the season. Childress said that the team do not want to look at multiple drivers this season, which would affect the chemistry within the team. 

Childress said the number 33 was available to the team, so they put it on instead of the 8, but back in 2001, that change was a bit different. Dale Earnhardt and the number 3 were synonymous with each other. When he passed, RCR decided to rest the number. 

Childress said, “We decided to take it off in 2001; we didn’t have a number. We got to 33 now, so we just figured we’d put it on it, and us back then, I just saw Bobby Hutchins call NASCAR and get the lowest number available, and it happened to be number 90 when we put Harvick in it, and we talked about it, and we decided that Austin Hill was who we needed to put in it at this time.”

Kevin Harvick used the No 29 throughout his time in RCR. Harvick took 3 races to register a win in the car that Earnhardt drove before him and ended with 23 wins for RCR in 12 years at the team. 

Earnhardt’s number 3 returned in 2014 when Richard Childress’ grandson, Austin Dillon, joined RCR. Earnhardt and Childress were like family, and it felt apt that a family member drove the number in Earnhardt’s memory.

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason