Following Dale Earnhardt's death on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, Childress changed the number of the car from 3 to 29, inverted the original paint scheme, and tabbed his 25-year-old Busch Series driver Kevin Harvick to drive it. Harvick originally was scheduled to drive the No. 30 car part-time before going full-time in 2002; but the death of the seven-time Winston Cup champion rushed Harvick into the spotlight.