page_title: Richard Childress Racing
section_title: Car No. 8 history
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Childress Racing / Cup Series / Car No. 8 history
caption_attribution_description: The Chevrolet Impala stock car that Paul Menard raced in NASCAR. This file was uploaded with Commonist.
context_page_description: RCR Enterprises, LLC, doing business as Richard Childress Racing, is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The team is based in Welcome, North Carolina, and is owned and operated by former driver Richard Childress. In the Cup Series, the team currently fields two Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE teams: the No. 3 full-time for Austin Dillon, and the No. 8 full-time for Tyler Reddick. In the Xfinity Series, the team currently fields one Chevrolet Camaro team: the No. 21 full-time for multiple drivers including Myatt Snider, Anthony Alfredo, Kaz Grala and Earl Bamber. RCR has had at least one car successfully qualify for every Cup race since 1972, the longest such active streak, and is known for the longstanding use of the number 3 on its primary race car.
  In addition to its in-house Cup Series teams, RCR has several technical alliances and partnerships with other teams. In the MENCS, it is allied with Richard Petty Motorsports, Germain Racing, and StarCom Racing, while Kaulig Racing enjoys a technical alliance with the team in the Xfinity Series.
context_section_description: Jeff Green (2001–2003)
  What eventually became the No. 8 car at RCR was formed in 2001 as the No. 30 America Online-sponsored Chevrolet, with AOL signing a four-year contract. Childress initially planned to have Kevin Harvick drive the car on a limited basis during that season as part of a transition from the Busch Series to Winston Cup for 2002. After Dale Earnhardt's death, Harvick was moved into RCR's primary car and 2000 Busch Series champion Jeff Green was selected to drive the car in his place. Originally planning to debut at Atlanta in March, the team debuted at the NAPA Auto Parts 500 at California Speedway in April, with Green finishing 21st. The team qualified for six more races that season, with Green earning a pole at the Sharpie 500 at Bristol in August, and went full-time the next season as scheduled with Green behind the wheel.
  Green posted six Top 10s in the 2002 season, including a career best second at Loudon in July, and finished seventeenth in points. Although the team started 2003 with a Daytona 500 pole, Green and the team failed to jell as Childress had hoped and on May 5, was fired following the first race at Richmond. In what amounted to a trade between organizations, Green was replaced by the former driver of the No. 1 car for Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Steve Park, with Green taking Park's ride at DEI. Green's firing was largely connected to an altercation between him and teammate Kevin Harvick during the Richmond race in which Harvick wrecked Green while racing for a top 10 position, igniting an already tumultuous relationship between the two drivers that went back to their competition in the Busch Series. Park would score a pole at Daytona in July and earn two Top 10s but had only six finishes inside the Top 20, ending the season 32nd in points.
  Johnny Sauter (2004)
  In 2004, Childress promoted 25-year-old Busch Series driver Johnny Sauter to the ride, hoping he would rise to the occasion like Harvick had in 2001. Kevin Hamlin moved over from the 31 team to serve as Sauter's crew chief. Sauter had helped secure the 2003 Busch Series owner's championship in a partial schedule with RCR, while finishing 8th in driver points. Sauter failed to score a top ten, ranked at the bottom of the Raybestos Rookie standings, and was released just 13 races into the season. After that, Dave Blaney drove the car, only skipping Infineon Raceway when Jim Inglebright took the wheel. A couple of weeks after it was announced Blaney would be in the car for rest of the year, Jeff Burton became available after parting ways with Roush Racing's No. 99 car, leaving Blaney out in the cold. Burton was signed to a multi-year contract and drove the car for the rest of the year beginning at Michigan in August. When Robby Gordon left to start his own team, Burton moved to the 31.
  Dave Blaney (2005)
  With AOL leaving as sponsor, Childress had two voids left to fill. He decided to rehire Blaney, and signed Jack Daniel's to sponsor the car, marking one of the first hard liquor sponsorships in NASCAR's history. The team also changed its number to 07 to commemorate JD's slogan "Ol' No. 7". Blaney posted just 2 top ten finishes during 2005, finishing 26th in the standings.
  Clint Bowyer (2006–2008)
  Blaney moved to Bill Davis Racing in 2006, while rookie Clint Bowyer was placed in the No. 07 Jack Daniels Chevrolet for RCR. In his second season, Bowyer took the first win for this team at the Sylvania 300 at Loudon. Bowyer finished third in the final standings in 2007. In 2008, Bowyer got his second win at Richmond at the Crown Royal Presents The Dan Lowry 400, and finished fifth in points.
  Casey Mears (2009)
  On August 23, 2008, former Hendrick Motorsports driver Casey Mears was signed to drive the 07 in 2009, with Bowyer moving to the fourth RCR car, the No. 33. Mears struggled in the new ride, however, and had to take on three crew chiefs during the season. More troubling was the fact that Jack Daniel's announced on September 21, 2009 that they would be leaving RCR at the end of the year, leaving the 07 without a sponsor. Childress decided to 
caption: Paul Menard's No. 27 Menards Chevy with Mastercraft Door on the hood in 2012
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