The Buzz: March 20, 2001

March 20, 2001
5:36 PM EST (2236 GMT)

Back in black?

Not this year, anyway.

Richard Childress said Tuesday that he was unsure about the future of the black No. 3 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, as driven by the late Dale Earnhardt. The car, arguably the most beloved number and paint scheme in NASCAR history, won't be run the rest of this year, but Childress hasn't ruled out running it in the future.

"Right now we're not that far down the road," Childress said. "Right now we want to build an image around Kevin Harvick, and if it's the 29 number or the white car or whatever, we'll discuss that with (sponsor) Goodwrench this winter.

"As far as the black No. 3, whatever I do with the black 3 car -- we would like to do something at some time, maybe at the end of the year. Teresa Earnhardt and I will decide the direction we want to go with that."

Skin tight?

On Tuesday, Childress discussed Mike Skinner's Sunday wreck in which the driver struggled a bit to remove himself from a ride engulfed in flames. It wasn't all the fault of the HANS device, he said, as most everyone thought.

"He came to the shop yesterday and sat in the car, set his belts up, trying to figure out what he thought … took him a little longer to get out," Childress said. "It wasn't so much the HANS device as, he said if he'd have pulled the left net down, that held him up a little bit, but he had the straps on it and when he wrecked he slid down a little in the seat.

"He went forward in the seat, and it got his belts against the steering wheel and he couldn't get that part loose to start with. So he went over it and we talked and we're gonna try some new stuff to make it quicker getting in and out of the car with the HANS device on."

You've got Green?

Several publications have slated NASCAR Busch Series champion Jeff Green as Childress' driver of choice for the No. 30 Chevrolet, sponsored by America Online, which Childress said Tuesday will compete in seven Winston Cup races this year.

The ride was slated to make its debut at Atlanta with Kevin Harvick behind the wheel, but following Dale Earnhardt's death those plans were changed. Rumor has it that several drivers were considered for the ride, including Rick Mast and Rich Bickle.

"We're gonna make the announcement of the driver this weekend, we're gonna run seven races. We'll give that schedule out at Bristol as well," Childress said. "You need a third team. Dale and I had talked about it in depth this winter. That was one of the things we discussed that we had to do at RCR to keep these teams stronger."