A common misconception was that Richard Childress Racing "owned the rights" to the No. 3 in NASCAR competition (fueled by the fact that Kevin Harvick's car had a little No. 3 as an homage to Earnhardt from 2001 to 2013 and the usage of the No. 3 on the Camping World Truck Series truck of Ty Dillon when he ran in that series), but NASCAR, and no specific team, owns the rights to this or any other number. According to established NASCAR procedures, Richard Childress Racing had priority over other teams if they chose to reuse the number, which they did when Austin Dillon was promoted to the Cup series in 2014. While Richard Childress Racing owns the stylized No. 3 logos used during Earnhardt's lifetime (and used presently with Dillon), those rights would hypothetically not prevent a future racing team from using a different No. 3 design (also, a new No. 3 team would most likely, in any case, need to create logos which fit with their sponsor's logos).
A common misconception was that Richard Childress Racing "owned the rights" to the No 3 in NASCAR competition (fueled by the fact that Kevin Harvick's car had a little No 3 as an homage to Earnhardt from 2001 to 2013 and the usage of the No 3 on the Camping World Truck Series truck of Ty Dillon when he ran in that series) but NASCAR and no specific team owns the rights to this or any other number According to established NASCAR procedures Richard Childress Racing had priority over other teams if they chose to reuse the number which they did when Austin Dillon was promoted to the Cup series in 2014 While Richard Childress Racing owns the stylized No 3 logos used during Earnhardt's lifetime (and used presently with Dillon) those rights would hypothetically not prevent a future racing team from using a different No 3 design (also a new No 3 team would most likely in any case need to create logos which fit with their sponsor's logos)