Mother of Dale Earnhardt miffed No. 3 is back on the track (Update)

UPDATE Team owner Richard Childress talked to Dale Earnhardt's mother Friday and feels he has her support to have his grandson racing Earnhardt's famous #3 in the Sprint Cup Series. Childress is bringing back the #3 to Cup racing this year with grandson Austin Dillon behind the wheel. Dillon has raced the number throughout his NASCAR career but the Daytona 500 next week will be the first Cup race with the #3 on the track since Earnhardt died in the 2001 Daytona 500. Dillon will drive one car that is black, white and red when sponsored by Dow and another that is yellow and black when sponsored by Cheerio's. While the number is slanted in the #3 style that Earnhardt drove to six of his seven Cup titles, it will never be an all black car, Childress said Saturday. He said he talked to Martha Earnhardt on Friday, a couple of days after her comments on "RaceHub."

"I understand her feelings," Childress said Saturday in the Cup garage. "We've talked. She doesn't have a problem with him running. What she said is (she) doesn't want it to look exactly like Dale's car, solid black. Her and I talked yesterday. Everything is great." Earnhardt's family has been generally supportive about the return of the #3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been a vocal proponent for the number coming back. He said Thursday he had not talked to his grandmother about her feelings. "We haven't talked about that," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I'm sure that's got to stir up a lot of emotions for a lot of different people. Some will be stronger than others, and that's just up to the individual." SceneDaily

02/12/14 Martha Earnhardt, mother of the late NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt, in an exclusive interview with Steve Byrnes on today’s edition of NASCAR RACE HUB on FOX Sports 1, talked about the return of the No. 3 to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition.

Richard Childress Racing, who owned the No. 3 that Earnhardt drove at the time of his tragic incident at Daytona International Speedway in February of 2001, is once again utilizing the No. 3 for Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year candidate Austin Dillon in 2014.

Here is what Martha Earnhardt told FOX Sports 1;

“I have mixed feelings because I was told that I would never see a number three on the race track after Dale died. I can understand it to a point. I know it was Richard’s [Childress] number when he drove and this is his grandson, and I understand that. As long as they don’t make it look like the number three. If they painted it a different color … I can sort of deal with it, but I don’t want to see the black number three just like Dale’s. But that’s not my decision."