The famous No. 3 returns to victory lane

By Mike Smith

Sun, Sep 26, 2010 (9:32 p.m.)

Fan were on their feet waving three fingers in the air as Austin Dillon drove his black No. 3 Chevy to victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday night. Dillon, a rookie in the Camping World Truck Series, is also the grandson of Richard Childress. And judging from the crowd's reaction to seeing the famous No. 3 in victory lane, I have to wonder if it's time for a black Chevy with the No. 3 on its doors to return to the Sprint Cup Series.

I watched the race from the pits, which is always a different experience than watching a Cup race from that same location. There are fewer people, for one thing, and that makes it easier to get around. And although it is an extremely competitive atmosphere, there isn’t the same amount of tension in the air that a Cup race has. There are more media, more representatives from big-name corporate sponsors and, I think, more tension between the various teams and drivers in NASCAR's top series. All of these things probably make the atmosphere at a truck race very similar to what the atmosphere was like at Cup races before that series became the mega-circus that it is today.

Other than the great racing that the truck series always seems to provide at LVMS, this series has some of the most humorous sponsorships in NASCAR. You won't see sponsors with names like FarmPaint.com, DrivenMale.com or Panhandle Grading and Paving in the Cup series. One of my favorite sponsors is GunBroker.com. I think I'd be a little cautious about giving the chrome bumper to someone who has easy access to massive amounts of firearms.

No. 25 pit stop

But I'd actually be more concerned about messing with driver Mario Gosselin. One of Gosselin's main sponsors is James Carter, Attorney at Law. It's bad enough running the risk of being called to the NASCAR trailer after an on-track incident, but who wants to also be hit with a personal injury lawsuit?

Below are some photos from the race.