10-02-2025
Dale Earnhardt's Iconic Black No. 3 Chevy Was Almost Light Blue
Dale Earnhardt Sr. drove a few famous cars in his career, but none is more associated with the Intimidator than the all-black Goodwrench car that he drove from 1988 through the entire remainder of his career. The iconic scheme birthed his other famous nickname, the Man in Black — but as it turns out, General Motors initially wanted the car to be blue. According to Earnhardt's long-time boss Richard Childress, the team had to fight to race the car in its now-signature colors.
Childress told the story on a recent episode of "The Dale Jr. Download," Earnhart's son's podcast. According to the championship-winning team owner, GM preferred the bright blue and white colors from its Goodwrench-branded brake boxes. The team mocked up half a car in that livery, but covered the other half of the car in black and silver duct tape. When presenting the car half-wrapped in the two different proposals, Childress stressed that the black car with white (or silver, in the case of the initial mock-ups) decals would contrast better with the black asphalt of a race track.
GM went with the black paint scheme, and the rest is history. Dale Earnhardt ran the same basic design for the rest of his career, winning four of his seven championships in the colors that would go on to be associated with his name for decades. The black Goodwrench livery was retired when Earnhardt died in 2001, and Kevin Harvick continued in a re-number No. 29 entry with a white Goodwrench paint scheme through the rest of the 2001 season.
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