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Under the Hood
  • Complex Map
    Museum Warehouse Cup Shop Engineering Promotions Okuma Technology Center ECR Research & Development ECR Engines Research & Development Shop Nationwide Shop
  • RCR Cup Shop

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    The "Cup Shop" is home to all four of RCR's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams, as well as its administration offices. The original 86,000-square-foot facility was opened in May 2002 and an additional 94,000-square-feet was completed December 2007. The Cup Shop consists of the crew chiefs' offices, main assembly floor, fabrication shop, finish fabrication room, paint and body room, the gear/transmission assembly room, the shock assembly room, the fabrication shop, the suspension assembly room, engineering offices, steering box room, parts warehouse, transporter bay, gym, photo studio, meeting facility and the pit crew practice facility.

    Fans can see first-hand what goes on in the shop by touring the RCR Fan Walk, located on the second floor of the building. The RCR Fan Walk allows visitors to view the day's activities in the main shop floor area and the transporter bay through floor-to-ceiling windows while listening to Sirius NASCAR Radio.
  • Inside the Cup Shop

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    RCR Fabrication Shop
    The RCR Fabrication Shop is where sheet metal is shaped, welded and hung on the chassis to become the shell of the aerodynamic Chevrolet stock car. The fabrication shop is also where damaged race cars are repaired and brought back to life with cosmetic repairs. English Wheels, centuries-old technology used to bend sheet metal, are utilized right alongside the latest in welding equipment from Miller Electric, to hand-build today's stock cars which must fit nearly 40 templates to NASCAR's strict tolerances. A visit to the RCR Fab Shop is an opportunity to see true artisans of their craft at work.

    RCR Pit Stop Practice Area
    The RCR Pit Stop Practice area, located behind the RCR Cup Shop, houses all the spare tires and equipment used by the over-the-wall pit crews during pit stop practice.

    RCR Meeting Hall
    The RCR Meeting Hall is used primarily for company meetings and gatherings. With nearly 500 employees, RCR needs a large open space for all of the staff to meet. The RCR Meeting Hall was part of the 2007 Cup Shop expansion and is now an 18,000-square-foot room with state of the art audio/visual equipment. The room has a temporary wall that can split the room into two smaller rooms. RCR has the capability to hold large sponsor functions and other business and social gatherings.

    RCR Photo Studio
    Next door to the RCR Meeting Hall is the Photo Studio. Team and sponsor photo shoots are done in this 7,000 square foot modern facility. The studio features a 1200 square foot cyclorama backdrop, an ample Speedotron lighting system, a 10’ X 30’ light bank and PC computer workstations. The studio is also used for a variety of video projects. Outside companies are encouraged to use this facility as well. Please contact Bill Patterson for more information.

    RCR Gym
    This new 8,000 square foot gym is a state of the art facility dedicated to enhancing the performance of the RCR pit crews. The gym is equipped with the latest strength and exercise equipment including Hammer Strength and Life Fitness machines, Olympic platforms, flat screen televisions and two complete locker rooms. The facility also includes the Human Performance offices and video breakdown rooms to facilitate pit crew training.

    The goal of RCR’s strength trainer is to provide the pit crews with overall athletic fitness, including balance, flexibility and mental toughness. The gym is also equipped with “unconventional” fitness equipment such as kettle bells, sandbags, ropes and tires. The gym is kept uncomfortably warm to provide an environment that mirrors race-day conditions.

    RCR has set itself apart from the competition by providing their pit crews with this cutting edge development facility.
  • RCR Nationwide Shop

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    The Nationwide Shop is home to its championship-winning No. 29 NASCAR Nationwide Series team. Originally built in late 1996 for RCR's No. 31 Cup team, which debuted the next year, the building housed all three Cup teams in late 2001/early 2002 in an effort to get 70 people used to working side-by-side (literally!) before moving into the new Cup Shop in May 2002. The teams not only had to learn to work together as one team, but had to do it in tight quarters.

    RCR's Nationwide teams have made it their own home. The No. 2 ACDelco team won the series' championship in 2001, the No. 21 Reese's team winning the owners' championship in 2003, the No. 21 Coast Guard team won the series championship in 2006, the No. 29 Holiday Inn team won the owner’s championship in 2007 and the No. 2 BB&T team won the driver’s champions in 2008. The Nationwide Shop is a smaller version of the Cup Shop, with its own crew chiefs' offices, main assembly floor, finish fabrication room, paint and body room, gear/transmission assembly room, shock assembly room, fabrication shop, suspension assembly room and parts warehouse.
  • RCR/Okuma Technology Center

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    Okuma America, a world leader in Computer Numerical Controls (CNC) machine tools, and Richard Childress Racing have taken machine tooling to the next level. The Okuma Technology Center, a 17,000-square-foot facility in the center of the RCR campus, is where the development and manufacturing of parts and components, exclusively for RCR, go from an engineer's computer screen to the finished product. Engine parts, as well as those for nearly every other part of the race car, totaling in the hundreds, are produced or modified by Okuma machinery, as well as Sodick Electro Discharge Machine (EDM) and an OMAX water jet.
  • RCR Seven Post Machine / Engineering

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    The majority of RCR's engineers work out of the RCR Cup Shop, but much of their time is spent across the street at a unique building. What makes the building unique is its other tenant … a seven-post machine. What makes that fact unique? RCR was one of the first NASCAR team to have a seven-post machine on its premises. What does a seven-post machine do? It's basically a piece of machinery for testing shocks and springs using a computer program that replicates a race track's track profile. Information is collected at a track during a test. That information is then dumped into the computer system that runs the seven-post machine. What is the purpose? The goal is to dial in the best three or four spring and shock setups before the teams leave for the next race, which will free up time at the track to work on other parts of the car. Pretty cool, huh?
  • RCR Racing Museum
    The RCR Racing Museum is a 47,000-square-foot building that is home to the 40-year history of Richard Childress Racing. Opened in May 2003, the facility incorporated the original No. 3 team race shop in the facility, the original museum and a newly built structure to tie the two together. Nearly two dozen black No. 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolets are on display, along with nearly two dozen more vehicles whose on-the-track successes created key milestones in RCR's history. Photographs, banners, trophies, and other memorabilia complement the 14 video screens throughout the facility. The center section is the Richard Childress Wildlife Conservation Area, where many of Childress' hunting trophies are on display along with educational information from four major outdoor conservation groups. The museum supports these groups by donating $1 from each paid admission.
  • RCR Promotions / Show Cars

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    RCR Promotions has 30 show cars which are scheduled for more than 2,500 special events each year. Every show car is a retired race car with its own documented racing heritage. Some of the most popular show cars include the black No.3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Monte Carlo and the yellow and blue No. 3 Wrangler Chevrolet Monte Carlo, both driven by the legendary Dale Earnhardt.
  • RCR Warehouse

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    The RCR Warehouse is the nerve center of the entire organization. Every shipment of parts, pieces, equipment, and machinery is unloaded and processed at the warehouse. Each box or package is then sorted and delivered to its final destination. On the flip side, everything that gets sent out of RCR, whether it's the mail or an engine block, gets picked up by warehouse personnel and brought back to the warehouse for processing before being shipped out.
  • RCR Fabrication Research & Development Shop

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    By early 2004, the workload of RCR's engine department, which builds power plants for all of RCR's Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series teams as well as a number of other Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series teams, had outgrown the building that had been its home since late 1996. Construction began in June and the new 40,000-square foot, state-of-the-art facility opened its doors in December 2004.
  • ECR Engines
    Earnhardt Childress Racing Engines (ECR) was established in May 2007 as a joint venture partnership combining two of the most powerful names in NASCAR: Childress and Earnhardt. The partnership combined the two respective engine programs into one to produce the power plants for the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series teams of Richard Childress Racing (RCR) and Dale Earnhardt Incorporated (now Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates). In addition, select teams are included in a lease engine program in NASCAR’s top three divisions.

    The 115 crew members who work in the ECR Engine Shop annually build nearly 750 Chevrolet racing engines from the block up. Each engine is then tested on a dynamometer and must create horsepower within one percent of the mandated level, which is approximately 850 horsepower. If it can't reach the required number, it's torn down and rebuilt. There are no ifs or maybes. A lack of horsepower is hard to overcome once a team gets to the track.

    After every race, each engine is removed from the race car and returned to the ECR Engine Shop where it will be torn down back to the block and every piece and part is inspected. The build process is then begun once again.
  • ECR Research & Development
    Classified.
  • RCR Air

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    RCR Air is home to the fleet of aircraft and personnel that transport the more than 100 RCR team members and support personnel to and from the race track on a weekly basis. Located at a hanger at Lexington Regional Airport, just 10 minutes from the RCR complex, RCR Air's lineup of aircraft includes one 30-seat Brasilia, a Beech King Air 200 which seats 10, a Eurocopter helicopter and a Hawker Series jet.