What Does The 'ECR' In ECR Engines Stand For & Which NASCAR Teams Use Them?

The name ECR Engines likely doesn't mean much to folks who don't follow auto racing. However, those in the know might agree that ECR is one of the preeminent names in precision racing engines: Vehicles powered by ECR-branded motors have earned more than 200 wins in various pro motorsport racing series. 

Many of those more recent wins have, of course, come from NASCAR tracks. Still, we'd wager even some diehard fans of the stock car racing arena have no idea what the "ECR" in ECR Engines actually means. The letters stand for Earnhardt Childress Racing, with those names indeed signifying that ECR Engines boasts ties to two absolute legends in the NASCAR arena: Late-great driver Dale Earnhardt (who tragically died on the track in 2001), and Hall of Fame driver and team owner, Richard Childress.

ECR Engines first emerged in 2007, when Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Richard Childress Racing merged their operations to form a one-stop shop for developing and delivering high-performance racing engines to both factions, building their well-known names into the brand. However, RCR took full control of Earnhardt Childress Racing Technologies in 2016, with ECR Engines not only operating out of Childress' Welcome, North Carolina campus and garages, but also powering vehicles in his NASCAR fleet. As of this writing, there are four NASCAR teams racing under the RCR banner, two in the NASCAR Cup series and two in NASCAR's Xfinity Series.

We'll start with the Cup Series, NASCAR's top racing circuit, with ECR Engines powering souped up builds of the already-speedy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Childress' No. 3 team, as well as the No. 8. Both cars are piloted by Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch, respectively. Busch, an avid car collector himself, also has plenty of on-track success in a decades-spanning career, with his 63 Cup wins currently ranking him first among active drivers. Dillon, however, is slightly newer to the Cup Series, where he's already notched five wins himself.

As for the RCR teams in the second-tier Xfinity Series, the No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro is driven by Austin Hill, with 18-year-old Jesse Love taking the wheel of the No. 2 Chevy Camaro SS. At 18-years-of-age, Love is set to become one of the younger drivers on the Xfinity circuit, with 2024 marking his first year in competition. The 2024 season will be Hill's third, with the driver tallying 8 wins in that span. While those teams are all Childress Racing official, ECR Engines also lists smaller NASCAR Cup Series outfits owned by Beard Motorsports and Kaulig Racing among their clients, as well as Xfinity Series teams backed by Kaulig, Big Machine Racing, Our Motorsports, and Jordan Anderson Racing.