Richard Childress is still mulling whether to bring Dale Earnhardtâ€™s famous No. 3 back to Sprint Cup competition.

Childress, who owns the rights to the car number that Earnhardt made famous,

has said since last November that he believes that fans would accept a return of the slanted design that marked Earnhardtâ€™s car for six of his seven Cup championships.

Speaking on SiriusXMâ€™s NASCAR channel Wednesday morning, Childress reiterated that only a member of his family or the Earnhardt family would race the number in Cup.

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Childress grandsons Austin and Ty Dillon have raced the number in the Truck and Nationwide series in recent years, and Austin Dillon could run a full-time Cup schedule in 2014.

Earnhardt won six of his seven championships driving the No. 3 at RCR. He died in a crash on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

â€œWeâ€™re definitely in the process of discussing that,â€ Childress told the network Wednesday. â€œAustin Dillon, Ty Dillon did a great job representing it.

â€œWe all know the history of it, what Dale did with it, and they respect it and if it did come back with one of those two young men, Dale Earnhardt would be smiling down and he would be very pleased to see it back on the racetrack. â€¦ Who knows what weâ€™ll see come the Daytona 500 in February?â€

Austin Dillon, who was third in the Nationwide Series last year and fourth in the current standings, has driven the No. 33 for RCR in Cup this year as well as the No. 51 for Phoenix Racing.

He said he wouldnâ€™t want to run the No. 3 in Sprint Cup with just a partial schedule.

â€œI kind of would like to do it as a full season, personally, going all out, having a full year to do it,â€ the 22-year-old Dillon said in January. â€œOne or two spotty races are just hard to go in there and compete when youâ€™re not competing at that level of competition every week.â€

The No. 3 has not been used in Cup since Earnhardtâ€™s death in 2001.

â€œWith Austin running it in Nationwide as much as he did, itâ€™s kind of re-energized a lot of the fans,â€ Childress said earlier this year. â€œThe fans come up and the cards and the calls and the emails we get, when we said he was going to run the 33 at Daytona, overwhelmingly people wanted to see the 3.â€

Not only have the Dillon brothers raced with the iconic No. 3 on their cars for much of their careers, Dale Earnhardtâ€™s 12-year-old granddaughter, Karsyn Elledge, also is running the slanted No. 3 in mini-sprints.

â€œI do like running it, but you always question certain things every now and then when you think back about it and people say things,â€ Dillon said earlier this year. â€œThe great thing is I had a lot of support with it, especially lately. â€¦ People come up to you and say, â€˜Man, weâ€™d love to see you in the 3 in the Cup Series.â€™

â€œThatâ€™s all I need to hear is a little bit of support here and there. Past that, itâ€™s a number and I have to give 110 percent if Iâ€™m in the 3 or not in the 3.â€