austin dillon richard childress dow car.jpg

Austin DIllon(L), driver of the #3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, and Richard Childress, owner of Richard Childress Racing, pose for a photo opportunity after a press announcement at Charlotte Motor Speedway on December 11, 2013 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

(NASCAR via Getty Images)

After nearly 13 years of dormancy, the No. 3 is finally returning to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and you'd be hard pressed to find a fan that doesn't have an opinion one way or the other.

Car owner Richard Childress announced Wednesday what most of us figured would happen all along - that his grandson, Austin Dillon, would drive the iconic No. 3 next season.

Unless you're so new to racing that you don't even know its history, you know that the late Dale Earnhardt drove Childress' No. 3 Chevrolet to six of his seven Cup championships before his tragic death at the 2001 Daytona 500. Childress took the number out of use immediately and has been paying NASCAR all this time to retain the rights to it.

Wednesday's announcement has been met with a mix of emotions, most either extremely positive or extremely negative. Longtime Earnhardt fans are either ecstatic that the No. 3 is back or upset that NASCAR and Childress haven't simply retired it already.

Others simply don't feel Dillon - who drove No. 3 machines to the 2011 Camping World Truck Series and 2013 Nationwide Series championships - has paid his dues enough to warrant such a prestigious ride. Of course, there are those who feel that, if not a member of Childress' family, who else would deserve the "family" number?

Personally, I've seen this coming since 2008, when Dillon drove a black No. 3 car in what is now the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. Since then, he's had the number all through his rise up the ladder. His younger brother, Ty, has taken over the No. 3 every time Austin moves up to a new division.

For me, this day was just like Jacoby Ellsbury's departure from the Red Sox, something I also began preparing for around 2008, once the outfielder took on Scott Boras as his agent.

I was never an Earnhardt fan while he was alive. I never saw the kinship that his fans felt with a car, with a number, until around the 10th anniversary of his death. I began to accept that, if Earnhardt fans were still mourning 10 years later, they'd never change.

But when I look at it through the eyes of the other sports I follow, I understand. Should NASCAR allow teams to retire numbers the way they do in the stick-and-ball sports? Or should they allow their legacies to live on, the way Richard Petty Motorsports has with The King's No. 43?

Should the No. 3 be hoisted to NASCAR's proverbial rafters, or should it be like Notre Dame's No. 3, which has been passed from Joe Montana down through the years? In that case, the Dillon boys should have it.

But what about the Earnhardt family? If Dale Earnhardt Jr. is okay with it, then why do people still have a problem? Dale Sr.'s old crew members are on board, so why not accept it?

The problem I have isn't with the number itself or the fans who are strongly opinionated one way or the other. It's with Austin Dillon himself.

Kevin Harvick - who recently left RCR after 13 seasons and whose seat Austin Dillon now occupies - said it best in late October after Ty Dillon took him out in a Truck Series race at Martinsville:

The cowboy hat. The smug look of entitlement. The fake humility. Calling Childress "Pop-Pop" ... All of it makes my stomach turn. Austin Dillon may have two championships, but he's only 23 years old. He's still a kid. And a spoiled one at that.

Richard Childress is known not only for helping to create the Dale Earnhardt juggernaut, but now also as one of the people perpetuating NASCAR's current perception as a place where the rich kids play.

I don't question either Dillon boy's talent - at least in the great equipment "Pop-Pop" provides for them. Stick them in start-and-park stuff and see how good they do.

At the end of the day, though, it's not my call. It's not your call. It's apparently not even NASCAR's call. I guess we should just sit back, enjoy seeing the No. 3 and the No. 43 on the track for the first time since 2001, and see how well Austin Dillon handles the pressure.

He'll be cheered. He'll be booed. He might even give Dale Jr. a run for Most Popular Driver. I hope he's ready for it.