Childress reflects on career that started behind wheel

As a kid growing up in Winston-Salem, N.C., Richard Childress dreamed about becoming a race-car driver. And through a series of breaks and fortunate circumstances, he got his wish. Even though he never experienced a win at NASCAR's top level inside the car, Childress found himself enjoying the thrill of victories and championships as one of the top car owners in the sport.

With drivers like Ricky Rudd, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer and the legendary Dale Earnhardt behind the wheel, Richard Childress Racing has amassed close to 200 wins and 11 NASCAR championships, six of those coming in Cup.

Q: How did you get started in racing?

Hall of Fame bio

Long before he became one of the preeminent car owners in NASCAR history, Childress was a race car driver with limited means. Still, he persevered, which is what you do when you purchase your first race car for $20 at the age of 17.

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Childress: I started out when I was a kid. We went to Bowman-Gray Stadium to sell peanuts and popcorn, something to make a little bit of money. First, we went over there and my stepdad took us over there and I got to watch them race, and I thought, "Man, this is pretty cool." I asked if I could go back the next week. I had seen these kids there, selling peanuts and popcorn. I wanted to go back and go to work. He said, "Go ahead." So we'd jump the fence or walk in with somebody who would walk us in and we'd get in there and work.

When you couldn't be up selling during the race, you'd sit down and watch. That's something I really liked doing as a kid, you know, 11-12 years old. Then we started going in even earlier in the evenings and hanging out with the drivers, and going over to them. Guys like Billy Myers, Bobby Myers, Ted Swaim, all these guys who had race shops where we were at. We'd hang out at their shops and they'd say, "Boy, go do this" or "Boy, go do that." It was just neat to see that. We'd go early to the garage area. Well, it wasn't a garage area as much as a place where they kept all the cars.

You got to piddle around and do stuff with them. You got to see the lifestyle these guys lived, which in those days was pretty wild and carefree. I'd say, "Man, these guys are my heroes." I decided at that point, I wanted to be a race driver. They started a claiming division at Bowman-Gray Stadium and I had a job at that time. So I went out and bought an old '47 Plymouth and paid $20 for it. A friend of mine named Jerry Cooper and I flipped coins to see who got to drive it first. He drove it the first week. I drove it the second. And it was so much fun that I said, "We need to buy another car." So we bought a '54 Plymouth. We had to borrow money for that and it was $40. So at that time, we were a two-car team. I just had a lot of fun.

Q: You made your Cup debut in a very unusual fashion. How did that come about?

Childress: In 1969, I was working for a battery plant, doing a lot of other things on the side. And building wrecked cars. Anything I could do to make a buck. By that time, I had moved up, started running modifieds at Bowman-Gray Stadium and went on to running dirt around home. Then they started a division in 1968 called the Grand American touring division. I said, "I need to build me one of them." So I went and bought a wrecked '68 Camaro and put it together and carried it to Daytona and ran and qualified sixth, I think it was, right outside Lloyd Ruby. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I was having to ball.

We went to Talladega to run the road course down there. That's when the [Professional Drivers Association] boycotted. I almost forgot about that. When they boycotted, Petty and those guys tried to get us to not run the race the next day. So Bill France Sr. came along, and he had driven a car around there and he was going to race it. He ended up letting Tiny Lund run the car, I think. But he was willing to pay us, $1,000, $1,500, $2,000 -- I don't remember exactly what it was -- but I left there with $10,000 and I didn't think I'd have to work again. Little did I know.

But that was the most money I'd ever seen at the time, so I came back, bought some land, built a shop, quit working at the battery plant. I had quit working there in February because they told me if I left, I couldn't come back. So I decided I was going to race for a living, even if I had to run the short tracks. So that opened a lot of doors for me. A lot of it is about breaks. I got a big break there, getting to run that race, getting that extra money. I ran my first Cup race in 1971 and it was at South Boston, Va., and Benny Parsons won the race.

That was the first Cup car. We bought a burned-up '70 or '71 Chevelle and rebuilt it. That's what we made that race car out of. Then I was racing up in Islip, N.Y., in 1972 and I got to know these guys with L.C. Newton Trucking. Tom Garn's regular driver got all strung out on something, he fired him and put me in his car. So I let my brother start my car for the "start and park" money back then. So I know what these guys are going through. And I ran second to Bobby Allison, I think, that night. So he gave me a job.

That was another big break, being at the right place at the right time. Then we ran for him for a year. He had partners in his business who told him he had to get out, so he sold the team to me and financed it. I had to Daytona Beach and SunTrust and financed it and took so much of the plan money back in those days. That's how we'd make it through the winter, they'd loan us enough money. We got through all that, and kept building, building inventory and getting better cars. I had some good years. I think the best I finished in the points was fifth in 1975. It wasn't a great driving career but it was a fun driving career. We didn't have the money them other guys had. (Continued)