FANTASY NASCAR Racin

a former NASCAR driver and the current team owner of Richard Childress Racing (RCR) in the NASCAR Cup series. As a business entrepreneur, Childress became one of the wealthiest men in North Carolina. A 2003/2004 business venture was the opening of a vineyard in the Yadkin Valley AVA, an American Viticultural Area located in North Carolina. Childress was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is on the Board of Directors to the National Rifle Association. His grandsons Austin Dillon and Ty Dillon are NASCAR competitors. Childress' career in NASCAR's top levels started auspiciously as a drivers' strike at Talladega Super speedway left NASCAR President William France Sr. looking for replacement drivers. Childress was such a driver, and started his first race as a replacement.

By 1971, Childress began racing on the top level as an independent driver, using the #3 as a tribute to Junior Johnson's past as a driver. Although he never won as a driver, he proved to be excellent behind the wheel registering six top-5, seventy-six top-10 finishes, with a career-best of third in 1978. As he started he was an owner / driver in 1971-1972. In 1973, he pickup up some support from L.C. Newton Trucking and wheeled the #96 Chevrolet. They partnered together through 1975. In 1976, Kansas Jack came on board as a sponsor and saw their paint scheme on Childress' Oldsmobile through 1978. 1979 saw CRC Chemicals as Richards sponsor through 1980 His final year was 1981, and he had a variety of sponsors in his 21 races. His final race he drove for Junior

Johnson (kind of fitting since he first used the #3 to honor Junior). He wheeled the #41 Mt Dew sponsored Buick to a 39th place finish at Riverside as he fell out after only five laps. He retired from driving in 1981 after Rod Osterlund sold his NASCAR team to J.D. Stacy, and Osterlund's driver, Dale Earnhardt, did not want to drive for Stacy. Childress, with recommendations from R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, chose to retire and put Earnhardt behind the wheel of his #3 car complete with Wrangler Jeans sponsorship. That first alliance lasted for the season. Ricky Rudd was hired in 1982 and drove for two years, giving Childress his first career victory (as an owner) in June 1983 at Riverside. Earnhardt returned for the 1984 season, and together with Childress formed one of the most potent combinations in NASCAR

history. They won championships in 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, and 1994. In the mid-1990s, Childress began expanding his racing empire, fielding entries in the Xfinity Series and Truck Series. The team won the 1995 Truck Series championship with driver Mike Skinner in the series' first season. He also expanded to a two-car operation in what is now known as the Cup Series, with driver Skinner driving the #31. Earnhardt was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Childress then promoted Xfinity driver Kevin Harvick to drive the re-numbered #29. Harvick would win in only his third start, at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. With Harvick having won the Xfinity Series championship in 2001 and 2006, RCR became the

first team in NASCAR history to win all three of NASCAR's national championship series. RCR also won the Xfinity Series owners championships in 2003 with Kevin Harvick and Johnny Sauter and in 2007 with Scott Wimmer and Jeff Burton. RCR won the 2011 NASCAR Truck Series and the 2013 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship, both with Childress' grandson Austin Dillon driving the #3. Currently Childress fields two cars in the Cup series with a driver line-up of Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick (as of 2020). He also fields vehicles in NASCAR's Xfinity series, and the Truck series. His Grandson (Austin Dillon) moved up to the CUP series in 2014, to drive for Childress. In 2017 Childress's other grandson (Ty Dillon) moved up to the

Cup series to drive for Germain Racing; a team that gets a lot of support and engines from RCR. Childress has purchased the #3 from NASCAR ever since Dale Earnhardt was killed driving that car at Daytona in 2001. Dillon brought the #3 out of mothballs, and it hit the track for the first time in 2014 at Daytona. Austin promptly put it on the pole for the Daytona event. For a lot more information on Richard Childress and his race team (RCR) look up Richard Childress Racing under 'Car Owners Bio's". Some info from WikiPedia.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

RICHARD CHILDRESS - 09/21/1945