| The Race to Get an Interview With Nascar Legend Richard Childress |
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| Written by Oksana Kehoe | |
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 Oksana Kehoe with NASCAR Driver Richard Childress  Dale Earnhardt reincarnated as Russian Nesting Doll  Oksana Kehoe with Kevin Harvick at NASCAR Nextel Cup Reception  Kamchatsky Brown Bear Family  Oksana Kehoe Illuminating the NASCAR Nextel Cup Fast-forward to the excellent Busch Series 80-lap road course event dominated by Richard Childress' Number 21 Autozone Chevrolet piloted by Kevin Harvick, last year's Busch Champion. Harvick stayed on course longer than the rest of the field who had pitted for fuel and was fortunate to catch the first caution which kept him in the lead position when the rest came in to pit with him. After that he just drove consistently well, beating other world-class drivers along the way. Ultimately he finished first in the race. Later, I met privately with Childress in his motorcoach shortly after the "burnout" and the winner's celebration on the victory lane. A burnout, by the way (also called a peel-out or brake burn), occurs when the driver of a vehicle (whether it be a car, motorbike, or truck) spins the vehicle's drive wheels until a trail of white smoke is generated. I wondered how many trophies this former NASCAR driver had won during his career in racing as both a driver and an owner. Born in 1945, this Winston-Salem, North Carolina, native is a former NASCAR driver and successful team owner of Richard Childress Racing (RCR) in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup competition. As an entrepreneur, Childress has become one of North Carolina's wealthiest men having recently opened of a vineyard in the state's Yadkin Valley. Childress's career in NASCAR's top levels started when he got a job as a replacement driver during a strike. By 1971, Childress began racing on the top level as an indie driver, using the number 3 as a tribute to driver Junior Johnson's past. Although he never won as a driver, he had six top-5, 76 top-10 finishes, with a career-best of third in 1978. Childress retired from driving in 1981 after Rod Osterlund sold his NASCAR team to J.D. Stacy, and Osterlund's driver, Dale Earnhardt Sr., did not want to drive for Stacy. Childress, with recommendations from R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, retired and put Earnhardt behind the wheel of his #3 car. And then, Earnhardt became a NASCAR legend. We spoke for about one hour, chatting like life-long friends even though it was the first time we had met. Since I am Russian, I didn't even see a Winston Cap Race Car until 2001. [Nextel is now the official sponsor of the NASCAR Racing so it's the Nextel Cup Race]. During the Winston Cup era, Childress became successful as a driver and owner so he gave me a short history lesson about the many extraordinary benchmarks in his racing career. Q: You were a driver in the '70s; tell me about that experience. Richard Childress: I started driving many years ago, and retired in 1981. I put [the late, great NASCAR Hall of Fame driver] Dale Earnhardt Sr. in the car for 10 races and Dale drove 10 races for me, and then in 1982-83 I hired Ricky Rudd, and Ricky Rudd drove, and we won six races with Ricky Rudd and several poles. And then Dale and myself were hunting buddies and we were hunting in South Carolina. Every night we'd sit around and talk about getting back together. He drove those 10 races in '81, but we always talked about getting back together. So, we were hunting buddies and talked about hunting and getting back together and racing again together because we really did well for ten races and Ricky came in and won some races for us so in 1984 we got back together. Q: OK, tell me a little more about your teams and your cars. RC: Our goal was to win the Championship. But first, with this new format you have to make the Chase. The top 12 cars, right now all three of our cars are in the top-10. Jeff Burton is 4th, Kevin [Harvick] is 9th, Clint Bowyer is 10th. Or vice versa, and a lot can happen in five races, and once we get in the Chase we'll just be going wide open to try to win every race. You know, now we're trying to be on the conservative side to make the Chase. Once you get in the Chase you go wide open. Q: Let's speak about the trophies you won with Dale Earnhardt Sr.? RC: We won six Championships with Dale and did 70-some races, we have alot of the trophies there in our museum in Wellcome, North Carolina. Probably one of the most memorable was the Daytona 500 win in 1998. Q: Besides your passion for racing, hunting is your hobby; I know you want to hunt in Mongolia and that you've been to Russia. RC: It was great [hunting there]. I mean we are laid over in Russia on my way to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. I was over there hunting the Marco Polo sheep, it's the largest sheep in the world. We were hunting it at 13,500 feet. And I was in Moscow last year. It's a great city, I really enjoyed Russia and this is really great place to visit. I want to go back up there and hunt snowsheep and collect a bear, I can't pronounce it Q: A Grizzly? RC: it's the brown bear Kamacho... Q: The Kamchatka brown bear...? RC: Yeah, a Kamchatka. [This is one of the largest bears in the world; an adult can reach 1,540 pounds with a height of around nine feet. Some 16,000 brown bears reside on the Kamchatka peninsula.] Q: So where is your home town? RC: Lexington, North Carolina. Q: I heard about your winery there. RC: The winery is in North Carolina. It's a fun business to own. I got into the wine business about five years ago. I've been drinking wine and collecting wine for many years so I thought, you know, why not make my own wine. That's how I ended up getting in wine business. We have been making it for five years and selling for three years. Q: I know you make good wine I tried it yesterday, I loved it. RC: That's our Meritage wine. It's alot of fun, it's something I've wanted to do when I could afford to come out and do it right. We do about 40,000 cases per year, and it's just alot of fun, and with 75 million race fans it gives us a good market. rcrracing.com childressvineyards.com |
