Richard Childress - (2008)

Richard Childress is the president and CEO of Richard Childress Racing (RCR), an 11-time NASCAR championship-winning organization. An independent driver who got his start in1969, Childress climbed out of the seat with 10 races remaining in the 1981 season, handing over the driving duties to Dale Earnhardt. Together they made NASCAR history, winning 67 races, six Sprint Cup Series championships, and along the way established RCR as one of the premier teams in all of motorsports.

 RCR currently fields three teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and three in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. In addition to its six Cup championships, RCR has earned four championships in the Nationwide Series and one in the NASCAR Truck Series, and nearly 180 overall victories. More than 400 dedicated motorsports professionals work at the RCR complex, located in Welcome, N.C., just south of Winston-Salem. Its 50-acre facility consists of 16 buildings and 500,000 square feet of shop space.

In addition to his fulltime career in racing, Childress is the proprietor of Childress Vineyards in Lexington, N.C. Located at the gateway of the Yadkin Valley, Childress Vineyards has already earned many prestigious industry awards in its mere three years of existence. Childress, along with winemaker Mark Friszolowski and vineyard manager Matt Chobanian, have the collective goal of establishing North Carolina as a region for signature winemaking. He also owns Yadkin River Angus, a very successful Black Angus cattle ranch in Clemmons, N.C.

Another great passion Childress has is big-game hunting and the conservation and preservation of wildlife habitat in the United States and throughout the world. His work with groups like the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and the North Carolina Wildlife Habitat, among many others, provides him the opportunity to make a difference in preserving wildlife habitats for generations to come.

2008