"Every time the money people came in, they’d push you back": Richard Childress reflects on his early NASCAR ownership struggles

RCR owner Richard Childress shared his experience of being a team owner from the early years of NASCAR when gaining sponsors was a difficult task. He reminisced that the lack of funds for individual owners kept pushing them back as people with large financial backup headed into the sport with sponsors.

Richard Childress founded his racing team back in the late 60s in an owner-driver capacity. Since then, the team has fielded brilliant drivers like Dale Earnhardt Sr, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, and more. While Childress continues to be one of the most influential figures on the grid, the start was rather tough for him.

During the 1970s, many new team owners made their way into NASCAR with major financial backing and/or sponsors. Discussing his early years in racing with rcrracing.com, he mentioned that financing was a major issue.

"I started to see the big money coming into the sport," Childress said. "You had so many of those money people coming in and every time they'd come in, they’d push you back a spot. Instead of running in the top 10 you were running in the top 15." [2:47 onwards]

He explained that he was moving behind on the grid in terms of competitiveness with the new team owners coming in as they had the capacity and the finances to sign better engineers and crew that helped them develop faster cars and push others like himself behind in the grid.

"Each year I could see me sliding further back and I just wasn't enjoying it like I did when I could go out there and run the top 10 and occasional Top 5. So that's when it started changing about '75, '76… A lot of different big money was coming into the sport, big owners. And every time one would come in and hire up all of the people they could. It just kept moving the independence of the back and pushing a lot of them out of business. And I could see if I didn't do something different, I would be out of business as well," he added.

Richard Childress Racing currently fields two full-time Charters in the Cup Series and are expanding to add a third part-time entry in the 2025 season as well. While the driver of the third car hasn't been revealed yet, Andy Street will serve as the team's crew chief.

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Richard Childress optimistic about Andy Street's command over the third RCR entry in 2025

Richard Childress during the Championship race at Phoenix Raceway. - Source: Imagn

After Richard Childress Racing's third entry was announced earlier this month, they announced Andy Street as the crew chief. Street has worked with Austin Hill in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and has gained plenty of experience.

Speaking of his entry into the Cup Series, Richard Childress said:

"Andy Street brings a wealth of knowledge to our NASCAR Cup Series program as we continue to evaluate ways to build a deeper bench and promote from within." [via si.com]

He also feels that this would be a good opportunity for Street to expand his experience with the Cup Series, whilst also working with the team in the Xfinity Series.

"This move gives Andy the chance to gain NextGen experience and have a bigger opportunity on the Cup side, while still contributing to our Xfinity Series program and working with our alliance partners," Childress added.

Andy Street will be collaborating with multiple drivers throughout the 2025 season with the part-time entry in the Cup Series.