Richard Childress Racing

Richard Childress Racing History

Richard Childress Racing is one of the richest American stock car companies, which has been evaluated at $150 million in net worth, according to Forbes in 2020. They had a revenue of $130 million with an operating income of $6 million. The team was founded and started by Richard Childress in 1969. Richard Childress Racing has managed to field a car in the NASCAR playoffs every year since 1972. It has also fielded the no.3 car for a long time in the Cup Series. It has a technical alliance with Kaulig Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series and Big Machine Racing and Jordan Anderson Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Richard Childress Racing started operations in 1969 as a one man team. Childress was the driver/ owner of the team and struggled as a lone wolf in the beginning. He continued as a driver until the 1980s but never won a race in the Cup Series. He hired Ricky Rudd to drive for Richard Childress Racing in the 1983 season. The team achieved their first win at the Riverside International Speedway on June 5, 1983. In 1984, the team signed a driver who was about to repeat history in the Cup Series, Dale Earnhardt. The duo went on to become one of the most dominant duos in the series.

Richard Childress Racing stayed a one-car team for 25 years after its introduction. They introduced their second car in the 1997 Cup Series season. By the 2002 season, RCR was fielding three cars in the Cup Series.

Richard Childress Racing Owner

Richard Childress Racing is owned and managed by Richard Reed Childress. He is the founder of the team who started off as the first driver of the team in 1969, later expanding operations in the NASCAR Cup Series. He is a former race car driver who competed in the NASCAR Cup Series. Richard Childress is a native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S. and was born on September 21, 1945. He opened a vineyard in Yadkin Valley AVA, near Lexington in 2004. He was also a part of the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association of America until 2019.

Childress started racing in NASCAR in 1969. He took part in his first race at the Talladega Superspeedway, as there was a lack of drivers due to a strike. He started racing independently by the 1970s, using 96 as his car number. Richard Childress changed his car number to 3, in order to honor Junior Johnson in 1976. He has started 285 races over 12 years in the Cup Series. He has not won a race but achieved 76 Top-10s in the Cup Series. Richard Childress has a total net worth of $250 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth as of August 2024. He has collected his wealth through his race winnings as a driver and earnings as team owner. He also has multiple investments and is a successful businessman.

Richard Childress Racing Crew Chief

Richard Childress Racing fields two cars each in the NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series. Their crew chiefs are Randall Burnett (no. 8 Kyle Busch), Justin Alexander (no.3 Austin Dillon) in the Cup Series and Andy Street (no. 21 Austin Hill) and Danny Stockman (no.2 Jesse Love) in the Xfinity Series.

Randall Burnett

Randall Burnett is the crew chief of Kyle Busch in the NASCAR Cup Series. He will be working with the star driver for the second season in 2024. Burnett previously worked with Tyler Reddick and claimed a playoff spot for two consecutive seasons with the driver. He started working as a crew chief for the first time in 2016 at JTG Daugherty Racing with A.J. Allmendinger. Burnett joined Richard Childress Racing in the next season. He won the Xfinity Series championship with Tyler Reddick in 2019. He was promoted to the Cup Series in 2020 with Tyler Reddick.

Randall Burnett used to race late models near his hometown but later moved to the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. He earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Joined Chip Ganassi Racing in their NASCAR operations. He spent 10 years at the team working as a data acquisition engineer, lead race engineer, lead team engineer and 7-post analysis engineer. He worked closely with Kyle Larson in 2014 in his rookie season. Randall Burnett is a native of Fenton, Missouri.

Justin Alexander

Justin Alexander is the crew chief of Austin Dillon. He joined the team after 8 races in the 2024 Cup Series season. Prior to being a crew chief, he was competition director for Richard Childress Racing from November 2023 to March 2024. He supervised the competition-related departments in his role in order to maximize the performance of the team. He has served as the Crew Chief of Austin Dillon from 2017-2018 and 2020-2022. The duo captured two Crown Jewel race victories together, in Coca-Cola 600 in 2017 and the Daytona 500 in 2018.

Justin Alexander is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from North Carolina State University. He is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina but resides in Cornelius, North Carolina. He is married to Becca Alexander and has two children with her. He has one son, Sutton and one daughter, Lennon.

Richard Childress Racing records in the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series

Richard Childress Racing has a diverse track record in NASCAR. They have been in all three of NASCAR’s top series. The team has collected 13 championship titles in NASCAR combined. They have won 6 Cup Series, 5 Xfintiy Series and 2 Truck Series championships. Richard Childress Racing have an active program in the Cup Series and the Xfinity Series but they have not fielded a car in the Truck Series since 2014.

The team has some of the most impressive records in NASCAR:

• Richard Childress is the first team owner to win a championship in all three NASCAR series;

• The team has a record of running at least one car in the NASCAR playoffs in every season since 1972

There are no other known records collected by Richard Childress Racing in NASCAR.

List of Richard Childress Racing Drivers

Current Drivers:

Past Drivers:

List of Richard Childress Racing Champions