Richard Reed Childress (born September 21, 1945) is an American former race car driver in NASCAR.

Childress, with recommendations from R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, chose to retire and put Earnhardt behind the wheel of his No.

Ricky Rudd was hired in 1982 and drove for two years, giving the Childress team its first career victory in June 1983 at Riverside.

RCR also won the Busch Grand National Series Owner's Championships in 2003 with Kevin Harvick and Johnny Sauter and in 2007 with Scott Wimmer and Jeff Burton.

[citation needed] Childress's current full-time drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series are: His drivers in the Xfinity Series are: In 2008, Richard and his wife Judy established The Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma[6] with the mission to lead national efforts to reduce death and disability following injury to children less than 18 years old.

[7] The Childress Institute is focused on funding research and medical education throughout the U.S. to improve treatment, as well as raising public awareness.

Austin and Ty Dillon (sons of Mike, grandchildren of Richard) are NASCAR drivers.

In August 2019, amidst controversy surrounding payments being made by the NRA to a law firm, Childress stepped down from the board.

Although the team was fully sponsored by Lowe's, there were claims that RCR weren't putting as many resources into the #31 as they were into the #3, giving Earnhardt an insurmountable competition advantage over his teammate.

During the 2003 Pontiac Excitement 400, there was a feud between RCR drivers Kevin Harvick and Jeff Green.

An upset Green replied by confronting Harvick's crew chief Todd Berrier in the No.

Coulter would eventually hold off Busch, taking fifth place in the O'Reilly Auto Parts 250.

Once the race had concluded, Busch purposely bumped into Coulter's truck on the cool-down lap.

The fight was broken up and insults were exchanged before Childress put Busch in a headlock and hit him again.

NASCAR President Mike Helton stated that..."[Busch] did nothing that would have warranted the actions of Richard Childress.

"[16] On September 13, 2022, a press conference was held to announce that Kyle Busch had entered into an agreement with Richard Childress Racing to drive the No.

Childress was pleased that the penalties had been reduced, claiming that chief appellate officer John Middlebrook was fair in the appeal.

Following the 2015 Auto Club 400, NASCAR officials received rumors that teams were purposely deflating their tires.

Childress then went to the Final Appeals Board, which upheld the revised penalties, leaving Lambert and key players suspended.