Richard Childress has spent more than 56 years woven into the fabric of NASCAR, guiding his organization to six Cup Series championships, all earned with Dale Earnhardt at the wheel. That legacy alone should command reverence. Instead, the leaked internal messages that revealed NASCAR executives mocking the veteran owner pushed Childress to take the witness stand and confront the sport’s internal fractures.
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What stunned many observers, though, was the revelation that Childress had recently entertained discussions about selling a portion of his 60 percent ownership in Richard Childress Racing.
The moment turned tense when Childress was asked during cross-examination about what he believed were private negotiations with a group tied to former NASCAR driver Bobby Hillin Jr. Childress bristled and replied, “I don’t want to answer that.”
However, after some pressing, he went on to explain that he sent Hillin a termination letter earlier this year, bluntly adding, “They didn’t have the money, period.”
Both sides had signed a non-disclosure agreement covering RCR’s financials. Childress clarified that Hillin’s group was primarily interested in acquiring the share owned by Chartwell Investments, which has been looking to exit its position for five or six years. But when pushed directly, Childress acknowledged that he had also contemplated selling a portion of his own stake to Hillin.
Once the jury left for the day, plaintiffs’ attorneys asked Judge Bell to order the defense to hand over all documents related to Hillin’s statements about Childress’s finances and identify whoever leaked those materials to NASCAR.
Despite the swirl surrounding his business dealings, Childress reaffirmed one core truth: his operations have posted 55 consecutive years of positive EBITA. Then he immediately added context. “I have other businesses to pay our bills for NASCAR. I’d be broke if I was just doing the Cup teams,” he said.
Those businesses include ECR Engines, an engine development company, and RCR Manufacturing Solutions, which produces specialized equipment and vehicles for military use. Both ventures are profitable and operate on the RCR campus in Welcome, North Carolina. Childress also owns a vineyard in nearby Lexington.
Regarding RCR profits, Richard Childress says all the other businesses are what boosts RCR, that RCR cant exist by itself
Chris Yates pointed to the audited Hillin financial records to suggest otherwise but they didn’t get into the specifics of the financials as there were… https://t.co/87FJ7GOuOW
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) December 9, 2025
Even as he was pushed to expose parts of his financial structure, he never wavered from the purpose of his testimony.
Although Childress was one of the 13 team owners who ultimately signed the charter agreement last year, he underscored how unsustainable the current model has become for organizations trying to compete at the highest level. He aligned himself with other team leaders who testified that NASCAR cornered them with a “take-it-or-leave-it” proposal in September, a stance that has now become central to the lawsuit.
For a man who has built a powerhouse operation from the ground up, the message was that the imbalance between NASCAR and its teams has pushed even its longest-tenured pillar into exploring options once unthinkable.
