Richard Childress is one of the longest-serving team owners in NASCAR, with more than 50 years of tenure. He’s seen the sport enjoy its greatest heights of popularity and success, but has also seen it struggle for attendance, TV viewership, and lack of fan interest.
Advertisement
NASCAR has tried all types of methods to get things back on an upward swing, including new tracks (and styles of races, such as the Chicago Street Race), the charter system, changes in the playoff format, and more.
In a recent episode of Lights Out with Johnny Roberts, the 79-year-old Childress discussed his thoughts on NASCAR’s current business model, even amid NASCAR’s nearly $8 billion, multiyear TV deal between FOX, Amazon Prime, TNT and NBC.
“I think the business model has got a long way to go before it’ll work good for the car owners,” Childress said firmly. “This car (the Next Generation/Gen 7 car, which was introduced in 2022) came out being much, much more expensive than any of us thought it would be.
“Some of the traveling we’re having to go now, Mexico, San Diego next year, all these things add up to extra dollars. There’s got to be a little more work done on the business model before it becomes a really, really solid business model.”
One of the biggest keys to achieving success on the racetrack is to sell significant amounts of sponsorship so that teams can afford the right parts and pieces, as well as to hire and retain key personnel to run the teams.
Sponsorships can only go so far
When asked if sponsorships are enough to make it a profitable venture, Childress surprised somewhat with his blunt reply.
“Not really,” he said. “These are great sponsors and we’ve been fortunate to have the kind of partners that we have. They’re great and they pay the bills.”
But then Childress raised both hands to illustrate his reasoning, pointing upwards with one hand to signify how costs have continued to climb, while he used the other hand to signify the flatness (if not slight dropping) of revenue.
“So, it’s not our partners. It’s just the cost of racing today has escalated so much over the last several years, it’s unbelievable,” Childress said.
Childress has always excelled at selling sponsorship, most notably with GM Goodwrench, which was on the car of Dale Earnhardt’s for four of his seven Cup championships.
But unfortunately, even with strong sponsorship after Earnhardt’s tragic death on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, Childress has not seen another Cup championship since Earnhardt’s seventh and last in 1994.
Since then, Richard Childress Racing has seen two runner-up showings by Earnhardt in 1995 and 2000, and another by Ryan Newman in 2014, and third-place finishes by Kevin Harvick in 2010, 2011 and 2013, as well as Clint Bowyer in 2007.
Unfortunately for Childress, since Newman’s second-place showing in 2014, RCR’s best season finish by any driver since then has been 11th (Childress’s grandson, Austin Dillon, in 2017, 2020 and 2022).
