79-year-old Richard Childress is worth more than $250 million today. The journey towards building this massive wealth began from selling peanuts at the stands of the Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem as a 10-year-old boy. In what is bound to be a full-circle moment, his Cup Series team will race at the upcoming Clash in the same arena on February 2.
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The benefactor spoke about those early days of his life to WXII 12 News recently and opened up on how he caught the racing bug. He said, “I was nine or ten, I can’t even remember, I was a kid. My middle brother and I went over one night. And my stepdad took us to a race, and we just fell in love watching them and seeing these kids selling peanuts and popcorn.”
When the brothers had asked for permission to go back again the next weekend, their stepdad had told them that they would have to walk over to the stadium. Their house was nearly five miles away, but that did not deter them. They jumped over fences, impersonated people, and followed every trick in the book to go watch the races.
Those days were the first exposure that Childress had to racing of any kind, and he immediately knew what he wanted to do with his life. He noted that they were allowed into the pits after multiple visits to the track and that he got to hang out with drivers and the pit crews. Without question, the professionals must have fueled his ambition.
“It just brings back so many memories”
In the final days of last December, Childress visited the Bowman Gray Stadium along with his driver, Kyle Busch. Walking down the track opened up a Pandora’s box of memories in him. He told the Winston-Salem Journal, “Everything on the outside of the track looks exactly the same except for that fieldhouse. I think they’ve widened the track since the 1960’s, but it just brings back so many memories.”
He also expressed a liking for NASCAR’s decision to move the Clash from the L.A. Coliseum to Bowman Gray. Each team will get to save at least $150,000 by not traveling to Los Angeles, he predicted. The track was still under renovation at the time of his visit in preparation for the Clash.
A mere number of days remain for the field to roll down the lanes of the short track. The Madhouse is all new and shiny in anticipation of the event and none loves this journey back in time than Childress.
