Richard Childress has been involved in the NASCAR scene both as a former independent driver and a team owner for almost his entire life. Over the years his team RCR has won numerous championships, but with Childress at 78 yeas of age, what does the future for the team look like? After all, someone will have to carry on the family business.
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While speaking in a rather recent interview, the Richard Childress Racing bossman explained, “I want to hope that we keep it in our family. If not bring a partner in that would really like to keep RCR going, keep the family involved, understand the sport.”
“But we’re definitely talking about today’s succession plans. If you don’t, you’ll be in trouble. So we have some ideas, family you know they want to keep running it.” However, getting your family into the racing business is one thing, but making sure that they are able to contribute and understand how things work is another.
Richard Childress explains the intricacies of running a NASCAR team
Childress then explained how there were multiple operations that team like RCR does on a regular basis with their nearly 400 employees. He added, “that’s the reason I’ve tried to keep the family involved to understand the challenges that goes on running an operation like this.”
“It’s one of the most, a race team was one of the most challenging things you could do because we have so many mechanical parts and pieces to it. You have sponsorship that goes with it. You have employees…” Because of all of these small details that ensure the successful running of a winning NASCAR team, things take time and have to be understood by anyone that decides to take over after Childress.
However, Childress’ son in law Mike Dillon is someone who knows quite a lot of the team and the business. He also currently serves as the Executive Vice President of the team. So sometime in the future there could be a chance that he might take up the reigns at RCR. If not, then the option to bring in a third party investor could also be an option as explained by Childress himself.
Regardless of what the future of RCR’s succession looks like them going from humble origins to becoming a NASCAR powerhouse will always be cherished in the realm of motorsports.
