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S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S • 55 I f there is a singular trait among highly successful people, it is their faith that, no matter what the odds, they will somehow find a way to make their dreams come true. That attribute seems doubly strong among those who grew up without the head start that wealth and privilege can provide. Former NASCAR driver and legendary NASCAR team owner Richard Childress was 5 when his father died. "From then on," he said in an interview with ESPN reporter Ed Hinton, "I considered myself a man. Had to, there was nobody to go home and whine to. 'Johnny whipped my ass today.' I had to fight my own battles." Richard also learned the value of hard work at a young age. As a first grader, he cleaned up his school's lunchroom and swept the hallways to earn his lunch each day. As a teen, he sold peanuts and popcorn at North Carolina's Bowman Gray Stadium stock car races. Perhaps it was the heady aroma of high-octane gasoline, but it was then and there, watching the likes of Junior Johnson and Curtis Turner battle each other around the track, that he decided to become a driver himself. "Race drivers," Richard said to me when we had a chance to get together recently, "became my heroes instead of football players. So, I said that's what I want to do some day. When the opportunity came along, I bought an old '47 Plymouth taxi cab—paid $20 for it—and started racing. It was the best $20 investment I ever made." To say the least. From a hardscrabble beginning, Richard Childress went on to reach the height of NASCAR racing success, becoming an enduring legend in a uniquely American racing tradition. R ichard began his NASCAR racing career as a driver in 1969 and over the next several decades registered six top-5 and 76 top-10 finishes with a career-best third-place finish in 1978 at the Nashville 420. For most, just getting to the top level of stock car racing would profiles by doug painter RichaRd childRess: ONe MaN, TWO PassiONs be a lifetime achievement. For Richard Childress, it was just a prelude of things to come. "When I was young, I just wanted to follow my dream," Richard said. "What I wanted to do was to be a race driver. And I drove for 20-some years. Then the opportunity came along in 1981 to put Dale Earnhardt in a car, and I did so, and I put Ricky Rudd in a car in '82 and '83, and Dale back in it in '84. I like to say the rest is history." Richard Childress Racing (RCR), with Dale Earnhardt behind the wheel, became an unstoppable force on the NASCAR scene, winning championships in '86, '87, '90, '91, '93, and '94. When Earnhardt was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, Childress brought in Kevin Harvick to take his place; he would go on to win in just his third race, at the Atlanta Motor speedway. Throughout its history, RCR has accumulated a total of 17 championships and more than 200 victories across NASCAR's top three series, and became the first team in history to win all three of Surrounded by some of his many trophies, Richard Childress relaxes at his office in Welcome, North Carolina.