Signing the high-risk driver has worked for Childress

Richard Childress knows God gave him a neck, not to hold his head on straight, but to stick out now and again. Going out on a limb is a place where the veteran team owner is comfortable because near the end of that limb, Childress always finds the fruit.

When you've been racing and running NASCAR teams for nearly four decades, you start to learn a thing or two about who has it and who doesn't. Who has the fire inside to win championships; a true racer, it's what purists consider someone who lives to race as opposed to races to live.

Dale Earnhardt has given Richard Childress all six of his Cup championships.

Childress can spot these qualities much like the exotic animals he hunts in Africa. But like the animals in the jungle, the drivers' talent isn't always evident or observable.

He's built a successful track record hiring the dark horse, or the not-so-obvious pick of the garage and usually he watches that same dark horse ride to victory.

In 1984 when Childress hired the late Dale Earnhardt, the decision was criticized by some because he wasn't the most popular driver in the field. Earnhardt was thought to be too tough to tame. Later, skeptics said Jeff Burton was past his prime when RCR hired him in 2005 claiming he was too old to drive. And Clint Bowyer ... well Childress explains it best.

"Clint, he was just a dirt track kid out in Kansas nobody had a clue on," he said. "I knew some people that knew him and I started watching his performance. So that's how I found him. I look at people's equipment and I look at what they are doing in different areas and understand all their surroundings."

He did the same for Casey Mears, his most recent adoption. He's a driver who hasn't finished higher than 14th in points in five Sprint Cup seasons and has come away with just one Cup win -- the Coca-Cola 600 in 2007. RCR will mark Mears' third team in four seasons. By definition, Mears is a dark horse going into the organization's fourth car in 2009 after being released from Hendrick Motorsports.

But Burton? He was a driver others were ready to send to the NASCAR graveyard when Childress hired him in 2005 and he helped turn the organization around bringing Childress back to its glory days.

Childress said it was one of the best decisions he had ever made.

"A couple of people said when I was thinking about hiring him, 'why would I want to hire him?' I watched him drive, he might have been running 15th or 20th but he was driving the stuff out of it. You can believe he is getting everything out of the car it will do."

Before Burton, times were tough at RCR. In 2004, Kevin Harvick went winless and Robby Gordon left to start his own team. At that point, Childress decided to dig deep and refocus his efforts on winning. A key component in the plan was hiring Burton.

"Richard giving a guy a chance to try and get his career going again will always be one of the highlights in my life," Burton said. "For Richard Childress -- a car owner you have so much respect for -- to look you in the eye and say 'hey man, I still believe you can get it done' when really, very few other people believed that."

Burton said no one wanted to "mess with a 38-year-old driver, everyone wanted 12-year-olds," but Childress saw something others couldn't.

"Every lap I make, I will always remember that because I wouldn't be driving anymore without Richard's commitment. It is just that simple," Burton said. "Nobody else wanted to mess with me. Richard still believed in me."

As for the ageist comments toward his driver; Childress just laughs.

Robby Gordon says Richard Childress is the best owner he's ever driven for.

"Shoot, back in the day, 40 was a pretty good age," he said. "Earnhardt was 50 when we were headed for even more."

When you ask Childress about his ability to pick a driver -- an unlikely candidate or a dark horse -- and garner race wins, he shrugs and says it's pretty simple.

"I just talk to the people I trust about them and try to figure out who we want. I'm only going to associate myself with people that I know want the same thing that we want and that's to be winners and race for a championship," Childress said. "If you get that, then the good will come from them."

And he's expecting good to come from Mears next season driving Bowyer's No. 07 Chevrolet. Bowyer will move to the No. 33 Chevrolet.

Mears, who will finish out the season in the No. 5, was released from Hendrick Motorsports in June. Performances issues were sited as the main reason he was replaced by veteran Mark Martin.

A few months prior to the announcement, Mears was in danger of slipping out of the top 35 in points. Leaving Bristol he was 33rd, but a seventh-place finish in Martinsville moved the driver up six spots and since then he has continued to climb each week, currently sitting in the 25th spot.

"I know Casey will do an excellent job for us," said Childress, who has followed Mears' career since his debut at Michigan in 2003, when he was pulling for the driver like he was one of his own.

For Mears, it's another chance to find a more permanent home and perhaps long-term consistency.

"Richard Childress and everyone at Jack Daniel's have put a lot of faith in me to continue the winning tradition that's been established by the No. 07 Jack Daniel's team over the last couple of years and I look forward to the chance to live up to those expectations," Mears said.

Faith in a driver is something Childress learned to bestow early on with Earnhardt, despite the drivers' contentious fanfare. Richard Petty called Earnhardt a diamond in the rough and thought he took too many chances.

At first glance, Darrell Waltrip said Earnhardt looked like a "hoodlum," but admittedly knew the talent lay beneath his long hair, old ratty T-shirt and blue jeans. His education didn't surpass the ninth grade, but Earnhardt was a racer, he didn't care, and neither did Childress.

"I was rough around the edges, both of us were, neither of us finished high school. We had so much in common; both of us lost our dads. We believed in each other and built a bond and a trust between each other. With that, I was never worried," Childress recalled. "I knew his talent would carry us both all the way."

And it did, the two went on to win six of Earnhardt's seven championships.

Childress has enjoyed the spoils of racing and the many accolades that have come as a team owner, but nothing gives him more joy than to see a driver shine.

"I think the best thing about picking a driver is watching the success after they come to RCR and knowing you're a part of it," he said.

The future of Richard Childress Racing lies in his grandson, Austin Dillon.

He will continue to find and foster talent in NASCAR as he sees qualities others may at times overlook.

"Richard and I have known each other for quite a while now," Mears said. "He always noticed if you did well, if you had a good race, he would come up and say something to me. Obviously, with knowing Richard and the little bit that we have talked here and there, he is the type of guy I want to race for."

Mike Skinner, who won a Truck Series championship, was working in a body shop when Childress called on him and Robby Gordon's tenure with Childress would springboard the driver into team ownership.

"I learned a lot from Richard, I've been very fortunate to drive for some great team owners, but Richard was top of the ladder for me," said Gordon. "I owe a lot to him."

Moving forward, Childress is now betting on his grandson, Austin Dillon, who in his Nationwide Series debut finished 26th in Richmond.

"We'll see," he said. "I just don't want him to think we are pressuring him."

Richard recalled his daughter, Tina Dillon, sending him a photo recently of Austin as a baby. He was in an Earnhardt baby outfit with Goodwrench across the front.

"We held him in our arms in Victory Lane when Dale won Richmond one year and then 13 years later he called me on his birthday," Richard said. "I told him happy birthday and he told me 'Pop-Pop I'm ready to go racing.'"

Childress smiles every time he tells that story. But has he always been right?

"No," he said. "I've questioned a couple."

Before the start of the recent Pepsi 500, Childress told a fitting story about when Burton was driving for Jack Roush.

"I think it was 1997," Childress recalled. "I hired this driver to drive our second car along with the No. 3 car. The first race, the first time out, this driver, I ain't going to use his name, but he won the Truck championship a couple years earlier. First time out, first practice, he just drills Jeff [Burton] in the door. They come back in and Jeff comes back over there to me and he says, 'what were you thinking putting that guy in that car?'"

It's a familiar statement for Childress, but for the most part his decisions seem to end up in his favor. Fortunate for Burton and the others, Childress knows what he's doing.