NASCAR's Richard Childress Goes For the Big Kill

The hunt for the elusive seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship is foremost for team owner Richard Childress, but the hunt for big game may run a close second to some of the many accomplishments he takes pride in.

The wealth amassed by the high school dropout extends from Richard Childress Racing to his vineyards and winery, Montana ranch and numerous other collections and holdings.

Childress is an avid outdoorsman and conservationist who was elected to the NRA Board of Directors in 2009.  He collects and uses guns of all kinds and strongly defends the right to have them.

Most people probably are not familiar with the North American Grand Slam, the Big Five or the Dangerous Seven in Africa.  Childress knows them all well.  The Grand Slam includes some 29 species and the African hunts include rhinos, elephants, buffalo, leopards, hippos, crocodiles and a multitude of other wild game.

The 65-year-old, North Carolina native got his first taste of big game hunting around 1986 in British Colombia.  The desire to hunt wild game became a challenge Childress finds insatiable.

His trips to Africa and other countries have become commonplace for the well-known and well-respected NASCAR owner. 

You may find him sipping wine in his trophy-filled game hall where one is apt to see a stuffed African rhino, lions posed in attack mode or a fully-tusked elephant head mounted on a wall.

The mind-boggling assortment of trophies would amaze many and perhaps disgust even more people who view the killing for sport to be distasteful.

Childress will tell you that the chance to take out a black-maned lion is no easy task.  The owner of RCR plans his hunts sometimes two years or more in advance.  At great expense, he will invite those near and dear to him on the trips where they traverse fenced preserves as large as 100,000 acres or more. 

They don't exactly rough it throughout the hunt with the lodges, transportation, professional hunting guides and ancillary personnel required to dress animals, prepare them for taxidermy and shipment back home.

As someone who did not grow up in a family of hunters, at least not since they had to several centuries ago, personally I can only grasp hunting that involves venison in the freezer and maybe some duck, quail or wild turkey (not the bottled kind).

Knowing that Childress, his family and friends are hunters is nothing uncommon.  His grandsons, Austin Dillon and Ty Dillon know guns, conservation and hunting.  They have been around it since they were young children and are well-versed in the requisite skills.

Austin Dillon won a NASCAR Camping World Truck Race in Las Vegas at the end of this past September.

Dillon exited his Bass Pro Shops No. 3 Chevy truck for the post-race television interview and thanked his Deity for a good race and his win.  In response from the interviewer about his non-racing plans, the 20-year-old stunned me when he said he hoped to "shoot an elephant" with his grandfather, Childress.

Somehow the sight of the clean-cut young man who was filled with giddy exuberance over the win did not match the instant image I saw of him aiming the potent gun capable of taking down an African wild elephant.

What it did show was that for the talented driver, Childress was showing love and respect for his grandson by honoring him with an invitation to join him on a great adventure and the basis of tradition was being established.

Childress loves the outdoors, conservation work he does with young people and being an all-around sportsman who has great respect for nature.

Though Childress didn't finish high school, he was wise enough to take the money he made from his first few races and invest it in North Carolina land.  He has been buying land since he drove his own car in the inaugural Talladega 500 back in 1969.

His business skills have proven to be quite sound.  Now the NASCAR team owner travels the world seeking adventure, but first he would like to hunt down that seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup title.