GLEN WOOD / RICHARD CHILDRESS

 

 

Glen Wood – Driver/Owner, NASCAR Hall of Fame Finalist
Birthdate: July 18, 1925
Hometown: Stuart, Va. Competed: 1953-64
Starts: 62 Wins: 4 Poles: 14
Glen Wood laid the foundation for the famed Wood Brothers racing team as a driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Competing on a semi-regular basis, mostly at tracks close to his southern Virginia home, Wood won four times all at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C. His best season was 1960 during which Wood won three times and posted six top-five and seven top-10 finishes in just nine races. He also won 14 poles during a 62-race career.Wood, of course, is best known for his collaboration with brothers Leonard and Delano in Wood Brothers Racing. The Stuart, Va.-based team, which dates to 1950 and remains active, has amassed 96 victories in1,340races. The Wood Brothers have excelled outside the NASCAR world as well, winning the 1965 Indianapolis 500 with Jim Clark.
———————————————————
Richard Childress – Owner, NASCAR Hall of Fame Finalist Birthdate: September 21, 1945 Hometown: Winston-Salem, N.C. Competed: 1969-Present Starts: 1,826 Wins: 89 Richard Childress, long before he became one of the preeminent car owners in NASCAR history, was a race car driver himself, with limited means. Still, he persevered, which is what you do when you purchase your first race car for $20 at the age of 17. Childress, the consummate self-made racer, was respectable behind the wheel. Between 1969-81 he had six top-five finishes and 76 top 10s in 285 starts, finishing fifth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings in 1975. Having formed Richard Childress Racing in 1972, Childress retired from driving in 1981. The rest, as they say, is history. Much of that history is linked to one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers, seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt, who won six championships and 67 races between 1984-2000 for RCR. But Childress has had other successes, as well. In addition to Earnhardt’s championships, Childress drivers have given him five others. His total of 11 national series owner championships is tied with Rick Hendrick for the all-time lead. Childress was the first NASCAR team owner to win championships in all three of NASCAR’s national series. Along the way, Childress has excelled off the track. He was one of the first owners to recognize the market potential for race team collectables. In recent years he established his own winery in North Carolina. And in 2008, Childress was recognized for his role in establishing the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. That $20 race car seems a light year away.