“Somebody Cut My Arms Off”—Richard Childress Reveals He Signed Dale Earnhardt for an Unfortunate Reason

It is phenomenal how Richard Childress has been involved in NASCAR for over five decades. A man with his experience is invaluable in today’s time. It’s no wonder that Kyle Busch made the choice to join Richard Childress Racing this season. However, it is not the first time that Richard signed a stellar driver to his team. He once had Dale Earnhardt run for him. The senior one. The legendary Dale Earnhardt spent most of his NASCAR Cup Series career driving for RCR. In fact, out of his seven championship titles, six came with Richard’s team.

The RCR owner gave out his version of the unexpected circumstances under which Dale Sr. was signed.

Richard Childress signed Dale Earnhardt for unfortunate reasons

The 77-year-old RCR owner got on a talk with Mike Wallace on the Speed Sport podcast. Talking about how the NASCAR scenario was changing back then, Childress said, “I have been fortunate in life to be able to see things maybe before they happened…and all these big money car owners started coming in.”

“And I’d get my top tens out of it, making a little money, doing pretty well, and then it kinda kept moving me back.”

“Okay, you are out of the top 10, now you run the top 15, pretty soon I was borderline 15th and falling back cause I didn’t have the money that it took to race with Junior Johnson, Bud Moore, all of these people… I could see me sliding back.”

Getting frustrated with this scenario, Richard sought help from his R.J. Reynolds friends. They suggested that he sign Dale Earnhardt. Explaining how the deal with Dale Sr went, he said, “They came to me and said hey, would you talk to Dale Earnhardt? You said you wanted to get out of the car.”

“I was only 30 some years old, and I said yeah let’s talk about it… I met with Junior [Johnson] and… I took his advice, went and met with him. Dale and I, we put the deal together for 10 races in 1981. And man, it felt like somebody cut my arms off.”

While it was a pity, it turned out amazingly well for RCR and Richard.

Dale Sr. turned out to be a blessing in disguise for RCR

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It is no secret how Dale Earnhardt was fabulous driving for RCR. Although signing him didn’t come out at the best times, his inclusion did wonders for the team.

With 67 Cup Series wins and six titles to his name, there was no stopping Dale Sr. at RCR. Both he and Richard had developed a special relationship, more so because they had things in common. They had lost their dads and their moms were in a battle.

Dale Earnhardt gave RCR massive recognition in NASCAR. It could have been so much more had things turned out differently on February 18, 2001. The sport lost a superb driver in the most unfortunate ways.

WATCH THIS STORY: Kyle Busch Expected “Learning Experience” at Richard Childress Racing Amidst Unexpected Win