The inaugural Talladega 500 was short of drivers because the Professional Drivers Association, led by Richard Petty, organized a mass exit of NASCAR’s top drivers. They feared the tires were unsafe at the high speeds on the new track.

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]Bill France Sr. was determined to run the race, so he called upon drivers with less experience and recognition to fill the field.

Richard Childress was one of the replacement drivers who competed in the first big race at the Alabama superspeedway.

Childress became an independent driver in 1971 and fielded a car bearing the No. 3 in honor of Junior Johnson’s number. He never won a race in NASCAR’s top-tier of racing, but he did have 76 top-10 finishes. His best finish was third place in 1978.

The high school dropout had the wisdom to take the money he earned racing in the early days to buy land in North Carolina. Childress owns a lot of land now and a good portion of the North Carolina land is used for his Vineyard, mansion and of course Richard Childress Racing.

In 1981 Childress retired from racing to become an owner. Rod Osterlund sold his racing operations and his driver, Dale Earnhardt, was hired to drive the No. 3 Wrangler Jeans car for Childress.

The union only lasted one season and Earnhardt left with Ricky Rudd taking over the ride for two seasons.

In 1984, Earnhardt returned to Richard Childress Racing and the most potent owner/driver relationship in the history of the sport was formed.

Together the team forged out six NASCAR Winston Cup (Sprint Cup) Championships in 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1994. Childress proved to be a savvy businessman in many ways, but securing the GM Goodwrench sponsorship for the feared, black No. 3 was a coup.

During the 1990’s, Childress expanded his operations to include Busch (Nationwide) and Craftsman (Camping World) Truck Series teams. In 1995, RCR won the championship with driver, Mike Skinner, during the first season for the Craftsman Truck Series.

In 2001, the world as Childress knew it collapsed with the death of his best friend and driver, Dale Earnhardt, on the last lap of the Daytona 500. He seriously thought of closing down his racing operations.

Childress managed to move ahead and continue racing with Kevin Harvick behind the wheel of the former No. 3 car renumbered with No. 29. Childress went on to win two Busch (Nationwide) championships with Harvick in 2001 and 2006.

Childress has found great success with his teams, though he has not won a championship since the last one with Earnhardt. In 2011 he will return to four teams with drivers Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer and Paul Menard.

RCR supplies engines and chassis to other NASCAR teams as well.

The man who started with little but a dream has amassed great wealth and he knows how to enjoy it. His Childress Vineyards winery in Lexington, N.C. has garnered much attention and success.

Childress is and avid outdoorsman and conservationist. He was elected to the NRA Board of Directors in 2009. His big game hunts around the world have become a passion for him.

NASCAR has given a great deal to the respected team owner, but it has taken much from him as well.

Childress had the wisdom to invest wisely as a young man, a bit of magic with the union he had with Dale Earnhardt and the skills to build a racing empire along with the other profitable operations.

Childress was indeed driven to success.

We’ve always known that NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Carl Edwards can hold his own in the many humorous tinged television commercials he’s appeared in on behalf of his team sponsors. His numerous appearances with the AFLAC duck certainly proves that point.

But Edwards’ next television appearance could actually elevate to the ranks of being considered as a serious actor. It was just recently announced that the popular driver has joined the cast of an upcoming mini series on the Home Box Office Network, (HBO). “To Appomattox” is an eight episode mini series based on the civil war era. It details the final battle from this page of American history and the events that leads to the surrender terms that concludes the war. Edwards will be taking on the role of General John B. Gordon, the Confederate officer selected by General Robert E.Lee to officially surrender the Army of Northern Virginia.

In terms of fellow cast members, Edwards will be in some impressive company. Actor Michael C. Hall, the star of the “Showtime” series “Dexter”, leads the cast of the production along with William Peterson, from the CBS television drama “CSI”.

There’s also some very impressive names from the world of country music connected to the cast of “To Appomattox” All three members of the country group Rascal Flatts are in the cast as is Kix Brooks, of Brooks and Dunn fame, along with Dwight Yoakum. This famed group of country musicians will also be making a contribution to the mini series’ musical soundtrack as well.

The series’ producers has also left some strong indications that other personalities from the world of NASCAR may also be asked to join the cast. In a prepared statement from the production’s official website, “www.toappomattox.com,” the producers said “the connection between the civil war and drivers who race in NASCAR is simple: those values of the civil war- the patriotism, the spirit of American competition, the regional and national pride that poured both from and for its heroes- is best exemplified in the American values and American spirit embraced today by the NASCAR affiliated drivers and their fans. This production is honored to have developed a connection between this ultimate American sport with the ultimate American story and is proud to announce an association between select NASCAR affiliated drivers and roles that best exemplify this tradition of patriotism and competition in our production.”

“To Appomattox” is currently reported in still be in the pre-production phase. No official air date has been announced by HBO as of yet but production for the eight episodes is expected to begin sometime in the spring of 2011.

For Carl Edwards the scheduling for this acting stint is going to be interesting when you consider his full time schedule in both the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide racing series. But one has to believe that he’s well accustomed to tight schedules and how to make the best of them. He’s also well known for loving new adventurers and playing the role of a general in the Confederate Army is definitely going to provide a sense of adventure.

Don’t be too surprised if Edwards performance levels in this project qualifies him to add the word thespian to his resume. He’s going to working on a project that will be aired by a television network well known for quality presentations. Over the years HBO has created an impressive list of full season series, mini series and quality films that has garnered them high critical acclaim and every industry award you could name. To quote their own corporate logo: “it’s not television, it’s HBO.”

Clint Bowyer’s name doesn’t normally come to mind when thinking about whose going to be one to watch when racing at Daytona and Talladega. But according to team owner Richard Childress, it will one day.

“Clint Bowyer, he’ll go down in history as one of the greatest restrictor plate racers, just like Kevin [Harvick],” he said in late October.

[media-credit name=”SM.com” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Harvick won two of the four plate races in 2010. Often compared to the late Dale Earnhardt, easy to do since Harvick drives Earnhardt’s car, he’s become one of the top plate racers in the sport. With four wins at Daytona: two point paying and two Budweiser Shootout wins, plus a win at Talladega, he’s a dangerous superspeedway driver.

As Harvick grabbed the headlines, RCR teammate Bowyer quietly came into his own. In three of the four plates races Bowyer led laps: 19 in the season-opening Daytona 500, another 19 in the July race and then 37 at Talladega in the fall.

Bowyer could have easily swept all four plate races.

During the first red flag in the Daytona 500 for a pothole, Bowyer was the leader. With the race past the halfway point NASCAR could have made the decision to call the race official. Had they done so, Bowyer would have won his first Daytona 500.

Instead the race restarted but Bowyer’s No. 33 Chevrolet was still strong enough to contend for the win. Coming off turn two on the last lap he was running third behind a side-by-side Greg Biffle and Jamie McMurray, ready for a final charge to the finish line.

But when Dale Earnhardt Jr. then made it three wide, Bowyer lost the position and ended up finishing fourth. In restrictor plate race No. 2, at Talladega in April, Bowyer didn’t lead a lap but finished seventh. Two plate races and two top 10 finishes.

In the return trip to Daytona, Bowyer was in much better position for the win than he was in the Daytona 500. This time around he was leading with three laps to go before being passed by Jeff Gordon.

With help from teammate Harvick, Bowyer retook the lead a lap later and led the start/finish line when the caution came out, setting up a green-white-checkered finish.

On the restart Bowyer was swallowed up by Harvick, Gordon and others and ran fourth at the white flag. Going down the backstretch however, after losing two more positions, Bowyer was spun by David Reutimann.

Another restrictor plate finish he should have gotten was gone. There was one final plate race left in 2010 and it was finally going to be captured by the No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper team.

The dramatic finish seemed fitting; no one knew who had won except Bowyer tried to help sway NASCAR in his direction when he started celebrating before NASCAR officially ruled. He later joked, “Hell yeah. Claim that baby before somebody else does.

When NASCAR did rule it became official: Bowyer had finally gotten the best of Harvick. They finished one-two for RCR as Bowyer got his second win of the 2010 season.

The win was further proof that Bowyer is one of the best plate racers in NASCAR today, right there with Harvick and even McMurray, whom get most of the praise and picks on Sunday’s.

When the 2011 season begins back in Daytona in February, it could be the quiet Bowyer who winds up in victory lane sometime during Speedweeks.

Should he, it would help Earnhardt-Childress Racing pick up right where they left off in 2010 at restrictor plate tracks.

The partnership formed in 2007 between Teresa Earnhardt and Richard Childress, when the two decided to pull together their restrictor plate programs. They now produce the engines for all three RCR cars and the two Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing entries.

This past season an ECR engine was in victory lane at all four plate tracks. McMurray started it off in the Daytona 500 and said, “The ECR engines have always been known for really good restrictor plate engines.”

The summer classic in Daytona saw domination from the RCR cars. At a time the three were all lined up in the top five and had it not been for Bowyer’s last lap spin, they might have well finished there.

“ECR engines were running great and just proud of them,” said owner Richard Childress.

“To have all three RCR cars up there leading the race, racing each other, it was really cool to watch.”

The spring Talladega race further proved that ECR engines were ones to be dealt with. Behind Harvick’s win came McMurray in second with teammate Juan Pablo Montoya in third, all driving ECR engines.

The same happened again in the fall Talladega race this time with Bowyer ahead of Harvick and Montoya. Another ECR top three sweep.

“There was one time in the race I was like ‘Hey, get Junior out of there,’ “ Bowyer said after his win.

“There’s going to be five RCR cars in a line. Good picture for the engine boys. Get him out of there. Need a good picture for the engine shop,” he continued.

“Maybe we can Photo Shop him out of there. It would be a pretty good picture.”

The picture for the 2011 seasons four restrictor plate tracks won’t be clear until the checkered flags fall on those events. Racing at superspeedways is too unpredictable, but if some bit of history repeats itself expect Bowyer to be a major player.

However, the same could be said for anyone driving an ECR engine.

With two of the biggest names in NASCAR, Earnhardt and Childress, building engines that get better and better every week, it’s only natural that the two companies that have long been the restrictor plate masters have taken their place at the head of the field.

Anyone who religiously followed the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series during the 2010 season has already figured out that the two drivers who made a list like this has to be Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards. You’re absolutely right.

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]The 50 Dirtiest Athletes Of All Time was recently released by the “Complex Media Network” following what appears to be a massive amount of research. The New York City based media conglomerate publishes “Complex Magazine” and also maintains the popular website “Complex Dot Com.” According to the company website they describe themselves as being the “premiere on line destination for the most influential 20 something male consumers. This discerning audience is driven by style, sports, music, games, gear and girls.”

Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards was listed number 48 on the list of 50. The “Complex Media Dot Com” write up on Edwards read as follows: “we all get road rage at times but, when it happens in NASCAR, careers and lives are put in danger. Such was the case at the 2010 Kobalt Tools 500, (at the Atlanta Motor Speedway), when Edwards repeatedly tried to take revenge on Brad Keselowski for a crash causing block laps before. Edwards eventually succeeded, sending Keselowski’s car airborne at 190 MPH. Don’t let the endorsement cake and smile fool you. Edwards knows all about riding dirty.”

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch was listed at number 38 on the list and, yes, I suppose that makes him the dirtiest driver in NASCAR. Even the harshest critics of Busch, and they’re are quite a few of you, would blanch at the write up the often controversial driver received from this survey.

It read as follows: “from causing wrecks to flipping off officials and even breaking s**t after victories, (that would be the famous Gibson Guitar incident), Busch makes cars going around in a circle 400 times slightly more entertaining. The thing that makes Busch one of the most loved and loathed drivers is the fact that he knows he’s an a**h**e, but simply doesn’t five a f***.”

Again, a little on the harsh side but you have to admit there’s a strong element of truth there.

For those of you who are curious, the number one dirtiest athlete on this list is National Hockey League player Marty McSorely who, in 2001, delivered a blow on fellow competitor Donald Brashear that was so brutal he actually received an assault conviction from the legal system and a record setting one year suspension from the NHL. McSorely never returned to active player status following this incident. Brashear returned following recuperation from a grade three concussion.

Dial up www.complexmedia.com and check out the “Dirtiest Athletes Of All Time.” I think you’ll find it interesting sports fans.