NASCAR CUP SERIES: COOK OUT 400

August 16, 2025

Richard Boswell

Richard Childress

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the winning team owner, Richard Childress, and the winning crew chief, Richard Boswell.

We'll open it up to questions for both Richards.

Q. Mr. Childress, I know it doesn't give you back what you lost last year, but does coming back here, getting a win, at least help tonight?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Yeah, thank you. I mean, Richard Boswell, that whole team, everybody at RCR, ECR, we just worked hard. I'm so proud of that group. Every one of them has put so much in it.

Austin was dead set to come back and try to win this race like he had it won last year. I kept holding my breath. Five to go, where is it at? Three to go. When he took that white, I took an easy breath.

Q. Boswell, you've won at this level before, Austin has. It's been a puzzle trying to figure out a win for the two of you together. What pieces have fallen into place?

RICHARD BOSWELL: Yeah, I think we came out in the season strong. We were really happy with the progress we were making. We kind of got to Charlotte and give hit a wall there.

We never really got out of it until about the past two or three weeks. Went to Iowa, thought we had a top two or three car there. Caution falls the wrong way. We end up just barely scoring a top 10.

The Glen last week, it was a solid day for the 3 team.

We've certainly been building. There's a lot that goes into starting with a new driver. I've obviously never worked with Austin. He's worked really hard these past few weeks especially knowing that this race was coming, knowing Iowa would be a place we could build on what he had here last year.

Just proud of everybody. They put a great car on the track. Austin did a great job.

Q. Do you feel like he worked harder than the outside people give him credit for?

RICHARD BOSWELL: I think if the outside people knew how much he did on top of this, he'll be at the shop on Monday at a meeting with Richard here, talking about the health of the company, as well. He's got a lot on his plate, which makes it harder for him to work at this level, as a Cup driver as well.

But he stays at it all week long.

Q. Mr. Childress, talk about the emotion of hugging Austin in Victory Lane today.

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Yeah, I mean, it was special. I hug a lot of drivers. But when your grandson wins, our great friend Johnny Morris, everything he's put into it, Winchester, all these people that believe in us.

We had a tough year early with some crashes. The cars have been really good the last three, four weeks. I'm really proud of him, for sure.

Q. Richard, obviously you referenced the cars. You talked after Dover on the radio, your frustration about it. Give us a sense of the effort that has been put in to get to this point, to get a car back in the Playoffs for this organization.

RICHARD CHILDRESS: We just talk about it, get the key people together, talk about what we got to do to make our company better, make the cars better.

These guys have stepped up to the plate. Everybody. John, I call him John K., Klausmeier -- I think is his last name -- he's doing the job for us. Chevy has the tech center, we're working there. Effort is being put in for sure to change it and turn things around.

Q. For somebody who has won as much as you have, what does winning these days mean?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: You never take winning for granted. You never know when it will be the last one. For our whole company, just Richard coming on board first year, getting out here and winning, he won Darlington, beat the 8 down there. He made it up today, won with an RCR car.

We try to make it a family deal. So thank you.

Q. When you came in here this weekend, was it hard not to be ticked off about last year?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: I'll never forget last year. But today winning the race, I want to focus and concentrate on it.

I was not happy with the way things went down with the way things was called on us. But that's history. Let's look at tonight. Tonight was a great night.

Watching him and Blaney race, that was one heck of a deal. I was a race fan at that time watching them. Somebody texted me, said, I like Blaney, but tell him, let's go (smiling).

Q. You won't look at this as redemption for last year?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Sir?

Q. You don't look at this as redemption for last year?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: We just look at this as a win. These guys have worked so hard for it. Last year, it is what it is. That's history right now.

Q. Austin gets a lot of criticism for a lot of different reasons. What would you say to people who say he shouldn't be the driver of this race car anymore, that he should give it to somebody else?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Can you answer that one? I can't hardly hear it.

RICHARD BOSWELL: I mean, look, Austin Dillon is Richard Childress' grandson. I can promise you if you had the means in 20 or 30 years to put my grandson in a car, he proved to me winning truck championships and Xfinity championships that he can compete at this level, I'd damn sure do it.

Anybody that says he doesn't deserve to be at this level, look at the 30 or 40 laps he raced side by side with Ryan Blaney. He won a Cup championship. He raced door-to-door with a Cup champion. He beat him at the end.

Yeah, we need to run better. We need to be more consistent, and we need to run better. But anybody that says he just can't do it is not looking at the facts.

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Austin has earned his way, from the time we put him in a Bandolero car. I said you guys have to earn your way. He went out and won a truck championship. He went out and won an Xfinity championship. He won races in everything he's ever driven.

They're going to give you criticism because he is my grandson. But we take it. It's just the way life is. You can't be burdened down by what people say. Do what you do and move forwards.

I think he's won 20-some NASCAR races. I mean, probably maybe pushing 30. I don't know the number. He's won his share.

Q. This organization has a history of when it gets knocked down gets back up and swings back. Do you feel like tonight was another example of that?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Yes, most definitely. All the credit goes to all the people at RCR, ECR, all the companies surrounding us that make it happen.

It's a pleasure to see all of them rewarded for the hard work they do.

Q. Austin shared what Richard Boswell brings to RCR. From your perspective as a car owner, what does Richard bring to the organization, and spill-over to the other teams?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: You got to have racers in your organization. Richard's dad raced. He raced. He's a racer. He knows what it takes to win. He works as hard as anyone I've ever had there, that we got there now.

That's what it is. He fit right into your family when we talked to him early. But being a racer is a big, big benefit.

Q. Boswell, the last two seasons, Austin has been lights out on restarts at short tracks. From your perspective, what is it that makes him so successful on those? What does it tell about Austin when he's able to keep his tires on it but put himself in the best position possible?

RICHARD BOSWELL: I think just growing up racing on these short tracks the way he did is helpful for him.

I think he has an added level of confidence when he comes to these tracks, which we all know is huge.

Honestly, it's my job to give him that extra confidence at some of these bigger tracks where we struggled more. It's obviously what we're going to be working hard for in these next few weeks, trying to get our mile-and-a-half program a little bit better. Going to Daytona next weekend, and I look at it as an opportunity to go and try and get that 8 car in the Playoffs and going to the post-season strong.

Q. Richard hit on how he was feeling through the final 10 laps. Your thoughts? How did you feel there?

RICHARD BOSWELL: I wanted to see Austin win it like he should have won it last year, right? Without a caution there, he wins by four or five seconds. I don't think we quite won by that much tonight.

I certainly didn't want it come down to a two-lap shootout when our car was as good as it was on the long run. We were staying on him about taking care of his tires. I don't think we needed to. He was doing a great job of that on his own.

Q. Boswell, this is the second year in a row you've had a walk-off win to get into the Playoffs. Can we call you clutch now?

RICHARD BOSWELL: Yeah, I mean, I can certainly tell you it has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with a great group of people. Then I've always just been raised and taught to surround yourself by like-minded people and great people.

I was a part of an amazing team at Stewart-Haas Racing last year on the 14 car. This group is no different. We've got a bunch of new cars this year on the 3. Everybody works so well together. Really this is a credit to all those guys that build these race cars, the engineers that work on 'em, the pit crew that pits 'em. Austin did absolutely an amazing job tonight.

Really I'm a very small part of it.

Q. Childress, it's the first time y'all have won back-to-back Richmond races since Dale Earnhardt, 34 years ago. Who is better at Richmond, Dale or your grandson?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: They both are good at Richmond. I wouldn't take anything away from either one of 'em. I miss Dale today like the day we lost him. He was a hell of a race driver. That's all I can say there.

Q. What is it about Richmond that when you unload, you seem to have just that extra confidence? You have the speed and you have a dominating performance. Are you able to pull data from other races like Phoenix or Iowa or New Hampshire to dial in the setups for those cars?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: I wish I could answer that. Everybody just works so hard. When we come here, I can look back at Kevin Harvick, all the different ones that's won here with us. I think Clint Bowyer won here one time. This has just been a great racetrack for RCR.

Yeah, when you win, you got confidence. But we're doing a lot of things. We got more changes that we got to make. We know our weaknesses right now at RCR. We're working to get them better.

This car is so engineer-driven, we have to get a little more on our engineer. John has done a great job for us. Moving forwards, you're going to see a better RCR.

RICHARD BOSWELL: To add to what Richard said, obviously I wasn't here last year, so I definitely wasn't a part of that puzzle. But we would have been silly to come back much different. There obviously was a little bit of a different tire. We have great engineers, great support from the folks at GM to help us understand the differences in those tires.

Really I knew coming into this race that it was just going to be about making the right decisions with the little bit that we would change. Obviously Austin has a ton of confidence coming to this place.

When you put those two things together, great race cars, great people, great driver, results kind of speak for themselves.

Q. To piggyback on the Dale Sr. question, we've seen both sides of it, the I wanted to rattle his cage a little bit last year, this year it's more clean racing, hard racing, but you had the car. To see it on both ends, did you have Dale Sr. in your mind as the laps were counting down?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: I mean, everything you said I agree with. It's just one of them deals, you come up here with confidence.

One thing I've overlooked is the calls that he made today. This was a strategy race, as you could see throughout. The calls he made, the timing he made to make them calls, I think that played a huge role in winning the race.

Had a good car, but when Richard made the calls he made to put him in position.

He just made some great calls today.

Q. R.C., from the very moment you won here last year, it felt like the dark cloud was over it. Did you ever celebrate? Were you able to celebrate last year? How comforting is it that this year there's no dark cloud?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Yeah, that's a good question.

Yeah, we celebrated. Trust me, we celebrated that win. If you get a win, however you get it, I've seen them same guys do the same thing to get wins.

I just try to put that behind me. We did party and have a good time. We won the race last year. To win it this year the way Richard and these guys did, that's just icing on the cake this time.

Q. Boswell, you don't have the context or perspective of last year. When you walk in the door, how quickly did it take for you to hear about Richmond? How much did that guy tell you this is the one we're going to circle?

RICHARD BOSWELL: Yeah, I mean, I think any race team that has a race driver that's as good at Richmond at Austin is, as good at Darlington as Briscoe is, or anyone, you circle those races on your calendar, right?

For me, I just work hard not to screw them up. I know if we can give him the race car that he needs, he's going to get the job done.

There are obviously some things out of your control. Untimely caution, 23 car's tire coming off could have ended our night. That wouldn't negate the fact that we brought the best piece we could here.

Super thankful, super blessed to be a part of this, for everything to work out the way it did tonight.

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by tonight's race winner Austin Dillon. We'll go ahead and take our last two questions for Richard and Richard.

Q. I know you said you didn't see this as a redemption type of thing. Do you think Austin approached this with I want to win this race?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Yeah, I know we talked about it a lot. To get it done, he did a great job. But redemption, you can call it whatever. But tonight Austin Dillon won the race. He won the race last year. It was just under different circumstances.

Two wins. They asked if we celebrated. We had a great celebration after last year's win.

Q. It's hard to separate the success of this track from your own success on the track, but to the extent you can do that, Richmond has lost won race, then tonight they filled it up again, the stands.

AUSTIN DILLON: I think they should have 10 (laughter).

Q. What do you think, does Richmond belong on the schedule? In what regard do you hold the track?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Yeah, I think it does. It's a great location. A lot of history at this racetrack, so much history.

I can remember when it was just a little old circle instead of being the track it is today. Seeing the fans in the stands... I remember Earnhardt getting out of the car saying, I'm going to get back in a few minutes, I want to wash the windshield off.

I have great memories here. I have memories when I drove here. To see my grandson win here today, that's another great win that will stick in my mind. Last year's win might even be sweeter than today. All wins are good, though.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Richard and Richard.