Nascar Hall Of Famer Led Team Going Bull Riding With Driver Austin Dillon

The team founded and led by NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Childress and his grandson/driver Austin Dillon are branching out. The Professional Bull Riders (PBR) organization announced Thursday that as part of new league featuring the world’s top bull riders the Carolina Chaos will represent Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the PBR Team Series that will debut in June of this year.

The Carolina Chaos will be run by Richard Childress Racing with Austin Dillon serving as general manager. The PBR Team Series’ inaugural 10-event regular season will finish in a team playoff at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas November 4-6, 2022. The league will launch with eight founding teams, each scheduled to host in their respective city an annual bull riding event and western lifestyle festival. The league said the PBR Team Series event for the Carolina Chaos at Wake Forest’s Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in North Carolina will be announced later.

In addition to the Carolina Chaos full PBR Team Series league roster consists of:   

• Ariat Texas Rattlers, based in Fort Worth, Tex., owned by the Fisher family
• Arizona Ridge Riders, based in Glendale, Ariz., owned by Teton Ridge
• Austin Gamblers, based in Austin, Tex., owned by Egon Durban
• Kansas City Outlaws, based in Kansas City, Mo., owned by Pulley Outlaws LLC
• Missouri Thunder, based in Ridgedale, Mo., owned by Johnny Morris
• Nashville Stampede, based in Nashville, Tenn., owned by Morris Communications Company
• Oklahoma Freedom, based in Oklahoma City, Okla., owned by the league and operated by Prodigal

As part of the 10-event regular season there will also be two “neutral site” league-produced regular season events and the season playoff and championship.

Bull-riding events that feature teams of riders competing against each other have been growing in popularity since the debut of the PBR Global Cup in 2017. That series had teams from different nations vying for the title. The event format ended in June and July 2021 with the PBR Monster Energy Team Challenge.

The new team league will run after the the PBR’s “Unleash The Beast” (UBL) series tour which pits individual riders against each other and has run since 1994. That series’ championship will be held in May.

The league will conduct a PBR Team Series rider draft on May 23 prior to start of the 2022 team series inaugural season and will be open to PBR rider members who have declared for the draft during a league eligibility window. To determine team selection order of the athletes, a draft lottery among teams will be held prior to the PBR UBL event at Madison Square Garden in New York held this Friday, January 7.

The PBR has made more than 30 stops in the North Carolina and several of the world’s best bull riders hail from the state including two-time PBR World Champion J.B. Mauney, 2021 PBR Rookie of the Year Eli Vastbinder, and PBR Ring of Honor inductee Jerome Davis.

The PBR debuted in Winston-Salem in 2008, visiting the city annually through 2010 with the premier UBL series. The organization held a subsequent elite tour event there in 2013.

“I’ve always had an interest in the business side of sports, so I’m thrilled to get a chance at being the general manager of a PBR team alongside my grandfather,” said Dillon. “I grew up watching bull riders with my grandfather, so it’s special to be able to share this interest with him in our home state of North Carolina.”