Last year in May, Rodney Childers and his #4 team came to know about the heartbreaking news of Stewart Haas Racing closing its doors. On-track struggles, financial woes, or lack of leadership were some of the few reasons that pushed the SHR on the verge of collapse. It is indeed hard to know how exactly Stewart Haas Racing fell from grace and was never able to regroup. Apart from Gene Haas and Tony Stewart going their separate ways, the brunt of this decision fell onto 323 employees, who were now forced to find a new home. And Cup Series-winning crew chief Rodney Childers was in the same boat.
Fortunately, Childers did find a new job with Spire Motorsports, as he was trusted to lead the charge of the No. 7 Chevy team. The 48-year-old was feeling blessed to have been able to fight through the tough times at SHR and have landed on his feet at Spire. Surprisingly, Childers was able to make a connection between Spire Motorsports and SHR, hinting at a massive comeback with Justin Haley and the #7 team.
Is Spire Motorsports going to become the new SHR in NASCAR?
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Jeff Dickerson and T.J. Puchyr have the same ambition, drive, and vision to compete in NASCAR that SHR once had. Starting out in 2018, they have quickly scaled up to a three-car operation at the Cup level. While they have made huge progress with their Truck Series program with Rajah Caruth. After being unable to work their way around Corey LaJoie, the team has now made massive changes to their lineup.
They have brought in talented race car driver Justin Haley to drive their flagship No. 7 Chevy. On the other hand, they also roped in veteran race car driver Michael McDowell to the No. 71 team. As if the drivers weren’t enough, they went ahead and secured the service of Rodney Childers, who is being paired up with Haley. Spire Motorsports seems to have big plans for the 2025 season, and this energy was evident from Rodney’s pre-season briefing. He stated, “Feels like SHR at the beginning, not the end, which is a good thing.”
He was recalling his good old days working with Kevin Harvick on the #4 team when they won the Cup Series title in 2014. This was their very first year together, and something similar is happening with his role at Spire Motorsports. It wasn’t just the triumph of 2014; the #4 team was seen as a championship contender for the entirety of the last decade. Between 2014 and 2019, they had five championship race appearances; this goes to highlight how big of a deal it is for Spire to bring in Childers.
The veteran crew chief shared his enthusiasm for the new season and also felt blessed to find a new role at Spire Motorsports. “Justin and I were talking about it in our office. How fortunate we’ve been and how far we’ve come. It’s been pretty special, honestly, to kinda go through what we’ve been through and all of us trying to find jobs… I feel like we’re definitely headed in the right direction; get us a nice car and nice equipment. Hopefully, we make Justin a lot more comfortable.”
Rodney Childers caught up with Kelly Crandall on her podcast, where the two talked on a range of topics. But one of the highlights was his response to the changes made to the Damaged Vehicle Policy by NASCAR.
Childers might have played a key role in getting the DVP changed
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The 2024 season was a head-scratcher for crew chiefs and drivers, as, after a wreck, their fate rested in the hands of NASCAR officials. But for some reason, drivers with flat tires unable to fire off were taken straight to the garage, without having a shot to get back in the race. This happened to Ryan Blaney at Watkins Glen and Childers’ driver on the #4 car, Josh Berry at Kansas Speedway.
Berry’s elimination came on the very first lap, thus they had to leave the day with nothing to show for their entire week of hard work. Harvick’s former crew chief has a cool head and stays away from making animated comments against NASCAR officials. But he had enough of how NASCAR was dealing with damaged race cars, and he made his feelings heard at the NASCAR trailer in Kansas.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for all the officials, but they have a ton of respect for me too, and that goes both ways. I don’t run my mouth; I’m a quiet person. So when that happened in Kansas, they knew just how mad I was, and instead of taking offense to it, they knew that they messed up. So immediately, they called Josh, and they said they messed up and called me and said that they would get it fixed.” Childers said this on the Racing Writer’s podcast.
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So now you know who was the real shot caller that made NASCAR make positive and sensible changes to the DVP policy.