Rodney Childers, one of NASCAR’s top crew chiefs renowned for building ultra-fast cars, will join Spire Motorsports beginning with the 2025 Cup Series season where he will crew chief Spire’s No. 7 entry with driver Corey LaJoie.
Childers’ future has been much speculated about ever since his current team, Stewart-Haas Racing, announced in May it would reorganize and downsize at the end of the year from four cars to just one.
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Childers has been with SHR since 2014, when he was handpicked by driver Kevin Harvick to lead his No. 4 team. Instantly, Childers and Harvick became a force to be reckoned with. They won in their second start, then captured four other races and the Cup championship — the first for both the crew chief and driver.
Welcome to Spire, Rodney.
We're proud to announce @RodneyChilders4 will be joining the team as crew chief of the No. 7 Chevrolet in 2025 and beyond.
Learn more: https://t.co/jOtn01TIPo pic.twitter.com/pAqtocVikl
— Spire Motorsports (@SpireMotorsport) July 9, 2024
Although Childers and Harvick would not win another title, they still were one of the most dominant teams during their 10 years together. They won 37 races, a series-best during that span, and qualified for the Championship 4 playoff-deciding finale five times.
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After Harvick retired following the 2023 season, rookie Josh Berry took over as driver. Childers, who had contemplated shifting into a behind-the-scenes role at SHR, remained in the crew chief position to work with Berry, a driver he recommended to SHR co-owners Tony Stewart and Gene Haas.
Under Childers’ tutelage, Berry has impressed during his rookie campaign. He has two top-five and four top-10 finishes and leads the Rookie of the Year standings.
Upon Stewart and Haas announcing that SHR would cease to exist after 2024, both Childers and Berry publicly stated they would like to continue working with one another beyond this season. But while they explored opportunities as a “package deal,” nothing came to fruition.
Last week, Berry signed a multiyear contract with Wood Brothers Racing that begins next year. During the introductory news conference, it was indicated that Childers would not be moving with Berry.
Childers is joining a Spire organization whose ownership group has invested heavily in raising the team’s level of competitiveness.
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After Spire purchased a charter in the fall of 2023 for a record $40 million, according to industry sources, it added a third full-time car for the 2024 season. Spire also purchased Kyle Busch Motorsports, a Truck Series team, allowing it to relocate its burgeoning Cup team to KBM’s larger shop and expand full time into NASCAR’s third-tier series. And in May, Spire announced it signed 2021 Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell to a multiyear contract.
Spire’s current driver lineup consists of LaJoie (with crew chief Ryan Sparks), Carson Hocevar (Luke Lambert), and Zane Smith (Stephen Doran). While Childers is replacing Sparks as LaJoie’s crew chief, Sparks will continue as Spire’s competition director overseeing all three teams.
Required reading
- How a $6 million piece of paper no one wanted turned into a growing NASCAR team
- Stewart-Haas Racing’s NASCAR demise begins and ends with leadership
- Josh Berry signing with Wood Brothers Racing, will begin racing in 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season
(Photo: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
