Rodney Childers was surprisingly one of the main headlines in NASCAR this week when it was announced that he and Spire Motorsports had mutually agreed to part ways. The veteran crew chief had worked with Justin Haley through the first nine races of the 2025 Cup Series campaign.
On Saturday while visiting with reporters at Talladega Superspeedway, the No. 7 driver admitted it was an “unexpected change and not something you ever want to do in the middle of a season.”
During Cup Series qualifying on Amazon Prime, Childers’ name unexpectedly came up but in a different context when talking about how cars from the same organization can have dramatically different times.
“You get to see how your organization is doing when it comes time for qualifying at a superspeedway,” said Kevin Harvick, who worked for years with Childers while driving at Stewart-Haas Racing, including his championship-winning season in 2014.
“They both left out of the same shop,” Clint Bowyer said, talking about the disparity in times between eventual pole sitter Zane Smith and his Front Row Motorsports teammate Noah Gragson, who qualified 27th.
“Well that’s how you know if your shop and teams are communicating and working together and dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s like they need to,” Harvick suggested. “Because those cars should qualify right together if you’re doing everything correctly.”
During Saturday’s Cup Series qualifying at @talladega, @RodneyChilders4 came up in the conversation and not for the surprising news of his departure from @SpireMotorsport this week but his unwillingness to share information with teammates while at Stewart-Haas Racing. pic.twitter.com/2LPh5335F2
— Kyle Dalton (@kdsportswriter) April 27, 2025
“Well now you worked for a four-car team,” Mike Joy said to Harvick, referring to SHR. “Both of you were on a four-car team where you had crew chiefs that did not enjoy sharing a lot of that information with each other.”
“Well, there was three of us that always wondered where all that speed was,” Bowyer said with a laugh, referring to the then-No. 4 team.
“That’s my point,” the veteran broadcaster confirmed. “You know, Rodney. Boy, he…”
“Thanks, Mike,” Bowyer replied.
“Yeah. I would tell you that the superspeedways in general are a great quality control piece of the puzzle for those teams,” Harvick noted.
Childers won’t be on the pit box Sunday at Talladega. But Joy, Bowyer and Harvick will be in the Fox broadcast booth calling the race. Coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET.
Related: Mike Joy and Clint Bowyer Don’t Hide Feelings About NASCAR Removing Longtime Tradition
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