This past summer has been a sort of personal revelation for Rodney Childers.
When the veteran crew chief parted ways with Spire Motorsports and driver Justin Haley after just nine races in April, Childers felt like getting back to the Cup Series and winning races and contending for the championship was the most important thing.
It was a matter of pride, a need to validate his place in the sport, but he was forced to reevaluate those priorities over the summer when nothing immediately materialized. Instead, Childers went back to his Late Model Stock Cars roots, reuniting with Kevin Harvick in the CARS Tour, with young driver Landen Lewis.
They have won four times this season and are also the championship leaders. Childers, meanwhile, has had practically every Sunday at home with his wife Katrina and sons Brody and Gavin. He wants to compete at the highest levels but also has enjoyed being a full-time husband and dad again.
Compromise has been struck, it seems, with Childers set to join JR Motorsports in what is now called the Xfinity Series as crew chief of the No. 1 car next season with Carson Kvapil and Connor Zilisch behind the wheel.
“For me, the last couple of months, I just started to look at things differently,” Childers told Motorsport.com over the phone on Wednesday. “I always felt like I needed to prove something and needed to win more Cup championships or the Daytona 500 but then I realized there is more to life than that.
“I opened myself up to talking to some Truck Series teams about some opportunities and that caught Dale by surprise. He asked me, ‘do you really not have anything lined up, yet’ and I told him where I was at and then he told me about Connor and Carson and it was just a dream scenario.
“This is basically the old car that we had a lot of success with, Sundays at church with Katrina and the boys, racing with two really exceptional young drivers and I couldn’t say ‘yes’ fast enough.”
“The Cup garage is just in a different place right now”
This doesn’t mean Childers has shut the door on leading a team at the highest level but he also acknowledges that he is 49 and doesn’t see a lot of 50-plus shot callers on Cup pit boxes these days.
“So it’s just hard to say,” he added. “I will learn a lot more about myself next year as we go along. Maybe I really love having Sundays at home. Maybe it’s really going to bother me that I’m not out there when I get home and they’re still racing on Sundays.”
Childers pondered a world in which he adds an Xfinity Series championship to the Cup title he won in 2014 with Harvick at Stewart-Haas Racing. Maybe he adds 40 more wins at that level to the 40 he has at the highest level.
Race winner and 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup series champion Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet celebrates with crew chief Rodney Childers, Tony Stewart, DeLana Harvick and Gene Haas
Photo by: Eric Gilbert
“Maybe that will make me want to go add a Truck Series championship before I’m dead,” he said with a laugh.
All of this to say, again, that he has realized there is more to life than racing in the Cup Series, especially if the right opportunity doesn’t present itself. And for what it’s worth, he did look, making numerous trips to the race track at North Wilkesboro, Richmond and Darlington.
“The Cup garage is just in a different place right now, with a lot of teams either set or wanting to try something else,” he said.
Childers really admires what Mardy Lindley has done at JR Motorsports this year as crew chief for Zilisch in the No. 88 car. Lindley, like Childers is a former Late Model Stock driver turned crew chief, who has completely reinvented himself in this space.
Lindley is 53 and looks like one of the premier team leaders in a space that is the intersection of next-generation starts and veteran series mainstays.
Now O’Reilly Auto Parts Series teams get to deal with what CARS Tour teams have faced all summer – competing against a future NASCAR Hall of Famer.
“I means a ton,” Childers said of the pride he feels about the show of respect from his peers at every level. “But it wasn’t just me anywhere along the way. We have had good people at every stop and I’m a sponge for what people have to teach me, the fab guys, tire specialists and engineers.
“You have to be to have success at this level.”
Excited to work with JRM
Carson Kvapil, JR Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Jeffrey Vest / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
But again, all told, this is about working with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt-Miller and the two prospects assembled at JR Motorsports, one of them already set to go Cup racing full-time next year.
“I can’t tell you enough how much I’ve seen Dale and Kelley smile this week,” Childers said. “How much I’ve smiled.
“I can’t wait to get to know Carson better. I know I have a lot of respect for him and his family. I know how serious Carson takes his racing and its just making sure he has the right people around him to keep progressing.
“That’s what it was with Kevin. We were successful because of how we communicated. Carson and I are a pair of Late Model Stock guys. It’s like Josh (Berry). It meant a lot to me that I played a part in getting him to where he is now. It was about getting him some confidence and making him know that he belonged. Same thing here.”
Lastly, Childers knows he has to win at JRM with these drivers, and there is both a pressure and privilege associated with that.
“When I raced with Kevin, if we didn’t win, it was my fault,” Childers said. “I don’t know if that’s the best way to put it publicly but I have to feel that way. It means that no matter what, I need to be the one to figure out what my driver needs, because we have the cars and the drivers.
“I can’t be in a position to just be waiting for someone to figure it out for me. This car is my responsibility. That means getting the most out of it, finding the right people, and making it go fast. It needs to win.”
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