Over the course of a 20-year profession as a NASCAR Cup Sequence crew chief, Rodney Childers has grow to be a legend in his personal proper.
Childers has visited victory lane 43 instances as a Cup Sequence crew chief, and received the 2014 Cup Sequence championship with Kevin Harvick. From 2014-23, Childers and Harvick received 40 races and made the Cup Sequence playoffs 10 instances.
When Stewart-Haas Racing introduced that it might shut on the conclusion of 2024, one of many largest questions surrounding the group’s soon-to-be free brokers was Childers, who labored with Josh Berry in 2024. As a veteran crew chief and one which had made each staff he’d labored with higher, the place would he land?
The reply got here on July 9, when it was introduced that Childers would be part of Spire Motorsports because the crew chief of the No. 7 automobile. Whereas Corey LaJoie was initially introduced as the driving force of that automobile, it was Justin Haley who was behind the wheel when the haulers rolled into Daytona.
In 2024, Spire Motorsports confirmed immense development. Carson Hocevar received the Cup Sequence Rookie of the Yr award, whereas Zane Smith completed the second half of the season robust, regardless of being a lame duck. The No. 7 staff, in the meantime, struggled for a lot of the yr, which initiated a driver commerce over the ultimate seven races. Haley stepped into the No. 7 beginning at Kansas on Sept. 29, whereas LaJoie went to the Rick Ware Racing No. 51.
Haley’s seven races with Spire have been the constructing blocks for 2025, when Childers would be part of the Winamac, Indiana native to kind one of the vital underrated driver-crew chief duos within the Cup Sequence.
9 races into the 2025 season, Haley sits a stable twenty third in factors, forward of his teammate in Hocevar. Haley’s common end is 20.2, and he introduced dwelling the staff’s first top-10 of the season at Homestead, ending tenth. Haley solely has one end outdoors the top-30 all season, which got here at Phoenix on March 9 after a crash.
In comparison with the place Lajoie was at this juncture a season in the past within the No. 7 automobile — a median end of 24.1, twenty ninth in factors, 4 finishes outdoors the top-30 and one top-10 end — Haley and Childers have executed higher, by each the stat sheet and the attention take a look at.
