Last summer was a kind of personal revelation for Rodney Childers.
When the veteran crew chief separated from Spire Motorsports and Driver Justin Haley After only nine races in April, Childers felt like he was returning to the Cup series and winning races and arguing for the championship was the most important thing.
It was a question of pride, the need to validate its place in sport, but it was forced to reassess these priorities during the summer when nothing was immediately materialized. Instead, Childers returned to his late Stock Stock Cars Roots model, bringing together with Kevin Harvick During the car tour, with the young driver Landen Lewis.
They have won four times this season and are also the leaders of the championship. Childers, on the other hand, had practically every Sunday at home with his wife Katrina and his sons Brody and Gavin. He wants to compete at the highest level, but also appreciated being a full -time husband and father again.
The compromise was struck, it seems, with Childers began to join Jr Motorsports in what is now called the Xfinity series as a team leader N ° 1 next season with CARSON KVAPIL And Connor Zilisch Behind the steering wheel.
“For me, the last two months, I just started to look at things differently,” Childers told Motorsport.com on the phone on Wednesday. “I always had the impression that I needed to prove something and that I needed to win more cup or daytona 500 championships, but I realized that there was more in life than that.
“I opened myself to talk to certain teams in the series of trucks of certain opportunities and it surprised Dale by surprise. He asked me, “Do you really have nothing to do, and yet” and I told him where I was and then he told me about Connor and Carson and it was just a dream scenario.
“It is essentially the old car with which we had a lot of success, Sundays at the church with Katrina and the boys, running with two young pilots really exceptional and I could not say” yes “fairly quickly.”
“The cup garage is just in a different place right now”
This does not mean that Childers has closed the door to lead a team at the highest level, but he also recognizes that he is 49 years old and does not see much more than 50 shooting on boxes with cutting pit these days.
“So it’s difficult to say,” he added. “I will learn much more about me next year as we move forward. Maybe I really like to have Sundays at home.
Childers thought about a world in which he added an Xfinity series championship as the cup he won in 2014 with Harvick in Racing Stewart-Haas. Maybe he adds 40 more victories to this level to the 40 he has at the highest level.
Winner of the race and champion of the Nascar Sprint Cup 2014 series, Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet famous with crew chief Rodney Childers, Tony Stewart, Delana Harvick and Gene Haas
Photo of: Eric Gilbert
“Maybe it will make me want to add a championship in the truck series before my death,” he said, laughing.
All this to say, once again, that he realized that there was more in life than the race in the Cup series, especially if the good opportunity does not present itself. And for what it is worth, he looked at, making many trips to the race track to North Wilkesboro, Richmond and Darlington.
“The cutting garage is just in a different place right now, with many teams that are going on or want to try something else,” he said.
Childers really admires what Mardy Lindley has done to Jr Motorsports this year as Zilisch team leader in the car n ° 88. Lindley, like Childers, is a former late scholarship driver who has become a team leader, who completely reinvented himself in this space.
Lindley is 53 years old and looks like one of the main team leaders in a space that is the intersection of new generation departures and the pillars of veterans series.
Now, teams from the O’Reilly Auto Parts series can face what the Cars Tour teams were faced all summer – in competition with a future NASCAR HALL OF FAMER.
“I mean a ton,” said Childers about the pride he feels about the demonstration of respect for his peers at all levels. “But it was only me anywhere along the way. We had good people with each stop and I am a sponge for what people have to teach me, fabulous guys, tire specialists and engineers.
“You must be to succeed at this level.”
Excited to work with JRM
Carson Kvapil, Jr Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo of: Jeffrey Vest / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
But again, all things considered, it’s about working with Dale Earnhardt Jr. And Kelley Earnhardt-Miller and the two prospects met at JR Motorsports, one of them already planned in the Cup race full time next year.
“I can’t tell you enough how much I saw Dale and Kelley Sourire this week,” said Childers. “How much I 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 seriously Carson takes his race and it is just by ensuring that he has the right people around him to continue to progress.
“This is what it was with Kevin. We succeeded because of how we communicated. Carson and I are a pair of guys of models. It’s like Josh (Berry). It meant a lot for me that I played a role to take him where he is now. It was a question of trusting him and letting him know.”
Finally, Childers knows that he must win JRM with these pilots, and there is both pressure and a privilege associated with this.
“When I ran with Kevin, if we didn’t win, it was my fault,” said Childers. “I don’t know if it’s the best way to say it publicly, but I have to feel that.
“I can’t be able to wait until someone understands it. This car is my responsibility. It means to get the most out of it, find the right people and make it go fast. He must win. “
