10 seasons. That’s how long Kevin Harvick and Rodney Childers worked together. The 2014 season was their first season together and the fact that the driver won the 2014 Cup Series championship hinted at their future success. No doubt, Harvick’s ex-crew chief was saddened by his retirement news.

With Josh Berry taking over the wheel, things are different. In a candid chat with Harvick on his podcast ‘Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour’, Childers shared just how much he’s been struggling to adapt to life with a new pilot in the No. 4 ride.

“For me, I look back on all of it now and I didn’t realize how screwed up I was that last year when you were quitting until it was all said and done. Until we started the next season with somebody else, I realized like how messed up I was the whole year before and just trying to get through it and all those things,” Childers admitted on the Happy Hour podcast.

Childers and Harvick made a great team:

• He led Harvick to 37 wins from 2014 to 2023.
• Rodney Childers also helped Kevin Harvick to eight NASCAR Playoff berths in the 10 seasons they worked together. This includes five appearances in the NASCAR Championship 4 between 2014-2019.

Explaining that the final year with Kevin Harvick was a struggle for him, as Childers tried to navigate the emotional turmoil while simultaneously preparing for the future with a new driver. The transition to working with Josh Berry, who was tapped to replace the retiring Stewart-Haas Racing driver, has been a learning experience for him.

“With Josh, it was kind of a natural fit, just being a late-model racer. It was extremely easy to carry on conversations and to talk about things,” Childers shared.

As they navigated the challenges of the 2024 season, Childers and Berry faced their fair share of obstacles. He admitted that the first few intermediate tracks they raced on didn’t go as planned, and it took some time for the team to fully embrace Berry. However, the SHR team has proven to be resilient, and they have found success in some of their stronger tracks from the previous year, such as Richmond and Darlington.

Rodney Childers has better plans ahead!

If you’ve followed NASCAR long enough, then you would know that Rodney Childers has had quite the journey as a crew chief. Known for his keen insights and strategic prowess, he has some exciting things coming ahead in the future,

As Childers navigates the 2024 season, he remains focused on securing a playoff spot and potentially clinching a win before the postseason begins. With his wealth of experience and Berry’s growing confidence, the duo is poised to make a strong push in the remaining races.

Additionally, he has signed a multi-year deal with Spire Motorsports, where he will take the helm of the No. 7 team starting in 2025.

“There are decisions that professional racing teams make daily that take courage, require deep thought, and have some element of rolling the dice. To be clear, this wasn’t one of them. Rodney is a hall-of-fame worthy, championship-winning crew chief with 40 wins. He is one of the best in the garage and when a guy like Rodney is available, it would be malpractice if we did anything but our absolute best to bring him into our growing organization,” Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson stated.

The 48-year-old exhibits wins at some of NASCAR’s iconic tracks like the Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. So after 10 seasons with Harvick, it will be interesting to see if he can create similar magic. What do you think?