Rodney Childers Reveals the Struggles of Managing “Hothead” Kevin Harvick Due to His Unwelcoming Trait

One of the most impactful teams to have graced the race tracks of America will be broken down at the end of this season. The Kevin Harvick-Rodney Childers combo has been a significant tandem over the last decade. When Harvick announced that he would be retiring from racing, he was also ready to break his professional ties with a long-serving crew chief in Childers. Having won many accolades overshone by the 2014 Cup Series championship, the duo will be sorely missed on the grid.

As the dreaded day of the season finale approaches us, the crew chief talked to the press ahead of Homestead-Miami and reminisced on his relationship with the No. 4 driver.

Tony Stewart’s crew chief turns the pages of his books to reveal the making of the No. 4 team

When Harvick and Childers came together in 2014, they each had their fair share of wins in the Cup Series. Neither was a newcomer to the field and their joining forces was absolutely devastating for the rest of the grid. The results of their chemistry reflected immediately as they went on to win that year’s championship trophy. Over the next years, though they did not again hit the same mark again, they have consistently reached the highest level of the game.

With a reporter asking Childers how he managed his crew and the short-tempered Kevin Harvick in the initial stages of their partnership, the chief spoke about the onset of everything. Talking about the efforts that he’d taken to get Harvick onboard the No. 4 team, he said, “If you met four people a day and did four interviews a day, it was the same kind of conversation. ‘What do you think he’s going to be like?’, and ‘What is he going to act like?’, and ‘Is he going to scream and yell at us every time we do something wrong?’ 

Even the guys that I ended up with, they still ask the question and to this day they love him to death. And you know it really comes down to maybe a misrepresentation of what he was in the past and everything that was going on.”

Continuing to throw light on the inside image of Harvick, the chief talked about how his driver had treated them like “gold” since the very get-go. Harvick’s temper outbursts are as famous as the driver himself. For such a person to find his sync with a group of people and achieve what the No. 4 team did takes a special kind of camaraderie.

Watch Story: Kevin Harvick’s Legendary Tribute: A Farewell to Remember

The genius of Childers and the skill of Harvick that kept the team together

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After the Coca-Cola 600 race of the 2009 season, one could have found Childers a happy man. The race was his first Cup Series and he’d achieved the task with Michael Waltrip Racing driver David Reutimann. From then on, he took two more wins before he made the call to switch to Tony Stewart’s NASCAR outfit. Childers is the kind of topman who trusts engineering above anything else. Upon arriving at the garage of SHR, he utilized the equipment around him to the best of their abilities.

The combination of the mindset of Childers and the talent of Harvick led to the hiring of a great crew that translated into success. Interviewing Speed Sports’ Dan Hodgdon, the chief said a couple of years back, “I wouldn’t say that everybody on the team is best friends by any chance but everybody pushes each other to be the best that they can be and everybody expects to be the best.”

The dynamics between the team are also reflected by Harvick’s words about the chief. He said after the 2020 win at Atlanta, “In the end we have a great friendship, a great relationship, to help each other as people. And that goes a long way in the trust factor that is there between Rodney and myself.”

On Sunday’s race at Miami, NASCAR will pay tribute to Kevin Harvick and the chief will serve as an honorary grand marshall for the day. Once the curtains draw on this season, Childers will no longer officially be the crew chief of Kevin Harvick. Josh Berry will take the No. 4 Mustang’s seat under his command. While Harvick and Childers could still go on to achieve a lot in their lives, it certainly is a teary matter to witness the end of an era.

Read More: “Just Trying to Make Me Cry”- Kevin Harvick Turns Emotional as SHR Unlocks “Coolest” Memory