Rodney Childers
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Born | June 7, 1976 Mooresville, North Carolina |
| Sport | |
| Country | United States |
| Sport | NASCAR |
| Team | Stewart-Haas Racing |
Rodney Childers (born June 7, 1976) is an American NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crew chief. He is currently employed at Stewart-Haas Racing as the crew chief for the No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John's Chevrolet SS, driven by Kevin Harvick, winner of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.[1] Childers was born in Mooresville, North Carolina.[2]
Career
Before becoming crew chief, Childers himself was a racer, competing in the World Karting Association when he was 12 years old. He won seven championships in the state of South Carolina and five championships at the national level before moving to the Late Model Stock Car division in 1997. From 1999 to 2002 he competed in the NASCAR Slim Jim All Pro Series and the Hooters Pro Cup Series. In 2000, Childers made his Busch Series debut at Myrtle Beach Speedway, driving the #49 Southern Marine Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Jay Robinson Racing.
Childers retired from driving in 2003 to concentrate on becoming a mechanic. He first worked with Penske-Jasper Racing as a mechanic for the #77 Kodak Dodge, before becoming car chief. In June 2005, Childers was named Scott Riggs' crew chief at MB2/MBV Motorsports for the rest of the season, where Riggs two top-fives and four top-10 finishes. He moved with Riggs to Evernham Motorsports at the start of the 2006 season, and stayed with him until October 2007, when he became Elliott Sadler's crew chief at Evernham. He stayed with Sadler until the end of 2008, when he moved to Michael Waltrip Racing.[3]
Childers owns a Shelby Mustang GT500. It was given to him by MWR co-owner Robert "Rob" Kauffman after he and driver David Reutimann won the Coca-Cola 600. Reutimann also received a Mustang from the co-owner of MWR. Childers repeated the talents they used to win the Coke 600 to win Reutimann an upset Cup victory at Chicago. After Reutimann went winless in 2011 the driver was released by MWR, to be replaced by Mark Martin and one of Childers' life-long friends, Brian Vickers. Rodney Childers and the team was renumbered to 55. Vickers won the #55 team a victory at Loudon.
On August 23, 2013, despite the Loudon win, Childers announced that he was leaving MWR to become Kevin Harvick's crew chief at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.[4] Childers was released from his crew chief duties by MWR following the 2013 Irwin Tools Night Race, but remained under contract for the remainder of the season.[5]
Harvick and Childers combined to win the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.[1]
References
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External links
- Rodney Childers driver statistics at Racing-Reference
- Rodney Childers crew chief statistics at Racing-Reference
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.nascar.com/drivers/dps/dreutima00/cup/
- ↑ http://www.michaelwaltrip.com/2010_site/00_crew_chief.php
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- Pages with reference errors
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- 1976 births
- Living people
- People from Mooresville, North Carolina
- Racing drivers from North Carolina
- American Speed Association drivers
- NASCAR crew chiefs
- NASCAR drivers
- Pro Cup Series drivers
- 20th-century American racing drivers
- 21st-century American racing drivers
