Dale Earnhardt Jr allows school classmate to | Sports News

Rodney Childers has fond recollections of Phoenix. Back in 2014, he was celebrating a Cup Series Championship with Kevin Harvick.

Fast ahead to 2026, and Childers is bouncing across the storage again, having found a new lease of life within the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.

Almost a yr after abruptly leaving Spire Motorsports and spending some time away from NASCAR, the 49-year-old has discovered every part he was in search of at JR Motorsports.

“It’s been so much fun just being back in a place that you really enjoy,” he tells Express US Sports.

“Being around people that you really enjoy. working on cars that you enjoy working on, and working with some young drivers who have a huge future in our sport. All those things have been so much fun so far.

“It’s gonna be great to see them go out and win races and to grow and have opportunities in the future, and to say that you are a part of that is really important.”

Sign up to our NASCAR e-newsletter right here for more unique interviews and breaking information.

Childers doesn’t disguise the truth that each he and Harvick struggled with the transition into a new period of Cup Series racing when the NextGen car was launched in 2022.

“Maybe we both didn’t enjoy it as much as what we should have,” he displays.

“I don’t think either one of us wanted to accept that everybody had the same thing, and it was up to us to go out there and prove what we could do.”

Does he have a level to show?

“For sure,” he replies with out skipping a beat. “Last year didn’t work out, but it’s up to me and it’s up to this group to go out and prove that we can do it again.”

Childers categorizes his new setting at JR Motorsports in easy phrases: “It’s just a bunch of racers.”

Crucially, he says it “feels like you have some skin in the game”. He factors to the control and energy he’s given as a crew chief because the “biggest thing” in his new setting.

“It makes your mind think more, pushes you to be your best and I love that side of it,” he says.

Working at JR Motorsports means the possibility to fulfill a lifelong ambition he has held together with his high school classmate, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“Dale and I have been friends all the way since high school,” Childers recollects. “We sat beside each other in class, we did a lot of things together a long time ago, and we’ve always kept up with each other.

“Even on the Cup side, every single year we would talk about working together and it just never happened. And so this is something that both of us have always wanted.”

Alongside his sister, Kelley, the following era of the well-known Earnhardt identify have established themselves as a essential half of the NASCAR ecosystem in a method that Childers can’t help however admire.

“I think really what’s been most impressive is just how hard they (Dale and Kelley) work,” he says.

“People think that maybe they just have it made and they don’t have to do anything, but I’ve never seen two people that are so committed to what they do. They just wake up every day working their butts off. It blows me away, honestly, how hard they work.

“The love that Dale has for this sport is insane. He doesn’t have to do any of it, right, and he comes in there every day and works hard on all these different things.

“And he walks in my office every time he’s there and he says, what do you need, what do you need, what do you need, what do you need. So that’s all you can ask for.

“I mean every time I’ve asked for something, they just tell me to get whatever I need, so that’s a fun way to race.”

One factor Earnhardt Jr has given Childers is 2 prime younger drivers. Connor Zilisch, after profitable 9 races within the No.88 car for the workforce final yr, will make a handful of appearances in Childers’ No.1 car alongside his Cup Series rookie season.

“I think the big thing for him is he’s gonna be running these Cup cars and when he hops back in one of these it’s not going to drive the same,” Childers says. “But he also has a ton of confidence that he can go out there and win.”

Most of the season, nevertheless, shall be spent working with Carson Kvapil, anticipated to make huge strides and secure his first profession win in his second season after battling his method into the Championship 4 final season.

Childers says: “Carson, he kind of got beat up a little bit last year and I think going out there this year and proving that he can do it and winning races and getting his confidence back where it needs to be.

“He can do it and I believe in him a hundred percent. I’m excited for him to get out there and get in Victory Lane.”

Kvapil is already benefiting from over twenty years of classes and experiences that Childers brings to the desk.

“I think with Carson, he’s still trying to figure out if I’m mad or if I’m just being serious,” Childers laughs. “And I told him I’m just really serious.

“When I went to work for Ray Everham, I didn’t know if he was mad or not because he was so serious all the time, and really those three years I was there, that rubbed off on me and I realized, how competitive this is and how serious you do have to be.

“I do this because I love it but I also do it because I want to win and if you’re gonna win, you have to take it.

“And some of that’s being around Kevin (Harvick). Like how many times was Kevin not serious?

“I’ve had a lot of good people around me, and a lot of people have rubbed off on me and put me in a good situation. I’ve been so fortunate to be in so many good situations throughout my career.”

Aside from the expertise of working with completely different personalities, Childers, crucially, is much more at home engaged on this car and away from the NextGen within the Cup Series.

“It’s all the same stuff that I loved working on and I have so much knowledge built up in my head of all that kind of stuff,” he explains. “I think just getting back to what I know is what’s really made it fun.”