Rodney Childers addresses challenge of finishing Stewart-Haas season with NASCAR teams looking to poach talent

Stewart-Haas Racing is coming to an end, and Rodney Childers knows others teams are going after talent in the organization. While speaking with Carla Gebhart, Childers, the crew chief for No. 4 car driven by Josh Berry, was asked about other teams going after members of Stewart-Haas before the end of the year.

“Even without a team shutting down, it’s extremely hard these days in the Cup Series,” Childers said. “20 years ago, I had stacks and stacks of resumés of engineers and road crew members and mechanics. It was extremely easy to find somebody to come work for your team. Right now, you can’t get anybody to come work for Cup teams anymore. A lot of the old veterans are getting out of it.

“You’re not trying to poach people, but in reality that’s kind of that it has turned into. You’re not trying to steal people, but it’s desperation right now to get the right people on your teams that are strong, that are committed that have the right mindset and the right things going on in life and all those things. Even with out this it’s hard to keep good people.”

Childers also talked about the status of Berry and his team. “The biggest thing is I feel like everybody on the four team in general really strong, not only in their mind but what they do” he said. “We need to keep that core group together as long as we can. And then it still takes all the guys at the shop. It takes the guys putting the bodies on, and it takes all the way to the people that clean the bathrooms you have to have all those people to make this thing go around. That’s going to be extremely hard.”

Rodney Childers reacts to Stewart-Haas shutting down

Childers is in his first season as Berry’s crew chief. So far this year, Berry has earned two consecutive top-10 finishes which happened the last two weekends.

Before becoming Berry’s crew chief, Childers was the crew chief for Kevin Harvick from 2014-2023. The duo the Cup Series title in 2014 along with 36 point races, 25 poles and one All-Star Race. Once Stewart-Haas Racing annoucned it was shutting down, Childers went to social media to react to the news.

“1 championship, 37 wins, 25 poles, 151 top 5s, 235 top 10s since the 4 team came together at SHR,” Childers posted on X. “And we are just getting rolling with @joshberry .. But most of all, we have been a family. A family that truly cares and loves every person.. WE aren’t done!”

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