January 27, 2025 • 46 mins
Rodney Childers hit the ground running with Spire Motorsports after the 2024 season finale, and now he’s sharing how much work has gone in with the No. 7 team to prepare for a new year. Childers shares the emotions of starting with a new organization; the dynamic of joining a new team and who is and isn’t familiar; the changing expectations within Spire; changing the entire cockpit for Justin Haley and the team basically starting over; building a relationship with Haley; defining expectations for the team; understanding Next Gen going into the fourth year; the overall feeling approaching a new season with a new team and driver, and what it has to do with alarms; how much Childers is putting on his shoulders; dealing with multiple winless seasons; what a week looks like for a crew chief during the season; interest from his twin sons in racing and being at the shop; the difference in Daytona preparation from years gone by; thoughts on the change to the Damaged Vehicle Policy (DVP); looking ahead to another year on the job and hitting 700 starts.
Original music created by Tony Monge.
Follow me here: https://linktr.ee/kellycrandall
Original music created by Tony Monge.
Follow me here: https://linktr.ee/kellycrandall
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Racing Writers Podcast. I'm your host,
Kelly crandall. Welcome to a brand new season of the podcast,
and we're starting it off with a tremendous conversation with
Rodney Childers. Rodney is the crew chief of the number
seven Chevrolet at Spire Motor Sports for Justin Haley, a
new role for Rodney this year after spending many, many
years at Stewart Haas Racing with Kevin Harvick and then
Josh Berry. Rodney, though, has been boots on the ground,
(00:29):
full steam ahead since Phoenix the finale in November, getting
everything ready to go and getting acclimated to Spire Motor Sports.
And we're gonna dig into all of that today. A
lot has gone on over there and I was blown away.
So that is the bulk of our conversation, as well
as how Rodney feels just going into a new year,
going into a year where he's gonna make his seven
hundred start as a crew chief, and so much more.
(00:51):
Wonderful conversation about forty five minutes with Rodney Childers, and
it is so insightful. Hope you enjoy it. Let's get
to it. Here's Rodney Childers on the Racing Writers Podcast.
Rodney Childers is here one of my favorite people in
the garage to talk to, and gosh, Rodney, there's a
(01:11):
lot to talk to you about because you've been settling
in over its spire. Now, when was your official first day?
Let's start with that. How long have you been there?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Now?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
As we record here, it's January twenty first, So how
many days did you put in?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Honestly, we got back from Phoenix and I came here
the tuesday after Phoenix and I've been here ever since,
so you know, there was no time off. You know,
right after the season ended, it was right to work.
But you know, overall we got a little bit of
time off, you know, through Christmas we're able to go
down to Disney and spend a few days and all
(01:42):
that kind of stuff. But overall, it's been a lot
of fun here Aspire so far. It's so fun to
see so much growth and so much productivity every single day,
and it's just been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
The spire piece I want to get to in a
few minutes here, But first for you, after spending so
many years Rodney at Stuart Haas, right, you built that
team over there you and Kevin for so many years.
You spent last year with Josh, but you had been
in one place for so long. What were the emotions
or what was it like that first day of school
so to speak, when you start and walk into a
(02:17):
new building and it's new people and a new way
of doing things. How is that for someone? Is that
like the first day of school? Is there a little
bit of nerves there?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah? I mean it was. It was definitely different. You know,
I think the schr part of it was hard on
everybody really, you know, like you said, being there eleven
years and went in so many races with Kevin and
doing all those things. Just to be able to accept,
you know, that place was shutting down was extremely tough.
You know. Obviously over eleven years and the hours that
(02:48):
you put in at a race team getting to know
three hundred people or three hundred plus people, you know,
they've become family, they've become friends. So you know, that's
another side of it, that you're not going to see
those people anymore every day, and you know, every piece
and part of it was tough. You know, a lot
of tears, you know there in the second half of
(03:10):
the year as people you know, realized that this was
going to end and all that kind of stuff, and
you know, it's just I don't know, it was just
really hard to accept more than anything. You know, I
don't think any of us pictured that two or three
years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
How was that dynamic now being with a different race
team because the Stuart hosspiece, as we talked about, when
you went there, you and Kevin really built that four
team right because it was such a new team and
you got to kind of handpick and look at the
guys you wanted. How is the dynamic now with the
seven team? Is it something to where you come in
(03:49):
and you have to get used to brand new guys
and a team that's already been put in place, or
what is the makeup of the seven team now? And
kind of again you coming into something different.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Well, when I when I signed on with Spire, it
was just me and I was kind of wondering what
it was going to be like, you know, who was
going to be the car chief, who was going to
be the engineer, who was going to be the road guys,
the shop guys that assemble the cars And honestly, over time, uh,
some of the guys from s HR ended up coming
over here. I was really fortunate to keep my car
(04:23):
chief Cheddar he'd come over here with me, which was
really important. A few of the shop guys, a few
of the designers, you know, a setup plate guy, you know,
a lot of different people you know, throughout the process,
and you know, I think that side of it has
been a really good mixture. You have, you know, a
few s HR guys you have, you know, Travis and
(04:46):
all the guys on the thirty four. A lot of
those guys came, so you have some front row guys
you have, you know, Matt McCall here, and some guys
from RFK. So there's a ton of ideas, right. So
we we all sit in these meetings every week and
we're like, all right, well we have to figure out
how to mix all this together. And everybody's done a
(05:08):
really good job with that so far. You know, I
was thinking this morning, right, and then that Travis is
getting his first manufacturer vehicle this week from Chevrolet, and
I'm getting my twenty first manufactured vehicle. So you know,
it's been a cool mixture, you know, for all of us.
And I think you need that, right, I mean, you
(05:29):
need different different levels of different things. You need different personalities,
you know, you need that in a race team, and
you want it to be exciting. You want people to
push each other, and I definitely feel like we have that.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
NASCAR dot Com has a great piece out right now,
and I think it's the first of multiparts where they're
highlighting Spier Motorsports and everything all of the teams over
there you all are working on. In that regard Rodney,
it seems like there's been a lot of talk of
how the expectations within that race shop are changing and
when you come in, your expectation where you've been the
last couple of years has been to win races. Maybe
(06:05):
for Spire it's been a little bit different as they've
continued to build. But do you see that as well
now with all the changes you just talked about, there's
different drivers, different crew chiefs, different guys in the shop
that are coming in. You talked about that nice mix.
Does it seem like the expectations even from the day
you started talking to Spire to now within that race
shop are starting to change for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, when you look around the room, you know when
you're having a morning meeting at seven o'clock. The space
is full of eight plus people right now. I mean you,
when you look around, you're like, oh my gosh, Like
we have the people to do this. And then the
other side of that is nobody came here not to win.
You know, nobody doesn't have that expectation. And yeah, we
(06:51):
have to take that next step as a company. But
you know, all of us came here to win races
and to make a difference, and you have seen that
every single day. Like the culture just changes a little
bit every day. The expectations change it a little bit
every day. Yeah, it's not going to be perfect overnight,
but you know, our equipment is I told Cheddary yesterday
(07:14):
I got up on the pit pox I was like,
this is the nicest pit box I've ever had in
my whole career, and the nicest generator car, the nicest
pit road car. Like, we have worked our butts off
to make all this stuff the way it should look
and the way it should be presented. You know, I
think when we pull in our brand new haulers and
pull our equipment out, everybody's gonna be Wow. These guys
(07:36):
have worked their butts off this winter. The next part
of that is building better race cars. You I feel
good on the seven side of it. I feel like
Justin's going to do a good job for us. And
it's been interesting to see all that because Justin's never
really had the right opportunities, you know, like he'd never
even been fitted into a car the right way. So,
(07:59):
you know, for us, it's been a huge undertaking. Like
we've had to have his seats redone at Hendrick, We've
had to have his belts moved. We've had to make
all new seat rails, new head rests, new head rest supports,
new seat mounts, new leg boards, new floorboard, new pedal faces,
new steering column mounts. We have redone everything to make
(08:21):
it absolutely perfect for him. And I think when he
gets in there at at the clash, he's going to
be like, holy crap, you know, like I have never
had anything like this before. And that's the that's the
first step, right, I mean, you got to you got
to be presentable. You got to have what the driver
perceives as the nicest car there that he appreciates to
(08:45):
be on every single weekend and he's comfortable after five
hundred miles or six hundred miles or all those things,
and you know that was that was step number one.
You know, like the first day we went to lunch,
he said after Martin, you know, he couldn't hardly walk
the next day, I might, well, that's the problem, you know,
(09:06):
like let's let's look at that part first. And that's
when we went to work. And it's been a huge undertaking.
Right now, that's what we're waiting on. We're waiting on.
Our class car is setting there, wrapped and all together,
but it doesn't have a seed, it doesn't have anything
in there because we're waiting on all this stuff to
get made. But that's really what makes you, makes you good,
(09:26):
is paying attention to those details and getting the most
out of them.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
That's really really interesting. And I can't wait to follow
up with Justin on that at the clash or after
Daytona once he's been in it and he experiences it,
because that goes to I would think, Rodney, the whole
thing as you were talking about, of driver comfort and
making sure they have what they need and they're not
worrying about anything in the cockpit. They can focus more
on their job.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Than Yeah, for sure, like when he gets in there,
everything is going to be different than he's ever had.
New seat belts, new seat insert, new everything, new helmets,
I mean, every piece that he has, Like he been
going from a Hans to a hybrid, Like we have
changed everything to make him more comfortable and to make
it feel good, to make it feel right. And that
(10:09):
was something I learned from Kevin. Like Kevin pushed us
every single day to make the interior of that car
absolutely perfect. And you know, all of us that came
from the four team. That's our mindset still is we
want to treat it just like Kevin Harvick's in the car.
You know that it's somebody that has won sixty Cup
races and is a Hall of Famer, Like that's the
(10:31):
way it should be for Justin Haley also, and that's
the way we're.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Going to treat it along those same lines. When you
talk about everything that you've been working on this offseason,
what's been the most or the one thing you've spent
maybe the most time on. But as I asked that,
I'm thinking maybe it hasn't been one thing. It sounds
like you guys from top to bottom with that seventeen
are kind of starting over.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, for sure, it's been everything there's definitely not been
one thing. The road guys that killed themselves, you know,
over and said, you know that's another with our team
is our pit crew is a Hendrick team, so they're
not here at the shop to redo the pit box
all winter like we had at Stuart Haas Racing like
you know the last eleven years. We just push it
(11:12):
over another build and then tell the pit crew that
it needs to be handled and it needs to be right.
Well here it's been Cheddar and our road guys that
had worked their butts off making the pit crew right
for the pit crew along with all the equipment that
goes in the trailer, along with a brand new hauler
that has to have every cabinet, field and all these
(11:33):
race cars right. I mean, you have to sit there
and juggle all that stuff, and honestly, they've done a
really good job at it.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
On the topic of justin how have you two gone
about just trying to make your relationship, your chemistry and communication?
What has been that work to get you two on
the same page, maybe just get to know each other,
get comfortable with each other. How does a driver and
crew chief, how do you prefer to go about that
with a driver.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah. I mean I think for me, it's just treating
somebody like it's your best friend, right, you know, going
to lunch together, going and doing different things. Even when
he was going to go to Simpson and get his
hybrid fitted for him, he's like, can you go with me?
So it's just those little things, right. I Mean, we
haven't sit down and looked each other in the eyes
(12:21):
and told each other what our expectations are, or how
he wants me to call him into the pitstall. You
know how I've called somebody in the pitstall for what
twenty one years? You know, you just that's the way
I do it, right, So you know, I think all
that kind of stuff will come natural. You know, we
were able to spend our trip going up to Indy
(12:43):
for our sponsored summit and just being around each other
through all that was good. You know, he comes by
the shop a lot and does different things as far
as that's concerned. But you know, it's just been a
little bit at a time, just like anybody, just like
it was with Josh last year. Everybody has different personalities.
(13:04):
I think. You know, Josh and I were a lot
of like in our demeanors and being quiet at times
and stuff, and now Justin's kind of the same way.
So you know, I think, you know, we'll learn as
we go, we'll get better as we go. But you know,
our expectation is no different than anybody else. You want
(13:24):
to go to Daytona five hundred win the race, So
you know, I think, you know, having Eddie come over
here with me. I'm used to hearing Eddie on the radio.
I think that'd be a big key of you know,
having a great spotter for for both of us, for
the whole team. All that stuff's going to be really important.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I wanted to ask about expectations, but you said right
there that everybody goes to the racetrack to win, and
you and Justin haven't looked each other in the eye
and said what the expectations are. Is that, Rodney, just
the way you have always operated. I'm sure it's probably
different maybe with and other race teams that maybe some
folks do sit down and lay out here's here's our goals,
here's our milestones, this is what we want to do
(14:07):
for you. As I said, is that just how you operate?
Kind of we know what the expectations are. We shouldn't
have to talk about them.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
No, I just you know, we just haven't got to it.
He's been at the Chili Bowl running remote control cars
for a week straight. But we've both had a lot
going on, you know, and I've been just waiting until
you know, the week of you know, at some point
next week, you know, we'll sit down as a team
with Justin, with the engineers, with Cheddar, talk about what
(14:36):
we all expect. You know. That's one thing that when
I started the four team that I realized I needed
to do better. And every every year we made goals
and expectations. We would change the motto on the on
the back door of the trailer, all those things, you know,
and I think that's that's really important that people know,
(14:57):
like where we stand and what we want to do.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
It's like an everyday reminder, right, It's not a bad
thing to physically be able to see that motto or
to see that goal.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, That's probably the biggest thing I
learned from Ray was, you know, I had not been
there very very long in those six and he called
me to his office and he pulled out this little
book and an army sergeant had gave it to Ray
when he crewchie for Jeff Gordon back when they were
racing for championships and went in thirteen races a year.
(15:32):
And you open up the first page and this Army
sergeant had wrote all this stuff and into Ray and
then Ray gave it to me and I still have
it in my nightstand beside my bed. But you know,
every page is a quote, you know, of something you
know that's a good reminder of all kinds of things, right,
(15:52):
And I still have it, And a lot of stuff
that has been on our trailer doors and stuff like
that have come from that book that came from Ray.
So I was just telling Cheddary yesterday that I need
to get the book back out. We need to figure
out what we're putting on the door this year. And
and like you said, it's a good reminder every day,
you know. I think with Kevin it was pretty easy.
(16:13):
You know, the whole soccer chant, you know that started
in twenty fourteen. It lived on for a long time
with the four team and a lot of that was
evolved around our shot guy at the time when he's
moved on, but he kept it alive, you know. He
was the one that was was making sure we were
we were on that side of it. But you know,
(16:34):
it's it's been you know, a lot of change for
all of us. You know, I think the sports went
through a lot of change too, with the old car
versus new car. You know, I've had to learn how
to race all over again. And my strengths, like you
and I have talked about before, it's like my strengths
aren't my strengths anymore, right, So you know, I have
(16:54):
to figure out how to do things better. You know,
there's obviously things I can learn from Luke and Travis,
from Sparks, from McCall. I mean, you think about the
people we have here now, and honestly, the communication has
been probably easier than anything I've had so far in
any race team. And I can tell that everybody's here
(17:14):
for the right reasons and doing their job. Everybody's just
working extremely hard, and I think it's gonna be a
lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
It's really funny that you mentioned that about how we
have talked about how with the change of the car,
your strengths and the way you have approached things has
changed over the years. And I actually went back last
night and I was looking at that story that we did.
It was twenty twenty two. So time has flown already
since we talked about that. And as I said, it's
funny you bring it up because I wanted to follow
up on that. Here we are now going into let's
(17:44):
see two, the fourth year of next Gen. How do
you feel now, Rodney, in terms of having kind of
your arms wrapped around what this car does involve, how
you've had to adjust as you talked about the way
you would think about things, what you can do, what
you can't do. Where are you now four years later
when it comes to just kind of understanding and attacking
(18:06):
this race car from a crew chiefs perspective.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Well, I think the most important part is I'm back
to having fun, you know. I mean when the new
car come about. You know, I just had a lot
of negativity, honestly, And it's not that I spread that,
you know. I wasn't going to the shop and bad
mouth on it all day every day. But I didn't
have the excitement inside of me that I had for
(18:29):
all those years of being able to build a better,
nicer car than somebody else, you know, And I've learned
to accept all that. You know, it's still racing, you know,
to be able to do this for a living, to
be able to race and fly on private planes and
go to all these nice places every single weekend. We
(18:51):
have to be extremely thankful for that. You know. We
sometimes we forget that, right, So, you know, I do
appreciate where I'm at. I appreciate, you know, the opportunities
I get and what I have, and you know, and honestly,
just the team atmosphere. I don't know how I would
live without that. I don't know how I would. You know,
(19:14):
I'm not the type of person to sit at home,
you know. I want to be surrounded by passionate people
that work hard. So that's probably the thing that I
would ever struggle with the most. But you know, and
the other side of it is just you know, I'm competitive.
You know, I can promise you I don't like, you know,
not winning, and you know, and I think I have
(19:36):
a lot of people around me that are in that
same boat. You know. We all expect to win and
want to win, and you know, I think that's that's
what's important. You know. I do like the side of
it of you know, working with Josh last year, being
something new and exciting and figuring things out together. Uh,
(19:57):
and it's been the same way with Justin. You know,
like this stuff with the car and his seats and
his interior has honestly been about the most fun part
of this since I got here to Spire. You know,
like everybody knows. Everybody that knows me knows, like that's
the kind of things I like. I like the car side.
You know, if you tell me you want to make
(20:18):
the wire a nicer or the car nicer, whatever, then
that's that's what I'm good at. Mcdale said that, like
the first week we are here, he's like just put
right in charge of making the cars nicer and lighter
and better and the rest of us that worry about
the other stuff. And you know, I mean, you want
to do the things that excite you and that you
(20:40):
have fun with.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
On the topic of having fun, and you also mentioned
last year with Josh, I wanted to tie that together too,
because that stood out to me. Rodney during your announcement
of going to Spire, when you signed with Spire about
the middle summertime last year, you talked about how once
Kevin was gone and you got over all the emotions
and dealing with that, that a fire had kind of
(21:02):
been lit underneath you to work with a new driver,
and you were kind of reinvigorated in a sense. So
what's the feeling now, not only working with the new driver,
but as we talked about going into an entirely new
company and basically starting over, what's what's the feeling now?
Is it still a little bit of a fire underneath
you or is it just the excitement of having something
fresh again?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yeah, I told this to somebody yesterday, and you know,
a lot of people don't think about it this way.
You know, by the time we got done, you know
at SHR, you know, everybody's like Debbie down or every
day right because we're shutting down and all this stuff,
and every day, you know, I would I could show
(21:43):
you on my phone back then I had three alarms
set and like I would hit snooze on the first one,
and then I would hit snooze on the second one,
and then the snooze between the first one and the
second one would go off, and then I would hit
the third one, and then the s news on the
second one we'd go off, and then the snows on
the third one would go off off Like my alarm
might go off for twenty five minutes trying to get
(22:03):
me to get up and go to work. And my
alarm has not went off one time since I went
to work for Spire. I wake up fifteen minutes before
my alarm every single morning. I don't have to even
have it, Like, I mean, then that just is a
that's that's an exact example of where your mind is
at and if you're having fun or not and if
(22:25):
you want to be there right So that's the easiest
way I could tell somebody yesterday. It's like, you know,
I don't I don't even have to have words to
tell anybody where I'm at or how my mind is
right now or whatever. Like if you can get up
at four point thirty every morning without alarm and be
excited to walk out of the house at early, then
(22:47):
you're pretty excited, right I mean so, so, I mean,
that's that's where I'm at. And then it's you know,
Katrina asked me last night, I didn't get home till
like eight fifteen, and she goes, why are you so late?
It's like I wanted to be the last one there,
first one here, last one there, you know, like that,
I mean, that's where I'm at right now, And all
because I've done this for a long time. You know,
(23:09):
that's I'm not going to change. And you know, Cheddar's
done a good job of you know, kind of helping
the other people here kind of like here's how Rodney is.
He's not going to like this. He is going to
like this. And like, I think people are starting to
realize just you know, where my expectations are and how
I operate. And I think that's good for all of us.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Along those same lines, though, how much are you putting
on your shoulders this year, Rodney? And how much are
you putting on yourself when it comes to the performance
or what this team needs to do?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, and like you know, Lord, I get asked every
day like how much longer are you going to Cruchy?
And normally my answer is as long as I can win,
you know. And you know, obviously went into in a
row in twenty twenty two was important, but we didn't
win in twenty three, we didn't win in twenty four,
and you know that's that's not good for anybody, right,
(24:06):
And you know, I think it's safe to say and yeah,
it's way harder to win these days in the Cup Series.
It just is, you know, whether you're at Hendrick Motorsports
or whether you're at Gibbs or whatever, it is way
way hard to win races, and you know, I want
to be competitive. I still want to you know, you
(24:26):
want to always be a standout, right, I mean, you
want to have fast cars and nice equipment, and you
know that's that's you know where I'll That's kind of
where I'll always be, you know I want to be
I want to be that guy that always stands out,
and I think you know the guy. The guys that
stand out right now are Cliff Daniels obviously Paul Wolf
(24:48):
and you know that's where I want to be. That's
where I used to be and that's where I want
to be, So you know that's what we're going to
try to get back to.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
I'm really glad you brought that up because in mentioning
your or your fellow crew chiefs, I'm always fascinated when
it comes to athletes. Rodney and you were touching on
it there. You haven't won in a couple of years
you as a crew chief in the four team, So
I'm fascinated when it comes to athletes who are so
good for so long and they have that consistent success.
You get used to it, right, Your expectation is to
(25:19):
perform and to win on a consistent basis. When that
stops happening, what does that do to the mental mind space,
because again, you get so set in this is how
good we are, this is what we can do when
that goes away. As you said, for the last two years,
how has that been for you just mentally dealing with
(25:40):
that change?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah, I think I think just figuring it out, right,
I mean, just figuring out like, how do we get
back in victory lane. I mean even last year with Josh,
like we could have won some races if we just
did a few things different, you know, whether it was
putting two tires on at one point, or whether it
was staying out at one point, or whether it was this,
whether it was that. You know, I look back at
(26:03):
Iowa and like Iowa, we you know, qualified on the
front row. We had a ton of laughs. We had
a really really good car and the doorpad fell off
after a pit stop and he's looking down trying to
fix the doorpad and runs in the back of somebody
and tears the nose up and the bows of the
hood all up. And then we run about fifth or
seventh the rest of the race, and it's like, you know,
(26:25):
those are the things, like you have to be perfect
these days. Like I mean, we used to make mistakes
all the time, and the car was a half a
second faster and everybody else and we'd drive right back
to the front and we'd win the race. And it's
just not that way anymore. Like you have to make
sure every single thing goes absolutely perfect all day long.
(26:46):
You have to qualify well, you have to have a
good pit stall, you have to have perfect pit stops.
You can't have any mistakes to be able to put
yourself in position, and then you got to make the
right calls too, you know, like the days of putting
four tires and thinking that you're going to drive back
by people are kind of over. And you know, to
do that for eleven years straight with Kevin, it's hard
(27:09):
to flip your mind either way, you know, like we
would have never done that, and now it's like, all right,
well maybe we should put two tires on and pray
for the best, and you know, those are the things
that hopefully we can get back to and put ourselves
in a position to win.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
We've talked about how crazy things have been this offseason
as this team gets ready for twenty twenty five and
all the changes and basically starting over. Once we get
past that Rodney and the season starts and things settle
in at some point, right, they will hopefully settle in.
Take me inside what a week looks like for a
crew chief, because it's not just come home Sunday night,
(27:47):
go to work on Monday. I'm sure there's a lot
of things in between. People will be fascinated to know
happen Monday through Thursday or Friday when you go to
the racetrack. What does that week look like for a
crew chief?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, and I think it's different for everybody. Like if
you were to ask that question, like even coming here,
you know, it sounds like Luke and Sparks they they
would only come in from meeting on Monday and then
they would turn around and leave. I've been completely the
opposite in my whole career, Like Monday is my absolute
longest day, you know, I think there's a lot to
digest on Monday of how the race went, what you
(28:19):
could have done different, what on the car should have
been better, the things that you need to change for
the upcoming weekend, you know, getting the head start on
those all those things. Like most of the time, Monday
is my longest day. But you know, normally it's coming in,
having a meeting, you know, working with the shop guys,
(28:39):
working with you know, the guys that put the bodies
on or put the underbodies on. You know, it could
be anything. And and then you know, Tuesdays are a
lot more meetings for a crew chief, but it's really
just dealing with everybody all the time. Like it's you're
constantly walking around the shop up You're talking to every
(29:02):
department all the time of you know this or that,
and on most of it really is a lot of
meetings anymore, and a lot of communication. You know, you're
talking about the weeks ahead. You know, what is somebody
going to run for geometry at this certain track and
what are we going to do for a bodybuild at
this track? And just a lot of that. And Wednesdays
(29:24):
are normally about trying to finish the car up, you know,
like your final skealonet. You're trying to make sure the
floor is perfect, uh, the body is perfect in the Hawkeye,
you know, working with Cheddar and the road guys on
that kind of thing. And and for me, I have
always took Thursdays off, and for them here they have
(29:46):
always done it opposite, not done much on Monday, but
worked Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And that's really a thing that
started with COVID, you know, like the whole the whole
week's schedule changed with everybody during the whole od year,
and on the four team, I told everybody up front, like,
we're going to continue to load the car on Wednesday nights,
(30:07):
just like we always have. We're going to keep our
schedule the way we always have. And then in twenty twenty,
when all that was going on, we were winning all
the time, right, and everybody else is working all the
way through Friday and loading on Saturday mornings and stuff
like that. And we're still loading on Wednesdays, and everybody's
coming to the racetrack all rested up and energized and excited,
(30:30):
and everybody else have been working the whole week, got
no sleep and all that kind of stuff. So I
don't really know exactly how we're going to do it.
As the seventeen this year, I told Luke and Sparks,
I'm like, I'm really going to struggle with this because
Thursdays have always been my day, you know, and Luke's like, well,
(30:51):
I'll be honest, I kind of need to get back
to doing some of that too, Like I need to
spend time with my wife and kids, and that's really
important to me. The thing that I've learned the most
through all these years is, you know, yeah, racing sometimes
is number one, but also your family's got to be
number one too. And I think we've somewhat settled where
(31:12):
one of us is going to take a Thursday off
and then we're gonna shuffle it like every three weeks
or something. So yeah, we've got to figure that part
out and figure out how we're going to do it right.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Well, you mentioned the family, I actually wanted to ask
about the boys because now that they're getting older and
I think they're showing a little bit more interest maybe
in racing, right, Is there going to be something, Rodney
where they want to be involved in any way? Are
you going to put them to work maybe working on
some stuff, working on cars or trucks over there.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
It's pretty crazy because since they turned sixteen, they think
that they can just show up here all the time. So,
you know, Brody's still playing basketball right now, so he
has a lot of practices and games and stuff. But
you know, they'll leave school in the afternoons and just
come straight here and then they just want to kind
of look around and this and that. But they don't
(32:01):
really know what they want to do. You know, they
don't know if they want to be a mechanic or
you know, Brody loves the graphic design side of it,
with you know, designing the wraps and the decals and
all that kind of stuff. I could see him trying
to go that route. Maybe Gavin, I don't know what
to think really, Like he he's like all into all
(32:24):
the news and stuff. So I don't know if he's
going to end up working with y'all one day, uh
following following Bob around the garage twenty four to seven
or what. But he loves that kind of stuff, and
you know, I think I think they'll just figure it
out over time. You know, I think just having them
around here is important, you know, having a father son
(32:47):
relationships important, and everybody loves having them here too. You know,
they don't get in the way, they don't cause problems.
And but I think too, you know, having the trucks
here is a great avenue, right, I mean to be
able to get on one of those trucks, and really
the trucks here are a lot of veterans. I mean,
if you can work around people like Bono and Brian
(33:10):
Patty and all those guys. God, I mean, you can't
get much better people to learn from. So, you know,
I think that's going to be important, you know, for
them to grow inside these walls.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, that's pretty cool. That's very cool. We had talked
earlier about this, not even new anymore. We're going into
the first year with next Gen. I'm curious, since we're
talking here before the season starts, we're looking ahead to
the clash and even Daytona, Ronnie, How has car preparation
changed for Daytona from the old car to next Gen?
(33:42):
Because with the older car you all would massage on
those things and there were so many things you could do.
As we've talked about, that's that's where your bread and
butter of building that race car. How has preparation for Daytona,
a race that means so much. How has that changed
with this car where, of course it's more of a
(34:03):
spec car, so you can't necessarily again kind of do
all the things you're used to doing. So so how
has that changed. What is it like now getting ready
for Daytona.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah, it's pretty crazy, honestly. Like you said, we would
start building Daytona cars back in like October, we'd build
the frames in October, you know, through November and December,
we're putting the bodies on and going to the wind
Tunnel normally like the second week in December, and then
going into you know, wrapping them and clearing them like
(34:35):
I mean, most of our Daytona five hundred cars used
to be cleared like seven times and wet sanded, you know,
over and over and over and polished and all this
different stuff. And now like our Daytona cars are sitting
out there and like the seventy one just you know,
just got a body put on it. Ours is sitting
there a bare frame and doesn't have a body on
(34:56):
it yet. And we're only weeks away, so you know,
it's just different. You know, whether we started two months
ago putting the body on and whether we start tomorrow,
it's going to get put on the same way. You know,
there's not tons of little things that you can do
to them anymore, you know, Obviously, Travis had a lot
of success being fast at the super speedways this past year,
(35:19):
and he sat on every pole of every speedway race
there was, so you know, I think he's, you know,
got a good list for us to to use and
to be able to to, you know, hopefully show up
down there and have fast cars and just be competitive.
You know, I think from the SHR side, we had
some really good cars at the speedways. I felt like
(35:41):
the Fall of Daytona race with Josh, we had the
best car until we flip down the back straight away.
And you know, you look at what the six car
has done with Keselowski over the years and how well
they're car handled and took pushes and stuff like that.
So we have a lot of brains inside these and
(36:01):
you know, hopefully we can put all that together.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Something else about this season is NASCAR announcing kind of
a slew of either updates or changes to the rule book.
And one of the ones that to me stands out
a lot is the DVP policy because there were so
many people so vocal about that last year, and I
know you were one of them. You and Josh had
had something at the flat tires at Kansas Speedway that
really upset all of you. This new rule, Rodney, to me,
(36:27):
it feels like it puts it more now back in
the team's hands and certainly the crew chief's hands to
make the decision to look over the race car and decide, Okay,
we're done or not. I wanted to get your take,
as I said, as someone who was notably outspoken about
it last year, what do you think particularly about the
DVP policy. Does it feel like it's now, as I said,
kind of back in your hands.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yeah, for sure. And first of all, I gotta say,
like I appreciate how all this has been handled since Kansas.
You know, the good thing about me doing this so
long is I've got a lot of respect for all
the officials, but they have a ton of respect for
me too, and that that has all you know, that
goes both ways. And you know, I don't I don't
(37:12):
run my mouth. I don't. I don't. I'm a pretty
quiet person. I don't go in the trailer complaining every week.
So when that happened at Kansas, they knew just how
mad I was.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
They knew it that day, and instead of them taking
offense to that, they knew exactly where this was at.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
They knew that they messed up. They knew I would
not get mad if it wasn't a problem or or
if you know, or if they were in the wrong
or whatever. Right, So immediately that week, you know, they
called Josh and said they messed up. They called me,
said they messed up, and said that they would get
(37:56):
it fixed. And you know, that was two after that
happened at Kansas, like, look, this winter, we're gonna fix it.
And since then, I haven't worried about it. Like I
knew it was going to get fixed. I knew what
was going to happen. There's no complaining, there's no you know,
if ans and butts, and you know, they did a
(38:18):
good job of what they had for rules there at
the end of the year. I know Talladega was a
tough one for them too, you know, for all of
us been over there and Turn three piled up. But
overall they did the best they could do. I mean,
you can't have thirty tow trucks out there waiting for
the big one, right, So I appreciate both sides of it. Honestly,
(38:39):
there was a time and a place where we really
did need the DVP. I still have scars all over
my hands and arms. I have stitches from Talladega infield
I have. You know, some of that stuff that we
were doing back in the day was like crazy dangerous,
you know, and we didn't need to be putting guys
(38:59):
back on the race back what the cars cut half
in two and all those different things, and they did
a good job of controlling it for years and years
and years, and now we're back in a position where
we can kind of open that back up. You know,
if we need to go to the garage and put
an upper control arm on and come out ten laps down,
(39:20):
it's not going to hurt anything, you know, like we're
not going to be really in anybody's way or anything
like that. If you replace the part in the alignments right,
you're going to go out there and be about just
as fast as you were before. So I think that's key,
you know. I think they'll have to be strict on
the minimum speed. They'll have to be pretty exact on
(39:41):
that every every week, and you know, it's tough for them.
It's a guess, you know. I know when Fabian used
to be over the Cup Series, he would call me
every Saturday night and ask me what the minimum speed
needed to be, and we hit it pretty much dead
oh most weeks, but you know, sometimes you mess up
and they have to adjust it during the race. But
you know, I think, you know, there's going to be
(40:03):
a lot of different sides of that, and then it'd
be a little bit of a learning curve for all
of us to figure that out and what we can
change and how fast we can change it, if it's
worth it or not. So you know, you don't want
to ride around ten lunch down the whole rest of
the day, but sometimes sometimes you need to. You need
to get every point you can, So we'll see how
(40:26):
that works out.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
I felt the same way when I heard it myself,
and hearing it from a crew chief who I really
always respect your opinion that I'm glad that I had
thought that through, I was like, I feel like that's
what it comes down to, is we needed it at
one point because everybody didn't want more debris on the racetrack.
But I feel like you all now are in a
good enough place to again, as you said, every point matters,
and sometimes if it's just one position, it'd be nice
(40:47):
to see see cars and teams capable get back on
the racetrack. So I appreciate you walking me through that.
You had started that answer by talking about how long
you've been doing this, Rodney, and that's where I want
to wrap up with. My last question is I was
looking over your numbers and I'm scrolling and the page.
It takes a while because there's so much there to
scroll on Racing Reference, you got to go all the
way back to two thousand and five for your first
(41:10):
Cup Series starts there as a crew chief, and here
we are going into twenty twenty five. First off, is
that hard to believe? Two thousand and five to twenty
twenty five? And just how do you feel again about
how much time has flown and getting ready for another
season and again we talked so much about something new
this year.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Yeah, I think what what hits me the most is
when I was young in my career Cup racing. You know,
we used to stand on the on the pit road
for the national anthem and they would do different things
for different drivers, like when Russy was on his five
hundredth race. I can't remember where we were at. Everybody
in the stands had cards and you look up at
(41:51):
the stands and it said five hundred and that kind
of blew me away that, you know, God, this guy's
five hundred Cup wins and you know, this year during
the season, I'll hit seven hundred Cup wins as a
core chief and it's pretty insane really, But I think,
really it has just blown by so fast. It doesn't
(42:13):
feel like seven hundred at all. You know, I've had
so much fun doing this throughout my career. I've been
extremely fortunate to be able to just keep doing it right,
you know, to get the call from Kevin Harvick when
I only had three Cup wins to now having forty,
(42:34):
I mean, you know, he took a chance, right, And
then I took a chance on a lot of people
on the four team, and we all put it together
and we won a bunch of races and believed in
each other. And like I said earlier, really the team atmosphere,
you know, there's I don't know how I would live
(42:54):
without that, you know, like it's just so much fun
to be a part of. And even when I'm you know,
decide to not crew chief anymore, I'm not gonna be
able to walk away from this side of it. You know,
I want to be involved, you know, I want to
continue to to travel some and this and that, and
(43:16):
you know, I love racing. You know, every part of racing,
every kind of racing I love, So you know, it's
really all I've ever done. And like I said, you know,
we're we should be really privileged or field privilege to
be able to do this and to fly around on
private jets and all the fun stuff that we get
to do. And there's not a not a day that
(43:37):
I'm not thankful for that.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I certainly understand that, and I think that's an excellent
way to look at it. Rodney, as I said, you're
one of my favorite people to talk to in the garage.
You're always so insightful, and I'm glad we just got
to sit down and do a more in depth, longer
form conversation because I certainly enjoyed it. I can't believe
how much you talked about is going on over there Aspire.
I figured it was a lot because they're always making
(43:59):
moves over there, but to hear the insight of what's
going on with that seventeen, my gosh, you guys got
your hands full. But I can't wait to see everybody
when it gets on track this year. So thank you
so much for the time today, and I'll see it
the clash. It's coming quick already.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Yeah, it's hard to believe. We go through Tech next Thursday,
so you know, I was already looking. I think next
Tuesday it's supposed to rain. It's supposed to snow three
or four inches at Bowman Gray, So hopefully you have
to get it done on Tuesday and we'll have a
have a nice week in next weekend.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
My thanks once I get into Rodney for coming on
the podcast. I enjoyed it very much. A lot has
gone on. It's gonna be great to see that number
seventeen and get on the track. And who knows what's
ahead for Rodney and for Justin Haley, but a lot
of work has gone in and I'm sure they're eager
to finally put that car on the racetrack. We're headed
to the clash this weekend and then Daytona's right around
the corner, so as we get ready to go, I
(44:56):
hope you're subscribed in following the podcast because we have
a whole new slate of show coming your way. So
thanks again to Rodney for being our first guest to
kick off the season. I also want to thank Matt
Klug from Spiro Motorsports as well as Brionna Glenski for
helping coordinate and set up this interview and getting it
on the calendar. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave
our rating and review. As I said, also make sure
(45:16):
you hit the follow and subscribe button so you're gonna
get all of the episodes in your feeds when they drop.
You can also leave me feedback and interact with me
on social media let me know what you think. My
ex handle is at Kelly crandall and you can also
easily find me on Facebook, Instagram, linked In, YouTube and
many other places. So I hope you enjoy the podcast
and let me know what you think. So with that,
(45:37):
as I said, we're rolling into a new season. I
hope you're ready for a whole new slated episodes. We're
just getting started and I will see you again soon
with another new episode of the Racing Writers Podcast
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Factory
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Racing Writers Podcast. I'm your host,
Kelly crandall. Welcome to a brand new season of the podcast,
and we're starting it off with a tremendous conversation with
Rodney Childers. Rodney is the crew chief of the number
seven Chevrolet at Spire Motor Sports for Justin Haley, a
new role for Rodney this year after spending many, many
years at Stewart Haas Racing with Kevin Harvick and then
Josh Berry. Rodney, though, has been boots on the ground,
(00:29):
full steam ahead since Phoenix the finale in November, getting
everything ready to go and getting acclimated to Spire Motor Sports.
And we're gonna dig into all of that today. A
lot has gone on over there and I was blown away.
So that is the bulk of our conversation, as well
as how Rodney feels just going into a new year,
going into a year where he's gonna make his seven
hundred start as a crew chief, and so much more.
(00:51):
Wonderful conversation about forty five minutes with Rodney Childers, and
it is so insightful. Hope you enjoy it. Let's get
to it. Here's Rodney Childers on the Racing Writers Podcast.
Rodney Childers is here one of my favorite people in
the garage to talk to, and gosh, Rodney, there's a
(01:11):
lot to talk to you about because you've been settling
in over its spire. Now, when was your official first day?
Let's start with that. How long have you been there?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Now?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
As we record here, it's January twenty first, So how
many days did you put in?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Honestly, we got back from Phoenix and I came here
the tuesday after Phoenix and I've been here ever since,
so you know, there was no time off. You know,
right after the season ended, it was right to work.
But you know, overall we got a little bit of
time off, you know, through Christmas we're able to go
down to Disney and spend a few days and all
(01:42):
that kind of stuff. But overall, it's been a lot
of fun here Aspire so far. It's so fun to
see so much growth and so much productivity every single day,
and it's just been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
The spire piece I want to get to in a
few minutes here, But first for you, after spending so
many years Rodney at Stuart Haas, right, you built that
team over there you and Kevin for so many years.
You spent last year with Josh, but you had been
in one place for so long. What were the emotions
or what was it like that first day of school
so to speak, when you start and walk into a
(02:17):
new building and it's new people and a new way
of doing things. How is that for someone? Is that
like the first day of school? Is there a little
bit of nerves there?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah? I mean it was. It was definitely different. You know,
I think the schr part of it was hard on
everybody really, you know, like you said, being there eleven
years and went in so many races with Kevin and
doing all those things. Just to be able to accept,
you know, that place was shutting down was extremely tough.
You know. Obviously over eleven years and the hours that
(02:48):
you put in at a race team getting to know
three hundred people or three hundred plus people, you know,
they've become family, they've become friends. So you know, that's
another side of it, that you're not going to see
those people anymore every day, and you know, every piece
and part of it was tough. You know, a lot
of tears, you know there in the second half of
(03:10):
the year as people you know, realized that this was
going to end and all that kind of stuff, and
you know, it's just I don't know, it was just
really hard to accept more than anything. You know, I
don't think any of us pictured that two or three
years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
How was that dynamic now being with a different race
team because the Stuart hosspiece, as we talked about, when
you went there, you and Kevin really built that four
team right because it was such a new team and
you got to kind of handpick and look at the
guys you wanted. How is the dynamic now with the
seven team? Is it something to where you come in
(03:49):
and you have to get used to brand new guys
and a team that's already been put in place, or
what is the makeup of the seven team now? And
kind of again you coming into something different.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Well, when I when I signed on with Spire, it
was just me and I was kind of wondering what
it was going to be like, you know, who was
going to be the car chief, who was going to
be the engineer, who was going to be the road guys,
the shop guys that assemble the cars And honestly, over time, uh,
some of the guys from s HR ended up coming
over here. I was really fortunate to keep my car
(04:23):
chief Cheddar he'd come over here with me, which was
really important. A few of the shop guys, a few
of the designers, you know, a setup plate guy, you know,
a lot of different people you know, throughout the process,
and you know, I think that side of it has
been a really good mixture. You have, you know, a
few s HR guys you have, you know, Travis and
(04:46):
all the guys on the thirty four. A lot of
those guys came, so you have some front row guys
you have, you know, Matt McCall here, and some guys
from RFK. So there's a ton of ideas, right. So
we we all sit in these meetings every week and
we're like, all right, well we have to figure out
how to mix all this together. And everybody's done a
(05:08):
really good job with that so far. You know, I
was thinking this morning, right, and then that Travis is
getting his first manufacturer vehicle this week from Chevrolet, and
I'm getting my twenty first manufactured vehicle. So you know,
it's been a cool mixture, you know, for all of us.
And I think you need that, right, I mean, you
(05:29):
need different different levels of different things. You need different personalities,
you know, you need that in a race team, and
you want it to be exciting. You want people to
push each other, and I definitely feel like we have that.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
NASCAR dot Com has a great piece out right now,
and I think it's the first of multiparts where they're
highlighting Spier Motorsports and everything all of the teams over
there you all are working on. In that regard Rodney,
it seems like there's been a lot of talk of
how the expectations within that race shop are changing and
when you come in, your expectation where you've been the
last couple of years has been to win races. Maybe
(06:05):
for Spire it's been a little bit different as they've
continued to build. But do you see that as well
now with all the changes you just talked about, there's
different drivers, different crew chiefs, different guys in the shop
that are coming in. You talked about that nice mix.
Does it seem like the expectations even from the day
you started talking to Spire to now within that race
shop are starting to change for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, when you look around the room, you know when
you're having a morning meeting at seven o'clock. The space
is full of eight plus people right now. I mean you,
when you look around, you're like, oh my gosh, Like
we have the people to do this. And then the
other side of that is nobody came here not to win.
You know, nobody doesn't have that expectation. And yeah, we
(06:51):
have to take that next step as a company. But
you know, all of us came here to win races
and to make a difference, and you have seen that
every single day. Like the culture just changes a little
bit every day. The expectations change it a little bit
every day. Yeah, it's not going to be perfect overnight,
but you know, our equipment is I told Cheddary yesterday
(07:14):
I got up on the pit pox I was like,
this is the nicest pit box I've ever had in
my whole career, and the nicest generator car, the nicest
pit road car. Like, we have worked our butts off
to make all this stuff the way it should look
and the way it should be presented. You know, I
think when we pull in our brand new haulers and
pull our equipment out, everybody's gonna be Wow. These guys
(07:36):
have worked their butts off this winter. The next part
of that is building better race cars. You I feel
good on the seven side of it. I feel like
Justin's going to do a good job for us. And
it's been interesting to see all that because Justin's never
really had the right opportunities, you know, like he'd never
even been fitted into a car the right way. So,
(07:59):
you know, for us, it's been a huge undertaking. Like
we've had to have his seats redone at Hendrick, We've
had to have his belts moved. We've had to make
all new seat rails, new head rests, new head rest supports,
new seat mounts, new leg boards, new floorboard, new pedal faces,
new steering column mounts. We have redone everything to make
(08:21):
it absolutely perfect for him. And I think when he
gets in there at at the clash, he's going to
be like, holy crap, you know, like I have never
had anything like this before. And that's the that's the
first step, right, I mean, you got to you got
to be presentable. You got to have what the driver
perceives as the nicest car there that he appreciates to
(08:45):
be on every single weekend and he's comfortable after five
hundred miles or six hundred miles or all those things,
and you know that was that was step number one.
You know, like the first day we went to lunch,
he said after Martin, you know, he couldn't hardly walk
the next day, I might, well, that's the problem, you know,
(09:06):
like let's let's look at that part first. And that's
when we went to work. And it's been a huge undertaking.
Right now, that's what we're waiting on. We're waiting on.
Our class car is setting there, wrapped and all together,
but it doesn't have a seed, it doesn't have anything
in there because we're waiting on all this stuff to
get made. But that's really what makes you, makes you good,
(09:26):
is paying attention to those details and getting the most
out of them.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
That's really really interesting. And I can't wait to follow
up with Justin on that at the clash or after
Daytona once he's been in it and he experiences it,
because that goes to I would think, Rodney, the whole
thing as you were talking about, of driver comfort and
making sure they have what they need and they're not
worrying about anything in the cockpit. They can focus more
on their job.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Than Yeah, for sure, like when he gets in there,
everything is going to be different than he's ever had.
New seat belts, new seat insert, new everything, new helmets,
I mean, every piece that he has, Like he been
going from a Hans to a hybrid, Like we have
changed everything to make him more comfortable and to make
it feel good, to make it feel right. And that
(10:09):
was something I learned from Kevin. Like Kevin pushed us
every single day to make the interior of that car
absolutely perfect. And you know, all of us that came
from the four team. That's our mindset still is we
want to treat it just like Kevin Harvick's in the car.
You know that it's somebody that has won sixty Cup
races and is a Hall of Famer, Like that's the
(10:31):
way it should be for Justin Haley also, and that's
the way we're.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Going to treat it along those same lines. When you
talk about everything that you've been working on this offseason,
what's been the most or the one thing you've spent
maybe the most time on. But as I asked that,
I'm thinking maybe it hasn't been one thing. It sounds
like you guys from top to bottom with that seventeen
are kind of starting over.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, for sure, it's been everything there's definitely not been
one thing. The road guys that killed themselves, you know,
over and said, you know that's another with our team
is our pit crew is a Hendrick team, so they're
not here at the shop to redo the pit box
all winter like we had at Stuart Haas Racing like
you know the last eleven years. We just push it
(11:12):
over another build and then tell the pit crew that
it needs to be handled and it needs to be right.
Well here it's been Cheddar and our road guys that
had worked their butts off making the pit crew right
for the pit crew along with all the equipment that
goes in the trailer, along with a brand new hauler
that has to have every cabinet, field and all these
(11:33):
race cars right. I mean, you have to sit there
and juggle all that stuff, and honestly, they've done a
really good job at it.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
On the topic of justin how have you two gone
about just trying to make your relationship, your chemistry and communication?
What has been that work to get you two on
the same page, maybe just get to know each other,
get comfortable with each other. How does a driver and
crew chief, how do you prefer to go about that
with a driver.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah. I mean I think for me, it's just treating
somebody like it's your best friend, right, you know, going
to lunch together, going and doing different things. Even when
he was going to go to Simpson and get his
hybrid fitted for him, he's like, can you go with me?
So it's just those little things, right. I Mean, we
haven't sit down and looked each other in the eyes
(12:21):
and told each other what our expectations are, or how
he wants me to call him into the pitstall. You
know how I've called somebody in the pitstall for what
twenty one years? You know, you just that's the way
I do it, right, So you know, I think all
that kind of stuff will come natural. You know, we
were able to spend our trip going up to Indy
(12:43):
for our sponsored summit and just being around each other
through all that was good. You know, he comes by
the shop a lot and does different things as far
as that's concerned. But you know, it's just been a
little bit at a time, just like anybody, just like
it was with Josh last year. Everybody has different personalities.
(13:04):
I think. You know, Josh and I were a lot
of like in our demeanors and being quiet at times
and stuff, and now Justin's kind of the same way.
So you know, I think, you know, we'll learn as
we go, we'll get better as we go. But you know,
our expectation is no different than anybody else. You want
(13:24):
to go to Daytona five hundred win the race, So
you know, I think, you know, having Eddie come over
here with me. I'm used to hearing Eddie on the radio.
I think that'd be a big key of you know,
having a great spotter for for both of us, for
the whole team. All that stuff's going to be really important.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I wanted to ask about expectations, but you said right
there that everybody goes to the racetrack to win, and
you and Justin haven't looked each other in the eye
and said what the expectations are. Is that, Rodney, just
the way you have always operated. I'm sure it's probably
different maybe with and other race teams that maybe some
folks do sit down and lay out here's here's our goals,
here's our milestones, this is what we want to do
(14:07):
for you. As I said, is that just how you operate?
Kind of we know what the expectations are. We shouldn't
have to talk about them.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
No, I just you know, we just haven't got to it.
He's been at the Chili Bowl running remote control cars
for a week straight. But we've both had a lot
going on, you know, and I've been just waiting until
you know, the week of you know, at some point
next week, you know, we'll sit down as a team
with Justin, with the engineers, with Cheddar, talk about what
(14:36):
we all expect. You know. That's one thing that when
I started the four team that I realized I needed
to do better. And every every year we made goals
and expectations. We would change the motto on the on
the back door of the trailer, all those things, you know,
and I think that's that's really important that people know,
(14:57):
like where we stand and what we want to do.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
It's like an everyday reminder, right, It's not a bad
thing to physically be able to see that motto or
to see that goal.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, That's probably the biggest thing I
learned from Ray was, you know, I had not been
there very very long in those six and he called
me to his office and he pulled out this little
book and an army sergeant had gave it to Ray
when he crewchie for Jeff Gordon back when they were
racing for championships and went in thirteen races a year.
(15:32):
And you open up the first page and this Army
sergeant had wrote all this stuff and into Ray and
then Ray gave it to me and I still have
it in my nightstand beside my bed. But you know,
every page is a quote, you know, of something you
know that's a good reminder of all kinds of things, right,
(15:52):
And I still have it, And a lot of stuff
that has been on our trailer doors and stuff like
that have come from that book that came from Ray.
So I was just telling Cheddary yesterday that I need
to get the book back out. We need to figure
out what we're putting on the door this year. And
and like you said, it's a good reminder every day,
you know. I think with Kevin it was pretty easy.
(16:13):
You know, the whole soccer chant, you know that started
in twenty fourteen. It lived on for a long time
with the four team and a lot of that was
evolved around our shot guy at the time when he's
moved on, but he kept it alive, you know. He
was the one that was was making sure we were
we were on that side of it. But you know,
(16:34):
it's it's been you know, a lot of change for
all of us. You know, I think the sports went
through a lot of change too, with the old car
versus new car. You know, I've had to learn how
to race all over again. And my strengths, like you
and I have talked about before, it's like my strengths
aren't my strengths anymore, right, So you know, I have
(16:54):
to figure out how to do things better. You know,
there's obviously things I can learn from Luke and Travis,
from Sparks, from McCall. I mean, you think about the
people we have here now, and honestly, the communication has
been probably easier than anything I've had so far in
any race team. And I can tell that everybody's here
(17:14):
for the right reasons and doing their job. Everybody's just
working extremely hard, and I think it's gonna be a
lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
It's really funny that you mentioned that about how we
have talked about how with the change of the car,
your strengths and the way you have approached things has
changed over the years. And I actually went back last
night and I was looking at that story that we did.
It was twenty twenty two. So time has flown already
since we talked about that. And as I said, it's
funny you bring it up because I wanted to follow
up on that. Here we are now going into let's
(17:44):
see two, the fourth year of next Gen. How do
you feel now, Rodney, in terms of having kind of
your arms wrapped around what this car does involve, how
you've had to adjust as you talked about the way
you would think about things, what you can do, what
you can't do. Where are you now four years later
when it comes to just kind of understanding and attacking
(18:06):
this race car from a crew chiefs perspective.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Well, I think the most important part is I'm back
to having fun, you know. I mean when the new
car come about. You know, I just had a lot
of negativity, honestly, And it's not that I spread that,
you know. I wasn't going to the shop and bad
mouth on it all day every day. But I didn't
have the excitement inside of me that I had for
(18:29):
all those years of being able to build a better,
nicer car than somebody else, you know, And I've learned
to accept all that. You know, it's still racing, you know,
to be able to do this for a living, to
be able to race and fly on private planes and
go to all these nice places every single weekend. We
(18:51):
have to be extremely thankful for that. You know. We
sometimes we forget that, right, So, you know, I do
appreciate where I'm at. I appreciate, you know, the opportunities
I get and what I have, and you know, and honestly,
just the team atmosphere. I don't know how I would
live without that. I don't know how I would. You know,
(19:14):
I'm not the type of person to sit at home,
you know. I want to be surrounded by passionate people
that work hard. So that's probably the thing that I
would ever struggle with the most. But you know, and
the other side of it is just you know, I'm competitive.
You know, I can promise you I don't like, you know,
not winning, and you know, and I think I have
(19:36):
a lot of people around me that are in that
same boat. You know. We all expect to win and
want to win, and you know, I think that's that's
what's important. You know. I do like the side of
it of you know, working with Josh last year, being
something new and exciting and figuring things out together. Uh,
(19:57):
and it's been the same way with Justin. You know,
like this stuff with the car and his seats and
his interior has honestly been about the most fun part
of this since I got here to Spire. You know,
like everybody knows. Everybody that knows me knows, like that's
the kind of things I like. I like the car side.
You know, if you tell me you want to make
(20:18):
the wire a nicer or the car nicer, whatever, then
that's that's what I'm good at. Mcdale said that, like
the first week we are here, he's like just put
right in charge of making the cars nicer and lighter
and better and the rest of us that worry about
the other stuff. And you know, I mean, you want
to do the things that excite you and that you
(20:40):
have fun with.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
On the topic of having fun, and you also mentioned
last year with Josh, I wanted to tie that together too,
because that stood out to me. Rodney during your announcement
of going to Spire, when you signed with Spire about
the middle summertime last year, you talked about how once
Kevin was gone and you got over all the emotions
and dealing with that, that a fire had kind of
(21:02):
been lit underneath you to work with a new driver,
and you were kind of reinvigorated in a sense. So
what's the feeling now, not only working with the new driver,
but as we talked about going into an entirely new
company and basically starting over, what's what's the feeling now?
Is it still a little bit of a fire underneath
you or is it just the excitement of having something
fresh again?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yeah, I told this to somebody yesterday, and you know,
a lot of people don't think about it this way.
You know, by the time we got done, you know
at SHR, you know, everybody's like Debbie down or every
day right because we're shutting down and all this stuff,
and every day, you know, I would I could show
(21:43):
you on my phone back then I had three alarms
set and like I would hit snooze on the first one,
and then I would hit snooze on the second one,
and then the snooze between the first one and the
second one would go off, and then I would hit
the third one, and then the s news on the
second one we'd go off, and then the snows on
the third one would go off off Like my alarm
might go off for twenty five minutes trying to get
(22:03):
me to get up and go to work. And my
alarm has not went off one time since I went
to work for Spire. I wake up fifteen minutes before
my alarm every single morning. I don't have to even
have it, Like, I mean, then that just is a
that's that's an exact example of where your mind is
at and if you're having fun or not and if
(22:25):
you want to be there right So that's the easiest
way I could tell somebody yesterday. It's like, you know,
I don't I don't even have to have words to
tell anybody where I'm at or how my mind is
right now or whatever. Like if you can get up
at four point thirty every morning without alarm and be
excited to walk out of the house at early, then
(22:47):
you're pretty excited, right I mean so, so, I mean,
that's that's where I'm at. And then it's you know,
Katrina asked me last night, I didn't get home till
like eight fifteen, and she goes, why are you so late?
It's like I wanted to be the last one there,
first one here, last one there, you know, like that,
I mean, that's where I'm at right now, And all
because I've done this for a long time. You know,
(23:09):
that's I'm not going to change. And you know, Cheddar's
done a good job of you know, kind of helping
the other people here kind of like here's how Rodney is.
He's not going to like this. He is going to
like this. And like, I think people are starting to
realize just you know, where my expectations are and how
I operate. And I think that's good for all of us.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Along those same lines, though, how much are you putting
on your shoulders this year, Rodney? And how much are
you putting on yourself when it comes to the performance
or what this team needs to do?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, and like you know, Lord, I get asked every
day like how much longer are you going to Cruchy?
And normally my answer is as long as I can win,
you know. And you know, obviously went into in a
row in twenty twenty two was important, but we didn't
win in twenty three, we didn't win in twenty four,
and you know that's that's not good for anybody, right,
(24:06):
And you know, I think it's safe to say and yeah,
it's way harder to win these days in the Cup Series.
It just is, you know, whether you're at Hendrick Motorsports
or whether you're at Gibbs or whatever, it is way
way hard to win races, and you know, I want
to be competitive. I still want to you know, you
(24:26):
want to always be a standout, right, I mean, you
want to have fast cars and nice equipment, and you
know that's that's you know where I'll That's kind of
where I'll always be, you know I want to be
I want to be that guy that always stands out,
and I think you know the guy. The guys that
stand out right now are Cliff Daniels obviously Paul Wolf
(24:48):
and you know that's where I want to be. That's
where I used to be and that's where I want
to be, So you know that's what we're going to
try to get back to.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
I'm really glad you brought that up because in mentioning
your or your fellow crew chiefs, I'm always fascinated when
it comes to athletes. Rodney and you were touching on
it there. You haven't won in a couple of years
you as a crew chief in the four team, So
I'm fascinated when it comes to athletes who are so
good for so long and they have that consistent success.
You get used to it, right, Your expectation is to
(25:19):
perform and to win on a consistent basis. When that
stops happening, what does that do to the mental mind space,
because again, you get so set in this is how
good we are, this is what we can do when
that goes away. As you said, for the last two years,
how has that been for you just mentally dealing with
(25:40):
that change?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah, I think I think just figuring it out, right,
I mean, just figuring out like, how do we get
back in victory lane. I mean even last year with Josh,
like we could have won some races if we just
did a few things different, you know, whether it was
putting two tires on at one point, or whether it
was staying out at one point, or whether it was this,
whether it was that. You know, I look back at
(26:03):
Iowa and like Iowa, we you know, qualified on the
front row. We had a ton of laughs. We had
a really really good car and the doorpad fell off
after a pit stop and he's looking down trying to
fix the doorpad and runs in the back of somebody
and tears the nose up and the bows of the
hood all up. And then we run about fifth or
seventh the rest of the race, and it's like, you know,
(26:25):
those are the things, like you have to be perfect
these days. Like I mean, we used to make mistakes
all the time, and the car was a half a
second faster and everybody else and we'd drive right back
to the front and we'd win the race. And it's
just not that way anymore. Like you have to make
sure every single thing goes absolutely perfect all day long.
(26:46):
You have to qualify well, you have to have a
good pit stall, you have to have perfect pit stops.
You can't have any mistakes to be able to put
yourself in position, and then you got to make the
right calls too, you know, like the days of putting
four tires and thinking that you're going to drive back
by people are kind of over. And you know, to
do that for eleven years straight with Kevin, it's hard
(27:09):
to flip your mind either way, you know, like we
would have never done that, and now it's like, all right,
well maybe we should put two tires on and pray
for the best, and you know, those are the things
that hopefully we can get back to and put ourselves
in a position to win.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
We've talked about how crazy things have been this offseason
as this team gets ready for twenty twenty five and
all the changes and basically starting over. Once we get
past that Rodney and the season starts and things settle
in at some point, right, they will hopefully settle in.
Take me inside what a week looks like for a
crew chief, because it's not just come home Sunday night,
(27:47):
go to work on Monday. I'm sure there's a lot
of things in between. People will be fascinated to know
happen Monday through Thursday or Friday when you go to
the racetrack. What does that week look like for a
crew chief?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, and I think it's different for everybody. Like if
you were to ask that question, like even coming here,
you know, it sounds like Luke and Sparks they they
would only come in from meeting on Monday and then
they would turn around and leave. I've been completely the
opposite in my whole career, Like Monday is my absolute
longest day, you know, I think there's a lot to
digest on Monday of how the race went, what you
(28:19):
could have done different, what on the car should have
been better, the things that you need to change for
the upcoming weekend, you know, getting the head start on
those all those things. Like most of the time, Monday
is my longest day. But you know, normally it's coming in,
having a meeting, you know, working with the shop guys,
(28:39):
working with you know, the guys that put the bodies
on or put the underbodies on. You know, it could
be anything. And and then you know, Tuesdays are a
lot more meetings for a crew chief, but it's really
just dealing with everybody all the time. Like it's you're
constantly walking around the shop up You're talking to every
(29:02):
department all the time of you know this or that,
and on most of it really is a lot of
meetings anymore, and a lot of communication. You know, you're
talking about the weeks ahead. You know, what is somebody
going to run for geometry at this certain track and
what are we going to do for a bodybuild at
this track? And just a lot of that. And Wednesdays
(29:24):
are normally about trying to finish the car up, you know,
like your final skealonet. You're trying to make sure the
floor is perfect, uh, the body is perfect in the Hawkeye,
you know, working with Cheddar and the road guys on
that kind of thing. And and for me, I have
always took Thursdays off, and for them here they have
(29:46):
always done it opposite, not done much on Monday, but
worked Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And that's really a thing that
started with COVID, you know, like the whole the whole
week's schedule changed with everybody during the whole od year,
and on the four team, I told everybody up front, like,
we're going to continue to load the car on Wednesday nights,
(30:07):
just like we always have. We're going to keep our
schedule the way we always have. And then in twenty twenty,
when all that was going on, we were winning all
the time, right, and everybody else is working all the
way through Friday and loading on Saturday mornings and stuff
like that. And we're still loading on Wednesdays, and everybody's
coming to the racetrack all rested up and energized and excited,
(30:30):
and everybody else have been working the whole week, got
no sleep and all that kind of stuff. So I
don't really know exactly how we're going to do it.
As the seventeen this year, I told Luke and Sparks,
I'm like, I'm really going to struggle with this because
Thursdays have always been my day, you know, and Luke's like, well,
(30:51):
I'll be honest, I kind of need to get back
to doing some of that too, Like I need to
spend time with my wife and kids, and that's really
important to me. The thing that I've learned the most
through all these years is, you know, yeah, racing sometimes
is number one, but also your family's got to be
number one too. And I think we've somewhat settled where
(31:12):
one of us is going to take a Thursday off
and then we're gonna shuffle it like every three weeks
or something. So yeah, we've got to figure that part
out and figure out how we're going to do it right.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Well, you mentioned the family, I actually wanted to ask
about the boys because now that they're getting older and
I think they're showing a little bit more interest maybe
in racing, right, Is there going to be something, Rodney
where they want to be involved in any way? Are
you going to put them to work maybe working on
some stuff, working on cars or trucks over there.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
It's pretty crazy because since they turned sixteen, they think
that they can just show up here all the time. So,
you know, Brody's still playing basketball right now, so he
has a lot of practices and games and stuff. But
you know, they'll leave school in the afternoons and just
come straight here and then they just want to kind
of look around and this and that. But they don't
(32:01):
really know what they want to do. You know, they
don't know if they want to be a mechanic or
you know, Brody loves the graphic design side of it,
with you know, designing the wraps and the decals and
all that kind of stuff. I could see him trying
to go that route. Maybe Gavin, I don't know what
to think really, Like he he's like all into all
(32:24):
the news and stuff. So I don't know if he's
going to end up working with y'all one day, uh
following following Bob around the garage twenty four to seven
or what. But he loves that kind of stuff, and
you know, I think I think they'll just figure it
out over time. You know, I think just having them
around here is important, you know, having a father son
(32:47):
relationships important, and everybody loves having them here too. You know,
they don't get in the way, they don't cause problems.
And but I think too, you know, having the trucks
here is a great avenue, right, I mean to be
able to get on one of those trucks, and really
the trucks here are a lot of veterans. I mean,
if you can work around people like Bono and Brian
(33:10):
Patty and all those guys. God, I mean, you can't
get much better people to learn from. So, you know,
I think that's going to be important, you know, for
them to grow inside these walls.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, that's pretty cool. That's very cool. We had talked
earlier about this, not even new anymore. We're going into
the first year with next Gen. I'm curious, since we're
talking here before the season starts, we're looking ahead to
the clash and even Daytona, Ronnie, How has car preparation
changed for Daytona from the old car to next Gen?
(33:42):
Because with the older car you all would massage on
those things and there were so many things you could do.
As we've talked about, that's that's where your bread and
butter of building that race car. How has preparation for Daytona,
a race that means so much. How has that changed
with this car where, of course it's more of a
(34:03):
spec car, so you can't necessarily again kind of do
all the things you're used to doing. So so how
has that changed. What is it like now getting ready
for Daytona.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah, it's pretty crazy, honestly. Like you said, we would
start building Daytona cars back in like October, we'd build
the frames in October, you know, through November and December,
we're putting the bodies on and going to the wind
Tunnel normally like the second week in December, and then
going into you know, wrapping them and clearing them like
(34:35):
I mean, most of our Daytona five hundred cars used
to be cleared like seven times and wet sanded, you know,
over and over and over and polished and all this
different stuff. And now like our Daytona cars are sitting
out there and like the seventy one just you know,
just got a body put on it. Ours is sitting
there a bare frame and doesn't have a body on
(34:56):
it yet. And we're only weeks away, so you know,
it's just different. You know, whether we started two months
ago putting the body on and whether we start tomorrow,
it's going to get put on the same way. You know,
there's not tons of little things that you can do
to them anymore, you know, Obviously, Travis had a lot
of success being fast at the super speedways this past year,
(35:19):
and he sat on every pole of every speedway race
there was, so you know, I think he's, you know,
got a good list for us to to use and
to be able to to, you know, hopefully show up
down there and have fast cars and just be competitive.
You know, I think from the SHR side, we had
some really good cars at the speedways. I felt like
(35:41):
the Fall of Daytona race with Josh, we had the
best car until we flip down the back straight away.
And you know, you look at what the six car
has done with Keselowski over the years and how well
they're car handled and took pushes and stuff like that.
So we have a lot of brains inside these and
(36:01):
you know, hopefully we can put all that together.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Something else about this season is NASCAR announcing kind of
a slew of either updates or changes to the rule book.
And one of the ones that to me stands out
a lot is the DVP policy because there were so
many people so vocal about that last year, and I
know you were one of them. You and Josh had
had something at the flat tires at Kansas Speedway that
really upset all of you. This new rule, Rodney, to me,
(36:27):
it feels like it puts it more now back in
the team's hands and certainly the crew chief's hands to
make the decision to look over the race car and decide, Okay,
we're done or not. I wanted to get your take,
as I said, as someone who was notably outspoken about
it last year, what do you think particularly about the
DVP policy. Does it feel like it's now, as I said,
kind of back in your hands.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yeah, for sure. And first of all, I gotta say,
like I appreciate how all this has been handled since Kansas.
You know, the good thing about me doing this so
long is I've got a lot of respect for all
the officials, but they have a ton of respect for
me too, and that that has all you know, that
goes both ways. And you know, I don't I don't
(37:12):
run my mouth. I don't. I don't. I'm a pretty
quiet person. I don't go in the trailer complaining every week.
So when that happened at Kansas, they knew just how
mad I was.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
They knew it that day, and instead of them taking
offense to that, they knew exactly where this was at.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
They knew that they messed up. They knew I would
not get mad if it wasn't a problem or or
if you know, or if they were in the wrong
or whatever. Right, So immediately that week, you know, they
called Josh and said they messed up. They called me,
said they messed up, and said that they would get
(37:56):
it fixed. And you know, that was two after that
happened at Kansas, like, look, this winter, we're gonna fix it.
And since then, I haven't worried about it. Like I
knew it was going to get fixed. I knew what
was going to happen. There's no complaining, there's no you know,
if ans and butts, and you know, they did a
(38:18):
good job of what they had for rules there at
the end of the year. I know Talladega was a
tough one for them too, you know, for all of
us been over there and Turn three piled up. But
overall they did the best they could do. I mean,
you can't have thirty tow trucks out there waiting for
the big one, right, So I appreciate both sides of it. Honestly,
(38:39):
there was a time and a place where we really
did need the DVP. I still have scars all over
my hands and arms. I have stitches from Talladega infield
I have. You know, some of that stuff that we
were doing back in the day was like crazy dangerous,
you know, and we didn't need to be putting guys
(38:59):
back on the race back what the cars cut half
in two and all those different things, and they did
a good job of controlling it for years and years
and years, and now we're back in a position where
we can kind of open that back up. You know,
if we need to go to the garage and put
an upper control arm on and come out ten laps down,
(39:20):
it's not going to hurt anything, you know, like we're
not going to be really in anybody's way or anything
like that. If you replace the part in the alignments right,
you're going to go out there and be about just
as fast as you were before. So I think that's key,
you know. I think they'll have to be strict on
the minimum speed. They'll have to be pretty exact on
(39:41):
that every every week, and you know, it's tough for them.
It's a guess, you know. I know when Fabian used
to be over the Cup Series, he would call me
every Saturday night and ask me what the minimum speed
needed to be, and we hit it pretty much dead
oh most weeks, but you know, sometimes you mess up
and they have to adjust it during the race. But
you know, I think, you know, there's going to be
(40:03):
a lot of different sides of that, and then it'd
be a little bit of a learning curve for all
of us to figure that out and what we can
change and how fast we can change it, if it's
worth it or not. So you know, you don't want
to ride around ten lunch down the whole rest of
the day, but sometimes sometimes you need to. You need
to get every point you can, So we'll see how
(40:26):
that works out.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
I felt the same way when I heard it myself,
and hearing it from a crew chief who I really
always respect your opinion that I'm glad that I had
thought that through, I was like, I feel like that's
what it comes down to, is we needed it at
one point because everybody didn't want more debris on the racetrack.
But I feel like you all now are in a
good enough place to again, as you said, every point matters,
and sometimes if it's just one position, it'd be nice
(40:47):
to see see cars and teams capable get back on
the racetrack. So I appreciate you walking me through that.
You had started that answer by talking about how long
you've been doing this, Rodney, and that's where I want
to wrap up with. My last question is I was
looking over your numbers and I'm scrolling and the page.
It takes a while because there's so much there to
scroll on Racing Reference, you got to go all the
way back to two thousand and five for your first
(41:10):
Cup Series starts there as a crew chief, and here
we are going into twenty twenty five. First off, is
that hard to believe? Two thousand and five to twenty
twenty five? And just how do you feel again about
how much time has flown and getting ready for another
season and again we talked so much about something new
this year.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Yeah, I think what what hits me the most is
when I was young in my career Cup racing. You know,
we used to stand on the on the pit road
for the national anthem and they would do different things
for different drivers, like when Russy was on his five
hundredth race. I can't remember where we were at. Everybody
in the stands had cards and you look up at
(41:51):
the stands and it said five hundred and that kind
of blew me away that, you know, God, this guy's
five hundred Cup wins and you know, this year during
the season, I'll hit seven hundred Cup wins as a
core chief and it's pretty insane really, But I think,
really it has just blown by so fast. It doesn't
(42:13):
feel like seven hundred at all. You know, I've had
so much fun doing this throughout my career. I've been
extremely fortunate to be able to just keep doing it right,
you know, to get the call from Kevin Harvick when
I only had three Cup wins to now having forty,
(42:34):
I mean, you know, he took a chance, right, And
then I took a chance on a lot of people
on the four team, and we all put it together
and we won a bunch of races and believed in
each other. And like I said earlier, really the team atmosphere,
you know, there's I don't know how I would live
(42:54):
without that, you know, like it's just so much fun
to be a part of. And even when I'm you know,
decide to not crew chief anymore, I'm not gonna be
able to walk away from this side of it. You know,
I want to be involved, you know, I want to
continue to to travel some and this and that, and
(43:16):
you know, I love racing. You know, every part of racing,
every kind of racing I love, So you know, it's
really all I've ever done. And like I said, you know,
we're we should be really privileged or field privilege to
be able to do this and to fly around on
private jets and all the fun stuff that we get
to do. And there's not a not a day that
(43:37):
I'm not thankful for that.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I certainly understand that, and I think that's an excellent
way to look at it. Rodney, as I said, you're
one of my favorite people to talk to in the garage.
You're always so insightful, and I'm glad we just got
to sit down and do a more in depth, longer
form conversation because I certainly enjoyed it. I can't believe
how much you talked about is going on over there Aspire.
I figured it was a lot because they're always making
(43:59):
moves over there, but to hear the insight of what's
going on with that seventeen, my gosh, you guys got
your hands full. But I can't wait to see everybody
when it gets on track this year. So thank you
so much for the time today, and I'll see it
the clash. It's coming quick already.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Yeah, it's hard to believe. We go through Tech next Thursday,
so you know, I was already looking. I think next
Tuesday it's supposed to rain. It's supposed to snow three
or four inches at Bowman Gray, So hopefully you have
to get it done on Tuesday and we'll have a
have a nice week in next weekend.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
My thanks once I get into Rodney for coming on
the podcast. I enjoyed it very much. A lot has
gone on. It's gonna be great to see that number
seventeen and get on the track. And who knows what's
ahead for Rodney and for Justin Haley, but a lot
of work has gone in and I'm sure they're eager
to finally put that car on the racetrack. We're headed
to the clash this weekend and then Daytona's right around
the corner, so as we get ready to go, I
(44:56):
hope you're subscribed in following the podcast because we have
a whole new slate of show coming your way. So
thanks again to Rodney for being our first guest to
kick off the season. I also want to thank Matt
Klug from Spiro Motorsports as well as Brionna Glenski for
helping coordinate and set up this interview and getting it
on the calendar. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave
our rating and review. As I said, also make sure
(45:16):
you hit the follow and subscribe button so you're gonna
get all of the episodes in your feeds when they drop.
You can also leave me feedback and interact with me
on social media let me know what you think. My
ex handle is at Kelly crandall and you can also
easily find me on Facebook, Instagram, linked In, YouTube and
many other places. So I hope you enjoy the podcast
and let me know what you think. So with that,
(45:37):
as I said, we're rolling into a new season. I
hope you're ready for a whole new slated episodes. We're
just getting started and I will see you again soon
with another new episode of the Racing Writers Podcast
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Factory
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