The departure of Rodney Childers from Spire Motorsports after just nine races in the 2025 Cup Series season was all over the news this past week. The team cited issues within the team dynamics as the reasons for the mutual split and Childers concurred. He delved into deeper thoughts about the matter in an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR radio recently using a story from his days at Team Penske.
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Childers was asked about the different team cultures in NASCAR and if some suited him better than the others. He responded by stating how Roger Penske had once come up to him at New Hampshire in 2004 and asked him if he’d forgotten to shave. He’d answered honestly about accidentally leaving his razor at home, and that he didn’t mean to do it.
He continued, “I went on to work for Ray Evernham. I have been through a lot of situations like that. You did not speak in a meeting till you got your turn. People did not talk on top of each other. It was very structured.”
Speaking about his old team, he said, “Stewart-Haas Racing was a good mixture of that. Luckily, I had a little bit of both.” It was after this that he got to talking about the mentality with which he approached Spire Motorsports.
Full interview with @RodneyChilders4 about his departure from @SpireMotorsport. #NASCAR / @SiriusXMNASCAR pic.twitter.com/pDVGPUd3SF
— Allen Bedgood (@RacingBedgood) April 29, 2025
He pointed out how it was still a young company that was figuring out what its character was. The crew chief lauded their war room and other setups within the organization. However, he did express regret on one front, saying, “That mixture of going somewhere new is extremely tough. I tried to just go in there and stay quiet. Keep my mouth shut and try to fit in.”
“Try not to be the guy who was a bully. Running my mouth and acting like I knew how to do it better than others, and all those things. Maybe that was the wrong thing to do. Overall, I was doing what I thought was right,” he went on to add.
These revelations add further clarity to the issues that Childers faced with the team. He already stated in earlier interviews that neither the team nor he were happy with things.
The off-season had gone by well, everyone was pleased with the cars, and hopes were running high. But it all dwindled down when the green flag flew at Daytona. They were not moving forward in the direction that they’d hoped and things began worsening with each weekend.
Around two weeks before the decision was announced, Childers had noticed how things were going quiet around him. And that’s never a good sign. He admitted that he did not feel bad about it since he was sure about the combination not working. “It just fell apart,” he declared.
