Rodney Childers eager to work with JR Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

For nearly two decades, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Rodney Childers pondered what it would be like working together.

In 2026, after a year of Earnhardt courting Childers to JRM, the high school classmates get their chance.

“I feel like there’s nothing better than working for one of your best friends, someone that is going to have your back and put you in an environment to succeed,” Childers said. “He’s not going to let me fail. It’s been a ton of fun at the shop. That shop is the exact environment that I was looking for. Working with these guys and these old-style cars is what I always loved. It keeps me awake at night thinking of new things and how to make things better.”

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Childers signed on to crew chief JR Motorsports’ No. 1 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series entry, split between Carson Kvapil (24 races) and Connor Zilisch, a 10-time winner in 2025 who is now the full-time pilot of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series.

After last year went awry for Childers at Spire Motorsports, this gig was the next best opportunity.

“These are cars he really enjoys working on,” Earnhardt told NASCAR.com through text message. “The O’Reilly Series garage has a vintage Cup feel to it that I think will appeal to him. I hope he can appreciate the opportunity to teach drivers, engineers and mechanics.

“We get these kids who have big dreams, and over time, you become their biggest fan. In turn, you put a lot of pressure on yourself to help them get the call or next big break. That’s now what I hope Rodney sees and embraces.”

Childers joined JRM in mid-October and immediately grew a liking for the organization. He departed Spire after spending just nine races with Justin Haley in 2025.

“The more I thought about that, everything happens for a reason,” Childers said. “The Lord has put me in this place for a reason. All this [expletive] is happening for a reason. It was time to do something different.”

Joining JR Motorsports was an option that Childers contemplated with his family after spending the previous 22 seasons at the Cup Series level. It will be different, as in the past, his wife and children were able to fly to every race weekend.

“The money and glory doesn’t mean anything when you’re running 22nd every weekend on the Cup side and going home miserable every week,” Childers said. “On this side, hopefully we can contend for wins every week, go home every single day with a smile on our faces. Some things happen for a reason, and we feel like this is one of them.”

Immediately, Childers recognized the dedication that Earnhardt and his sister, Kelley Earnhardt Miller, had to their company. They lead by example from the top down, with their energy spreading throughout the walls.

“I think what has been pretty impressive to me is how involved he and Kelley are,” Childers said. “They work their butts off. This isn’t something that just happens on its own. It’s impressive to see how hungry they are. With the legacy they have, do they really have to be there every day and be as involved as they are? They want to do it and strive to do it every day.”

That grind is something Childers knows all too well. Every morning, he’s among the first employees to race to the shop, always clocking in early. That hustle has spread throughout the JRM headquarters, with more of his coworkers arriving early as well.

Childers, a straight-to-the-point individual, knows JRM is filled with “a bunch of racers.”

“Every morning, I wake up before my alarm goes off just thinking of these things and then I get there and am like, ‘I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do this,”” Childers said. “These cars, I have so much memory bank in my head of what we did all those years.

“It was only a week or two of being there, and I was beating everyone to the shop except for [Mike Bumgarner, JRM’s director of competition], which he’s hard to outwork. I started noticing more people showing up earlier, and it was one person, then it was two people, then five and then 10. That’s good to see. They don’t have to be there at 6 a.m.; they don’t have to be there until 6:59, but they want to be there. It’s good to see that kind of motivation and people that want to be there.”

Kevin Harvick and Rodney Childers speak in the garage.

Admittedly, Childers knows there could be kinks to work out between himself and the drivers. His blunt personality, compared to both Zilisch and Kvapil’s laid-back personas, could take time to adjust. The relationship started off with a seventh-place finish for Kvapil at Daytona International Speedway. Kvapil will pilot the No. 1 machine this Saturday at Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule | O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings

“We will see how it goes once we get a few races in,” Kvapil said. “Who knows, it might not work out, but I don’t see that. I think we’re cut from the same cloth. We’re both late model guys. There is a lot of stuff similar with me and Rodney. I’m super excited to get it going and hopefully win some races.”

Childers, known as a mastermind atop the pit box, believes his creativity will be on display more with the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series chassis. He can make more of a difference compared to being at the Cup level, where all teams have the same parts and pieces to assemble on the Next Gen car. It’s something he excelled at for a decade, guiding Kevin Harvick to 37 race wins with Stewart-Haas Racing.

“I think it will be a big advantage, honestly,” Childers said. “We were into every detail. That 4 team was a bunch of special people. I realize even more now how detailed we were. Every single thing mattered. There wasn’t one nut, one bolt, one ounce of oil that didn’t matter. We raced at a different level.

“On this side of it in the O’Reilly Series, it’s hard to race at that level. You don’t have the amount of people to race at that level, there’s not enough time in the day to race at that level. But you can damn sure try. It might take a few more hours than what you’re used to, but we’re going to try to race at the highest level we can.”

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