As crew chief Rodney Childers is about to tell his side of the story on the Door Bumper Clear podcast, NASCAR fans are in for a treat. This comes right after his unexpected split with Spire Motorsports, which caught many by surprise. Freddie Kraft, who spots for Bubba Wallace and co-hosts the show, made the announcement on social media and is asking fans to call in with questions.
The timing couldn’t be more interesting—Childers just parted ways with Spire, where he had been leading Justin Haley’s No. 7 team since the start of 2025. NASCAR insiders and fans have been buzzing about what really happened, and now they’ll get to hear directly from Childers himself.
Rodney Childers Opens Up About Team Split
Looking forward to having @RodneyChilders4 join us on DBC tomorrow.
Give us a call at (704) 802-9572. Leave a message for Rodney, or tell us how you felt about today’s race. You can also send in some questions for us using #AskDBC.
— Freddie Kraft (@FreddieKraft) May 4, 2025
“They had treated me really well,” Childers said recently. “Our announcement last year (of his hiring) was big, and there was a lot of excitement around it. We had a great offseason. I felt like we had so much fun in the offseason.”
But things didn’t work out as planned. Childers didn’t hold back when explaining what went wrong: “It’s not one person, it’s not two people, it’s 200 people, and just figuring that out as we went. I think it finally came to a point where they could kind of tell I wasn’t happy, and I could tell that maybe they weren’t happy.”
He added, “It just kind of started falling apart a little bit, and I could sense it a little bit maybe a couple of weeks before that. It started getting quiet around there, and anytime it gets quiet, you start wondering.”
The numbers tell part of the story—just one top-10 finish in nine races, and the team is 23rd in the Cup Series standings. But according to Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson, there wasn’t any bad blood between them.
Despite this setback, Childers isn’t done with NASCAR by a long shot. “I want to be a crew chief in the Cup Series like I’ve been,” he said. “I want to get past that 700 races milestone. I want to get to that 50-win mark. I want to be with a good team, a good driver that can win races.”
Currently just 15 starts shy of 700 career Cup races, Childers has turned down competition director roles to focus on what he loves most: being on the pit box, calling races, and guiding teams to victory. As he takes time to reflect and consider his next move, NASCAR fans eagerly await his podcast appearance and announcement of future plans.