Did You Notice? … That 40-time NASCAR Cup Series winning crew chief Rodney Childers signed a multi-year contract to sit atop the pit box for Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 team?
Childers has spent the last 11 years as crew chief for Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 4 car, up until its upcoming closure at season’s end. When Josh Berry signed with Wood Brothers Racing and it became clear that the Wood Brothers and Team Penske would be hiring in-house, Childers hit the market and Spire hit the jackpot in acquiring the services of one of the biggest talents on the box.
He will work with Corey LaJoie for the 2025 season, but what is interesting is that the No. 7 Chevrolet, and not LaJoie, was mentioned in Spire’s Twitter/X announcement of Childers’ hiring.
Furthermore, Spire’s press release makes no mention of LaJoie in the title, and the very first sentence of the article is as follows:
“Rodney Childers, a 40-time NASCAR Cup Series race-winning crew chief and one of the sport’s most respected tacticians, will lead Spire Motorsports No. 7 team and driver Corey LaJoie in 2025.”
It’s telling that Spire did not use the words 2025 and beyond. He will be with the team for multiple years, so why is there hesitation to say so in the very first sentence?
If anything, saying that Childers will only lead LaJoie for 2025 and the absence of him in the title implies that their contracts do not line up and that an extension for LaJoie is not a guarantee at this point.
The current length of LaJoie’s contract with Spire is unknown, but what is known is that he signed a “multi-year extension” in the summer of 2023 for 2024 and beyond. A multi-year deal could be any length of time, but if LaJoie signed only a two-year deal, it would expire at the end of 2025 — lining right up with the language Spire used in its press release announcing the hire of Childers.
To put all of this into context, Spire has come out swinging and is making all the right moves to set itself up for long-term success. Between purchasing the equipment and assets of Kyle Busch Motorsports in the offseason and forming a multi-year partnership with Group 1001 and its subsidiary Gainbridge — both of which have ties to Andretti Global’s NTT IndyCar Series operation — last year, it’s clear that Spire has it sights set on grander visions.
Hiring Childers is the next step in the process, and Spire’s Cup program is already enjoying some of its greatest success, with four top 10s in 20 races and its first-ever top-15 finish on an unrestricted oval, which the team has now accomplished six times.
But while Spire is enjoying that success, LaJoie has noticeably taken a step back. He had a career year in 2023 with a 25th-place points finish, three top 10s and an average finish of 20.8, but it’s a different story for 2024, as he currently sits in a dreadful 31st in the point standings with an average finish nearly three spots worse (23.4) than last season.
Meanwhile, Carson Hocevar has come in as a 21-year-old Cup rookie and has shined in his first season, with two top 10s and an average finish of 19.9 in the first 20 races. He’s currently 25th in points and 55 points ahead of LaJoie in the standings, and he would be higher if not for a 25-point penalty he incurred at Nashville Superspeedway for on-track actions.
Put all of this together and there’s certainly some pressure on LaJoie to perform. But he will now have Childers atop for 2025, and he has been nothing short of a wizard in bringing the most out of his drivers. Childers help turned Michael Waltrip Racing from a fledging organization to a contender, scoring two Cup wins with David Reutimann and a third with Brian Vickers while coming oh-so-close with Mark Martin in the latter’s early 50s. That’s not even mentioning his SHR tenure, when Harvick cemented his legacy as a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer as the pair became one of the most formidable driver-crew chief combos of the 21st century.
LaJoie will now have all that knowledge at his disposal in 2025. It’s an exciting time, but also a nail-biting one for him, as he will have all the tools to succeed but all the pressure to put up the results. And if the results simply aren’t there next season, Childers might be paired with another driver for 2026.
Did You Notice? … Quick hits before taking off…
- Alex Bowman finished dead last in the debut Chicago Street Race last season, only to rebound with a win in its second running. Bowman becomes the second driver in Cup history to win at a track in his second start after finishing last in his first, joining Chase Elliott at Nashville Superspeedway in 2021 and 2022. Meanwhile, Shane van Gisbergen did the opposite, with a win in the first Chicago race and a last-place finish in the second.
- Christopher Bell has been a man on a mission ever since the Coca-Cola 600, with two wins and 471 laps led in his last seven starts. He’s led the most laps in four of the last seven races, and he’s gone from 166 points behind the lead to just 85 with six races to go in the process. At the same time, Chicago marked his seventh finish of 30th or worse this season, and he now sports an average finish of 16.4 — the worst of his Joe Gibbs Racing tenure.
About the author
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly columns include “Stat Sheet” and “4 Burning Questions.” He also writes commentary, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.
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I’m glad Rodney Childers has a new gig. I’m a bit surprised that Spire didn’t put him with Carson Hocevar, who has a promising career ahead of him. That combination could win races and make the ‘Playoffs’ in a season, or two.
Corey LaJoie is a good, journeyman driver, but now that he’s a podcast star and he’s heading into his mid-30’s, I think his window of opportunity to succeed in Cup is starting to close up. However, he helped Spire prove they could be more competitive, so I figure he’ll keep his ride in the #7 in the foreseeable future.
A lot of assumptions in this article.