Kevin Harvick's crew chief set to make record 600th NASCAR Cup Series appearance

Kevin Harvick's crew chief at the #4 team at Stewart-Haas Racing, Rodney Childers, has achieved immense success in the NASCAR Cup Series. Harvick and Childers are the longest-tenured driver/crew chief pairing currently active in the Cup Series garage. Now, Sunday’s Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway will mark Childers’ 600th race as Cup Series crew chief.

Childers began his career as crew chief in 2005 when he guided Scott Riggs to a P22 finish at Michigan International Speedway. He also worked with Patrick Carpentier, Elliott Sadler, and Mark Martin early on. He won his first race as crew chief with David Reutimann at Chicagoland Speedway in 2009. The following year, he won another race with Reutimann and took Brian Vickers to Victory Lane in 2013.

The 46-year-old is the most experienced active crew chief in the garage with 40 Cup wins and a Cup Series championship. In an 18-year-long career, he has worked with eight different drivers and won with three of them. Most of his success has come with Kevin Harvick, whom he was paired with in 2014. Since then, the duo has claimed 37 wins and the 2014 Cup championship. In nine seasons, they have never failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Sunday’s YellaWood 500 will mark Kevin Harvick and his crew chief’s 314th appearance together in the Cup Series, making them eighth on the list of longest-tenured driver/crew chief pairings in NASCAR’s history.

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Kevin Harvick’s crew chief spoke about his 600th NASCAR Cup Series appearance

Rodney Childers, the crew chief of Kevin Harvick's, spoke about his milestone ahead of Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. He stated that it’s kind of crazy to look back and you have worked as a crew chief for 600 races in NASCAR. He admitted that his career changed when Harvick picked him as the leader of the #4 Stewart-Haas Racing team.

Childers said:

“When you first start in this sport and you’re trying to work your way up, you just never know where you’re going to end up and how it’s going to go and what opportunities you might get. To look back on it and say that you’ve crew chiefed 600 races in the Cup Series is kind of crazy.”

He continued:

“Everybody goes through ups and downs, and you wonder how it’s all going to go. I think everybody knows that my career definitely changed when Kevin wanted me to do this, and to be able to do it for a long time and win a lot of races and all that has been pretty special.”

Catch Kevin Harvick and his crew chief at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, October 2, 2022.