“That was pretty insane”: Rodney Childers looks back on iconic SHR moment as Tony Stewart’s NASCAR team comes closer to closure

Rodney Childers, the legendary NASCAR crew chief, recently recalled an iconic moment from his Stewart Haas Racing tenure. Childers joined the team co-owned by Tony Stewart and Gene Haas in 2014, and would remain with the #4 team until the end of 2024 the season, which also happens to be SHR's last in the sport.

SHR announced their NASCAR departure earlier this year and recently, on social media, they asked everyone their favorite moments, to which a fan pointed to the 2018 Talladega race. Rodney Childers agreed to this.

"Im sure itll be a popular one, but Fall Dega 2018 was an insane masterclass," the fan wrote as Childers replied, "I have to say.. That was pretty insane. The whole field couldn’t even draft with us 😬😬."

In the 2018 season, SHR had a driver lineup that consisted of Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch, and Aric Almirola. The fall race at Talladega in 2018 was won by Almirola with Bowyer coming in 2nd place.

It's worth mentioning that Busch not only won the first stage of the race but also led 108 laps. Yet him running out of gas with a few turns left in the race ensured his two teammates finished in the first two spots.

More notably for the organization, the lineup of Busch, Bowyer, Harvick, and Almirola finished in 1-2-3-4 spots at the end of stage 1, followed by Harvick winning the second stage, with Almirola eventually winning the race.

Towards the end of 2018 season, the SHR driver who got to compete for the championship in the final 4 came out to be the driver of Rodney Childers, Kevin Harvick.

However, the crew chief wasn't a part of Harvick's most important race of the year.

Rodney Childers wasn't part of Kevin Harvick's biggest race of the 2018 season

Before Joey Logano defeated the Big 3 of Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., and Kyle Busch to take the 2018 Cup title, the #4 driver was dealt with a massive blow.

This was because NASCAR suspended his crew chief, Rodney Childers, for two races, including the championship race, because of an infraction, an unapproved spoiler, found on the #4 Mustang after their win at Texas. In Childers' place, SHR announced Tony Gibson as Kevin Harvick's interim crew chief.

During the race, Harvick, without Rodney Childers, led 58 laps, won stage 1 and finished in second place in stage 2. But in the end, it didn't count in the bigger picture as Joey Logano finished ahead of Truex and the #4 driver to win his first Cup title.

However, it's worth mentioning, NASCAR did approve Rodney Childers to be a part of the team's celebrations if Kevin Harvick ended up winning.