The grass can be greener on the other side. It might not be easy to make the grass green, but it is indeed doable.
That was Kevin Harvick’s pitch to Rodney Childers as the two secretly met for the first time. Harvick, who calls himself “high strung,” needed someone to push him to success, to give him the extra edge in his game that he was missing.
The process of building a brand-new team at Stewart-Haas Racing started when Harvick signed a deal a year and a half before he first hit the track with the team, and months prior to the first report of his departure from Richard Childress Racing. Sure, he could’ve found a different crew chief, but he already found the right person.
“We started to court Rodney the year before in 2013,” Harvick said. “I really liked the way Rodney raced, how he’s hands on with the car, he had an understanding of the way the engineering side of things worked and he could work with the engineers with his laptop and not at their laptop.”
But Childers did not buy in. Harvick, who only raced for RCR at the Cup Series level to that point, became a salesman.
Why should Childers leave a comfortable situation at Michael Waltrip Racing to work with someone who he believed had an unpredictable personality?
“Most of the conversations, his biggest concern was he didn’t want to be yelled at on the radio,” Harvick said of his first meetings with Childers. “He didn’t want me getting out and jumping over cars, doing all this stupid stuff I’ve done over the years.”
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Childers is as laid-back of a crew chief as it gets. A former driver himself, he’s simply different from other team leaders in NASCAR. His understanding of racecars coincides with his passion to win.
However, he doesn’t want to be frazzled on top of the pit box. His driver lineup prior to his first conversation with Harvick boasted a group of calm individuals, highlighted with NASCAR Hall of Fame member Mark Martin, David Reutimann, Elliott Sadler, Scott Riggs and Brian Vickers. And Childers was comfortable at Michael Waltrip Racing, where he already won three races (two with Reutimann and one with Vickers).
But Harvick wanted Childers. He didn’t trust anyone else to build the No. 4 team from scratch.
“He had a lot of thoughts in his mind about who I was, how I operated and the things that I did,” Harvick said of Childers. “I like things to be organized in a certain way and structured. If we have a problem, there’s no reason to beat around the bush.”
This relationship, though, would not only be built at the racetrack. Harvick knows that in order to enter the winner’s circle on Sunday, he needs to have things in common with the person leading his team during the week. This would be a key to “getting to us,” as journalist Seth Davis discusses in his book about how different coaches becoming successful.
The pair continued to have conversations throughout 2013. Childers still wasn’t sold.
The two were introduced by Richie Gilmore, who said Harvick and RCR were intrigued by Childers’ ability. They wanted him to take over the crew chief duties on the No. 29 car.
“I rode up to Richard’s golf course that he bought and sat down to talk to those guys for a few hours in the afternoon,” Childers said. “It was a weird situation because, after sitting there and talking to them all day, I contacted Kevin that night.”
The next conversation the two would have was a game changer.
“Kevin already had plans that RCR didn’t know about yet,” Childers said. “They were trying to do what was best for them at the time, but also on the other side of it, Kevin was trying to do what was best for him.”
A few days went by. But then, Harvick broke the news. He told Childers he already signed with Stewart-Haas Racing, with the contract beginning in 2014.
From there, Harvick kept no secrets from Childers. He straight up told Childers, “I want you to be my crew chief at Stewart-Haas.”
“It went on for a month or two of talking about going to Stewart-Haas and working together over there,” Childers said.
The selling point might have been the potential to win a championship. Waltrip’s No. 55 team, between 2012 and 2013, did not run for the driver’s championship since they had multiple drivers.
“To have a guy who can win championships and wants you to work with him is a huge step in the right direction,” Childers said.
Harvick and Childers continued to have conversations, getting to know one another before he would sign on to be Harvick’s crew chief.
Confrontation became the key element, and Childers didn’t want any of it. So Harvick promised Childers that, when the 2013 season ended, all of his notes from the last 13 seasons were going in the trash.
“It seemed like they had that [confrontation] quite often, whether it be in the team or with the team,” Childers said of his initial thoughts of Harvick. “I didn’t want to do that. I believed he could win races and championships. But I felt, as an outsider watching him, the thing he lacked was a calm demeanor of working through things and believing in the team and pit crew crew.”
Childers wanted Harvick to change his persona. And it was the perfect time for the Californian to do exactly that.
Harvick was all ears when it came to those conversations. He and wife DeLana just celebrated the birth of their first child, Keelan, in 2012. The time to change had arrived.
“I had Keelan, and life changed a lot,” Harvick said. “I think he realized that as we had those conversations. From the other side of the fence, the picture was painted much different from what it actually was. It took months for me to convince him of that.”
That’s when Childers’ wife, Katrina, stepped in.
“If it’s something you really believe in and you really want to work with him, then you have to tell him [how you feel],” she said.
Childers told Harvick that he believes the pair could win races and even championships at Stewart-Haas. They could follow in the footsteps of team owner Tony Stewart, who captured the Cup Series title in 2011.
“We can be like Chad [Knaus] and Jimmie [Johnson], but these are the things I believe in and we need to not argue and stay calm,” Childers told Harvick.
Harvick didn’t blink, agreeing to make personal changes in the name of winning. All Harvick wanted was to finally be crowned a champion.
So Childers finally signed the deal. He would become the leader of the newly formed No. 4 team. Eventually, word came out that Childers signed the deal, and Michael Waltrip Racing let him go after the 28th race of the 2013 season.
Childers’ tenure at the Toyota-backed team ended with three victories, 24 top fives and 46 top 10s. Now, it was time to take control at Stewart-Haas.
“The biggest difference with Rodney is he’s a guy who wants to win practice, qualify on the pole, lead every lap, run the fastest lap of the race and that’s what he expected as a driver,” Harvick said of why he wanted to work with Childers. “A lot of times, you just don’t know how relationships are going to go. Sometimes, you hit it. Sometimes, you don’t. For us, he’s very low-key, but he’s very competitive.”
The two have completely different personalities, even after Childers convinced Harvick to make some changes.
Harvick described Childers as a “quiet competitive-natured guy.” He trusted Childers, and Childers trusted him. And off they went.
While Childers sat idly by during the last few weeks of the 2013 season, he started courting team members himself.
“I was thinking of people in the garage who I thought a lot of and believed in,” Childers said. “When I was first going over there, part of my reasoning was to be involved with Hendrick engines and chassis.”
In the opening weeks, Childers leaned on Kenny Francis, then serving as Kasey Kahne’s crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports. Francis helped Childers order specific parts that he believed would get the No. 4 team off and running right away.
“Anytime that someone puts something in front of me that’s a challenge, that’s a good thing,” Childers said.
As the two started to work together, they began spending more time together. The key to “getting to us” wasn’t even difficult after all of those tough conversations.
Childers and Harvick went go-karting together, had lunches together, met with the team’s engineers often and just had fun. The time away from the track is really their key ingredient to the meal they call success.
But Childers doesn’t want to take anything away from Harvick’s days at RCR, where he won 23 races. The pair realize that Harvick’s success at RCR, combined with Childers’ theology of winning every part of a race weekend, is what drives them to this day.
“Kevin’s biggest thing is his ability to fight through things throughout the day to get the most out of something,” Childers said. “Most of the guys I’ve worked with, we could qualify and run up front. If you look at Kevin’s days at RCR, he would start around 20th every week and fight to finish in the top five. All of those years of doing that made him believe that, no matter where he started, he could get to the front.”
But Harvick can pin-point it even further.
“When you look at Rodney’s style, he’s driven the car, he can walk in the shop, look at the bodies and say, ‘This needs to be fixed,’” Harvick said. “It’s all about details. He’s a detail-oriented person, and details make the cars go fast.”
The eyes for every small detail led the pair to win the championship in their first season together. Finally, Harvick was crowned a champion after all of the trials and tribulations he faced at RCR, which included three winless seasons.
But the championship season didn’t go smoothly. At one point, Harvick was “testing the waters to see what fired him up.” And boy did he find it.
“The maddest I made him was, during our first year, I threw the steering wheel against the dash and I wrecked some of the gauges after we ran bad,” Harvick said of Childers’ tipping point.
That’s when the two implemented a policy they’ve kept to this day, and it’s not necessarily one that other driver-crew chief combinations follow.
“We talk about letting the bad days go, but we let the good days go, too,” Harvick said. “On Monday, you have to let the good days go just like the bad in order to be competitive the next week.”
Voila, they cracked the code. The pair refuses to let winning get to their head. Even when they win milestone events like the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in both 2019 and 2020, they know there’s work that needs to be done.
“The biggest thing we’ve learned over the years is how we are going to get better after the good days,” Harvick said. “We are going to pick through to make sure everybody understands we had a great day and we’re very happy about that, but there are always things that we could’ve done better.”
Since Harvick and Childers joined SHR, they’ve won two or more races in each of the last seven seasons, including a remarkable six triumphs in 2020. And this year, they’ve finished inside of the top 10 in all but three races, with Harvick currently on a streak of a career-high nine straight top-five finishes.
“He hired me because he knew I wanted to be the best,” Childers said. “The thing Kevin does is he continually tries to push us. We know, as a team, he’s going to show up ready to win every single week.”
Though Childers and Harvick have yet to win the elusive second Cup Series championship, they continue to set the standard each week they hit the track. Thus far, they have 32 wins together. The relationship is not ending anytime soon, either.
Anheuser-Busch continues to serve as the primary sponsor of the No. 4 team. Harvick is actually the longest-tenured driver to work with the American brewing company.
“The length of time we’ve spent together and trust in the relationship makes it truly unique,” Daniel Blake, vice president of value brands for Anheuser-Busch, said. “We’ve built a relationship that has allowed us to creatively leverage our sponsorship beyond what you typically see from other sponsors.”
The on-track success of the No. 4 team is bringing Busch Light to a whole-new platform, Blake explained. The return-on-investment is perfect for the company as it launches new products, like Busch Light Apple.
Ideally, the partnership will continue until Harvick hangs up his helmet.
“Harvick is a living legend, and we would love nothing more than to see him retire,” Blake said, “whenever that may be, with the Busch mountains on his chest.”
With the backing of key partners, Harvick and Childers can continue to compete for wins as long as they want. Their chemistry is only improving, too, as time wears on.
“Everybody says I’m a great crew chief,” Childers said. “I’m a guy who has a lot of great people around me.”
Now, in the middle of an unprecedented 2020 season that features an unusual schedule and changes galore, their tight-knit relationship is what makes the No. 4 squad a championship favorite once again.
“If somebody pulled out a gun out, would you jump in front of him?” Childers asked rhetorically. “You’re damn right I would. He would do the same thing for me.”
Trust and believing in each other is what prevents this relationship from becoming sour.
“If we don’t win, we want to be in the conversation,” Harvick said. “That is really what drives you.”
That drive is not going away, and the No. 4 team is prepared to compete for the championship in November at Phoenix Raceway.
