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…
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