Denny Hamlin reacts to Rodney Childers, Spire Motorsports parting ways

Denny Hamlin thought the addition of crew chief Rodney Childers by Spire Motorsports was going to be a game-changer for the team. It didn’t work out that way to start the 2025 season, and the sides decided to part ways in April, ending their working relationship.

It certainly was a surprise, even if Childers’ No. 7 team, which featured Justin Haley as the driver, wasn’t getting the results they expected. Hamlin reacted to the news on the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, trying to make sense of it all.

“Rodney Childers and Spire splitting. It was interesting to see it happen so soon,” Hamlin stated. “I thought that the results of the No. 7 have improved. Now, I think that the team itself has made improvements year over year, so some of those results might be a little misleading, but generally speaking, the No. 7’s been, I thought, more in contention this year. Obviously, Rodney has been a game changer in the game, in the Gen-Six era, and before, you know, when he really could kind of put his fingerprints on the car, I felt like he was, you know, certainly one of the best crew chiefs to ever do it during that time.

“When it came to the Next Gen, obviously the results weren’t there as much, but there’s just so many other factors that go into it. You know, you’re with Stewart-Haas when they’re beginning to close. How much effort are they putting in? Obviously, your pit crew matters. Everything matters. So, it’s hard to really speculate that, you know, it’s just a him and a car combination problem that doesn’t seem to work, but it’s certainly — the results haven’t been there over the last couple years.

“It’s just too hard to point fingers on one thing or another, because, you know, everything is so small and the details all matter, and you know, Rodney is a detailed person. It just seemed like a cultural thing, more than likely. I don’t think — it didn’t seem like it was a performance thing that much. I think that people come with big expectations, when you put a big name on the pit box, it does come with some high expectations. … It ran its course over nine races or 10 races in, so you know both felt like they had to go in a different direction.”

What’s next for Rodney Childers remains to be seen. Still, he’ll have Denny Hamlin’s attention, as the crew chief commands that at least due to his resume. Whether he gets back on top of the pit box or not, and where it takes place, will be an interesting storyline to follow throughout the next couple of months, for sure.