![\"Rodney](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-932927450.jpg\")
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Rodney Childers watches qualifying at Auto Club Speedway. <\/p>\n
Rodney Childers has been through a tough summer, one that made him stop and think about what really matters, both on and off the race track. Known for his pride and his drive to prove himself, Childers hit setbacks that slowed down his immediate goals in the NASCAR Cup Series. But instead of letting it break him, he turned back to where it all started, Late Model Stock Cars.<\/p>\n
Teaming with Kevin Harvick<\/a> and Landen Lewis in the CARS Tour brought Rodney Childers new wins, but the bigger reward was time with his family as a husband and father, per Matt Weaver<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cFor me, the last couple of months, I just started to look at things differently,\u201d Childers told Motorsport.com<\/a> over the phone. \u201cI always felt like I needed to prove something and needed to win more Cup championships or the Daytona 500<\/a>, but then I realized there is more to life than that.\u201d<\/p>\n Rodney Childers and His New Outlook on Racing<\/p>\n Rodney Childers even started looking at new roles in the Truck Series, something that caught Dale Earnhardt Jr.<\/a> off guard.<\/p>\n \u201cI opened myself up to talking to some Truck Series teams about some opportunities, and that caught Dale by surprise. He asked me, \u2018Do you really not have anything lined up, yet?\u2019 and I told him where I was at, and then he told me about Connor and Carson, and it was just a dream scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n The return to familiar ground has lifted a weight off his shoulders.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is basically the old car that we had a lot of success with, Sundays at church with Katrina and the boys, racing with two really exceptional young drivers, and I couldn\u2019t say \u2018yes\u2019 fast enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, there\u2019s a part of him that wonders how stepping back from the full-time Cup grind will feel.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s just hard to say,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI will learn a lot more about myself next year as we go along. Maybe I really love having Sundays at home. Maybe it\u2019s really going to bother me that I\u2019m not out there when I get home and they\u2019re still racing on Sundays.\u201d<\/p>\n With a laugh, he added: \u201cMaybe that will make me want to go add a Truck Series championship before I\u2019m dead.\u201d<\/p>\n The Respect Rodney Has Earned<\/p>\n Even with the Cup garage shifting in new directions, Rodney Childers has earned lasting respect.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means a ton,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it wasn\u2019t just me anywhere along the way. We have had good people at every stop, and I\u2019m a sponge for what people have to teach me, the fab guys, tire specialists, and engineers. You have to be to have success at this level.\u201d<\/p>\n Childers says he has found joy in mentoring young talent like Carson.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t tell you enough how much I\u2019ve seen Dale and Kelley smile this week,\u201d he said. \u201cHow much I\u2019ve smiled. I can\u2019t wait to get to know Carson better. I know how serious Carson takes his racing, and it\u2019s just making sure he has the right people around him to keep progressing.\u201d<\/p>\n Rodney Childers on Mentorship and Responsibility<\/p>\n That mentorship brings him back to his days with Kevin Harvick.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I raced with Kevin, if we didn\u2019t win, it was my fault,\u201d Childers said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s the best way to put it publicly, but I have to feel that way. It means that no matter what, I need to be the one to figure out what my driver needs, because we have the cars and the drivers. This car is my responsibility. That means getting the most out of it, finding the right people, and making it go fast. It needs to win.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tDogli Wilberforce<\/strong><\/a> is a sports writer who covers NASCAR, Formula 1 and IndyCar Series for Heavy Sports. With bylines at Total Apex Sports and Last Word on Sports, Wilberforce has built a reputation for delivering timely, engaging coverage that blends sharp analysis with accessible storytelling. Wilberforce has covered everything from major football transfers to fight-night drama, bringing readers the insight and context behind the headlines. More about Dogli Wilberforce<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Rodney Childers watches qualifying at Auto Club Speedway. Rodney Childers has been through a tough summer, one…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":253778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-253777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115265385114826945","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}