Spire Motorsports has brought in a championship-winning crew chief for 2025 and beyond.
Rodney Childers will join the organization as the crew chief of the No. 7 team, starting with the 2025 season. He will join forces with Corey LaJoie as Spire Motorsports continues to pursue wins and playoff berths.
Childers is NASCAR's active leader in crew chief wins with 40. He celebrated 37 of these wins with Kevin Harvick. They reached the Championship 4 five times together and won the championship in 2014, their first season together.
Childers is the crew chief for Josh Berry, who is a rookie in the Cup Series. They have not celebrated a win together but have two top-five finishes and four top-10s in 20 races.
"We are beyond excited to announce Rodney Childers as the crew chief for Corey LaJoie and Spire Motorsports' No. 7 team beginning in 2025," said Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson in a statement. "There are decisions that professional racing teams make daily that take courage, require deep thought, and have some element of rolling the dice. To be clear, this wasn't one of them.
"Rodney is a hall-of-fame-worthy, championship-winning crew chief with 40 wins. He is one of the best in the garage and when a guy like Rodney is available, it would be malpractice if we did anything but our absolute best to bring him into our growing organization. He will make us better the moment he walks into our shop, and we look forward to his contributions to our collective success.?"
Ryan Sparks, the current crew chief for the No. 7 team and Spire's competition director, will transition full-time into the competition director role after the 2024 season. He will continue striving to make all three Cup teams better.
"Ryan Sparks is an amazing leader and has been a huge part of our organization since the first moment he clocked in," Dickerson added in the statement. "As he transitions from managing two roles to focusing on Spire Motorsports as a whole, it's important to point out that he was one of the first guys that talked to me about bringing Rodney in.
"Lots of guys say they'll put the team first but there aren't a lot of guys who follow through and that speaks to the type of competitor and human that Ryan is. He has been balancing being a crew chief and the competition director the last couple seasons. This move will allow him to focus solely on the competition director role. As we continue to grow, his knowledge and leadership will become even more instrumental to our success."
Spire Motorsports has continued to make moves ahead of the 2025 season. LaJoie and Carson Hocevar will both return in 2025 while Michael McDowell will make the move from Front Row Motorsports on a multi-year deal.