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Rodney Childers, who guided Kevin Harvick to the 2014 Cup Series championship, has finally landed a new job after he was let go as crew chief at Spire Motorsports in April. Childers will be the crew chief at JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series for the No. 1 Chevrolet, which will be split between Carson Kvapil and Connor Zilisch. It will be Childers' first time as an Xfinity Series crew chief. "Rodney's résumé and career speak for themselves," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., co-owner of JR Motorsports. "Rodney and I grew up together and have known each other since we were kids. That's a relationship that has always been close and has remained close to this day. We've always had interest in working together in motorsports, and I'm thankful that this opportunity came about and we could bring him into the JRM family." Childers worked with Justin Haley at Spire, but the team parted ways with him when both driver and crew chief said the relationship wasn't working. Childers won 40 races and a Cup title at Stewart-Haas Racing with Harvick then worked with Josh Berry in 2024 when Harvick retired. That was the final year Stewart-Haas Racing existed. Also on Saturday, NASCAR confirmed it has parted ways with race director Jusan Hamilton with six races remaining in the season. He is no longer listed as an employee at NASCAR, where his official title was managing director for competition operations. Hamilton first joined NASCAR as an intern in 2012 and returned in 2016 under various roles. He oversaw NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program, pit crew development and the pro iRacing NASCAR divisions as well as serving as a race director. Hamilton was instrumental in setting both the annual schedule and the schedule for each race weekend. His first event as race director was in 2018 at Pocono Raceway. In 2022, Hamilton became the first Black race director to officiate the Daytona 500.
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