Rodney Childers is widely considered as one of NASCAR’s top crew chiefs, guiding Kevin Harvick to his lone Cup Series title. When the latter retired, Childers had short stints with Stewart-Haas Racing and Spire Motorsports, but nothing substantial matching his caliber. That was recognized by Dale Jr. once again, who recruited him in JR Motorsports for the 2026 O’Reilly Auto Parts season. His star driver, Harvick, viewed this as a fantastic move and a made a bold prediction for him.

Kevin Harvick is excited to see what his former colleague can do at JRM

Harvick said in his Happy Hour podcast, “I’m so intrigued. I know about the driver line-up, but from a personal standpoint because I know Rodney so well. Just him working on what we raced so well with that style of car. Somewhat in the Grand National Series, is very intriguing to me. What he thinks of the garage and how it functions, the style of racing, having multiple drivers.

“I can’t wait to see and hear what he has to say. See what happens and hear what he has to say, out of the race track, to hear his experience. That’ll be very interesting.”

Having worked together for nearly a decade, Harvick knows how Childers evaluates cars, teams, and drivers. Their championship-winning history gives him a strong idea of how impactful Childers’ transition can be at JRM.

Harvick continued, “I think it’s – For Kvapil I think it’s really interesting. He’s a winner and he’s really good at what he does. I think he had a  bad situation with what he was doing last in this scenario. I think that the evolution that we’ll see Carson go through, just having a leader like Rodney and the experience that Rodney has, is going to be fun to watch as well.”

Kvapil is talented and has a track record of winning, but his previous season didn’t go as planned. He started well at Daytona, had a good form in the middle-season too, but the final races were not impressive. So his situation will be interesting under Childers’ guidance as per Harvick.

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Carson Kvapil and Connor Zilisch will share racing responsibilities in the No. 1 car that Childers will oversee starting this season.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr is fielding a star-studded line-up in 2026

Aside from Kvapil and Zilisch, JR Motorsports also retains the services of Justin Allgaier and Sammy Smith. However, it is the pilots of the fourth car, that are truly ones to watch out for.

The #88 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chevy will have multiple drivers piloting it throughout the season. First and foremost, Rajah Caruth moves up from the Truck Series and will make his full-time debut.

However, he is expected to share his ride with four other drivers over the course of the campaign. Who are those drivers, you may ask? None other than the Hendrick Motorsports quartet of Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, William Byron and Alex Bowman.

Thanks to the modification of the infamous Kyle Busch rule, Cup drivers have more chances to run in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Truck Series.