Rodney Childers on Stewart-Haas Racing: ‘We could’ve won every single race we’ve been to this year’
By Nick Tylwalk
Top to bottom, Stewart-Haas Racing has been the best team in the NASCAR Cup Series this season, one that believes all four cars can win on any given week.
It’s good to be confident, but it helps if you can back it up. The attitude around Stewart-Haas Racing with just one race left before the NASCAR Playoffs is one with a certain amount of swagger to it, but there’s understandable justification for it: The team has four cars headed to the postseason.
There aren’t that many other four-car operations in the Cup Series right now, but none of the others can make that claim. Stewart-Haas Racing cars aren’t just consistent, though, they’re also fast enough to win. Propelled by Kevin Harvick and his seven victories, the team has 10 wins in 25 races, meaning there’s better than a 1-in-3 chance the trophy is coming home with it every week.
According to Rodney Childers, Harvick’s crew chief, that already impressive number could have been even more eye-popping.
“You look back at all these races, and we could have won every single race we’ve been to this year,” Childers said in a new Mobil 1 The Grid video. “We’ve had some bad luck n some of them and not finished, but on the other hand, we’ve been really competitive, we’ve been really happy with the speed of our cars.”
The SHR driver lineup has been so good that not only does it have two multi-race winners (thanks to Clint Bowyer’s two victories) but only one driver who hasn’t taken the checkered flag. That would be Aric Almirola, in his first year in the No. 10 Ford replacing the departed Danica Patrick.
Almirola said his goal was just to be able to run in the top 15 week in and week out, but he’s actually been better than that, scoring 10 top-10 finishes. All he’s missing is a victory, but team co-owner Tony Stewart believes it’s coming.
“At this point of the season, to be as competitive as he is right off the bat is something that’s very encouraging,” Stewart said. “I think that first win for him is right around the corner.”
You can see the entire Mobil 1 The Grid video, with more from Almirola, Stewart and Harvick, right here:
Once the NASCAR Playoffs begin, luck plays as big a role as execution, as Stewart knows only too well. It remains to be seen if fortune will smile upon Stewart-Haas Racing once Las Vegas arrives, but with four shots at the title and proven performance across the board, the team probably doesn’t need it as much as most.
Like we said, confident. But definitely with more than enough results so far to back it up.