Fantasy NASCAR Racing

finishing in the Top 5 only once.  After Reutimann went win-less in 2011 the driver was released by MWR, to be replaced by Mark Martin and one of Childers' lifelong friends, Brian Vickers.  At this point in his career, Martin had cut back to just racing part-time so the two shared the driving duties.  They had four Top 5 finishes. The following season saw the same line up; with Martin and Vickers sharing the ride.  The highlight of the season was when Vickers won at Loudon, NH beating out Kyle Busch by 1/2 second.  On August 23, 2013, despite the Loudon win, Childers announced that he was leaving MWR to become Kevin Harvick's crew chief at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.  Childers was released from his crew chief duties by MWR following the 2013 Irwin Tools Night Race, but remained under contract for the remainder of the season.  In 2014 Childers left Waltrip Racing to go to work for Stewart-Haas Racing.  He would be paired with driver Kevin Harvick and they would have immediate success. In their first year together, they would win five times and claim the 2014 Cup Series Championship.  2015 would be almost as good as they grabbed three wins.  The final race of the season saw a battle between Harvick and Kyle Busch.  Busch would win the race and Harvick would finish second; losing the Championship by one point.  2016 was another good year for the pair as they would win on four occasions but only finish eighth in points. 2017 again saw Harvick in a battle for the Championship.  He would win twice and finish third in the points.  For 2018 Childers was set to once again lead Harvick on another Championship quest; and he lead Harvick to a great season.  The pairing compiled eight wins and made it to the final race at Homestead with a shot to win the Championship. Harvick led 58 laps in the race, but the cars performance fell off with 100 laps to go and he ended up finishing third in the race and in the points.  2019 would be a rebuilding year for Stewart-Haas Racing as a new model of Ford was introduced and the team struggled early finding the right set up for the new body style.  Harvick didn't run 'bad'; he just wasn't in contention for the win on a consistent basis as in the previous season.  After the Daytona 500 Harvick did post six Top 10 finishes in a row; but it took him all the way until race #20 in New Hampshire before he visited victory lane. Harvick added two more wins before the Chase started.  The pair put fast consistent race cars on the track during the playoffs and even won at Texas to lock them into the final at Miami.  The car was fast on a short run; but lost speed on long runs the final race.  Much like the previous year they couldn't keep pace with the leaders and Harvick finished fourth in the race and third in the points.  2020 saw Harvick and Childers had a great season.  In the season first eleven races he had a win; six Top 5 and ten Top 10 finishes.  After a 15th and 26th place finish he again ripped off a strong run of races.  In the next ten, races he piled up four wins; had nine Top 5 and all ten finishes in the Top 10.  He racked up a ton of bonus points with his seven wins in the regular season; got a bunch of stage points and even more bonus points for winning the regular season points.  It was assumed he had so many points he could easily waltz into the Championship race at Phoenix.  He started off the Chase winning the Southern 500 and won again two weeks later at Bristol.  He breezed through round two and in round three he run into an issue.  First he had as good a car as leader Joey Logano but couldn't close up enough to make an attempt to pass.  In the end Logano got the win and Harvick was second.  The win locked Logano into the Championship race; a driver everyone had figured would miss advancing to the season final race.  The next week at Texas, Harvick had a flat and lost a lap . He spent almost all the race running a lap down; and was finally able to get back on the lead lap very late in the race.  Just he wasn't able to make up enough ground and finished 16th.  The final race before the Championship; Harvick needed to have a ran a good run and/or not have a new winner to take another spot in the Chase.  Chase Elliott; Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex all were in a must-win situation and they all run up the entire race.  Elliott ended up winning and Harvick had a poor run at the end of the race.  This let Keselowski edge out Harvick by one point to advance to the Championship race.  Harvick had nine wins; 20 Top 5 and 27 Top 10 finishes in 2020.  Harvick had a big down turn in 2021.  After nine wins the previous year; Harvick went winless.  The whole Stewart-Haas organization struggled.  Aric Almirola was the only driver in the group to claim a win.  Harvick did come close to winning with two second place finishes.  He also had ten Top 5 and 23 Top 10’s.  They were back together in 2022 looking to get in the win column again.  The Daytona 500 wasn't the start they were looking for as Harvick got caught up in a crash and finished 30th. They ran well over the next seven races; posting a best finish of second at Richmond.  He was eliminated in a crash at Bristol, but posted four top tens in the next five races.  A crash at Gateway occurred, but they rebounded with no finish worse than 12th over the next five events.  A 27th at Pocono, and a crash at Indianapolis, left the team scratching their heads as to what they were going to have to do to get back to victory lane.  Then as the regular season was quickly approaching, out of the blue, Childers made a great call that got Harvick out from with 38 laps to go in the 400 miler at Michigan.  He led those laps to beat Bubba Wallace by about three seconds.  The win broke a 65 race winless drought; made Harvick the 15th different winner so far; and put him in the Chase play-offs.  Surprisingly Harvick won the following week, when he held off a fast-closing Christopher Bell.  When the Chase started; the duo ran into problems.  They had their car catch fire late in the race while running well at Darlington, and Harvick had to bail out.  He finished 33rd.  The next week he was in a crash and finished 36th, putting him in a spot where he had to win the next race at Bristol to advance to the next round.  He placed tenth and was eliminated.  For the year he finished 15th in the season points. They duo will be back together again in 2023; looking to improve on their performance.  For one last season Childers and Harvick would team together.  They had high hopes of getting Harvick a win in his final Cup season before riding off into the sunset.  The season started off well as the first eight races they had only one finish worse than 13th and added three top fives.  He finished second at Darlington, just behind winner William Byron.  Enough good runs continued that they made the playoffs.  A bad run at Bristol saw them eliminated after the round of 16.  They almost won at Talladega, finishing second to Ryan Blaney.  But failed post race inspection and was placed last.  They ended 13th in season points.  To date, Childers accomplishments include: 40 wins; 37 of those with Harvick.  Major wins include the Coke 600 (2009); Southern 500 (2014, 2020); and Brickyard 400 (2019, 2020) and the 2014 Cup Championship.