NASCAR driver Kyle Busch has addressed the crew chief shuffle in his team after Randall Burnett announced his 2026 exit to Trackhouse Racing, where he will work alongside Connor Zillisch. Busch’s team, Richard Childress Racing, announced Andy Street as the interim crew chief for the No. 8 Chevrolet.
Burnett, meanwhile, has been moved to a support role at RCR until the end of the current season. The changes occurred amid Busch’s ongoing performance slump, given that his last race win was the 2023 Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway. For the first time since 2005, the two-time Cup Series champion failed to win a race last year, and the challenges with his car have continued to reportedly hold him back. Speaking about the crew chief changes in his team, Busch said:
“Obviously, I mean, we’re not getting the results, right? We’re in a performance-based business and not getting the results. It’s got to fall back on someone, and they re-signed me for another year. So that kind of gave me the notion of they’ve got my back. And we needed to find a change somewhere.”
Busch suggested that it won’t be only a crew chief change that will fix everything. He said:
“It’s not just going to be a crew chief that comes in and fix the whole program. I’m going to put that out there. We’ve got to have, from top to bottom, from inside out, an opportunity of being able to orchestrate the proper personnel to go out there to execute.”
Addressing his future with RCR, despite his current contract running through until the end of 2026, he said:
“It’s not that I don’t want any input or to be in those conversations, but they’ve got to put together their list. And obviously, time is of the essence because people are probably getting their deals done right now in order to get it done by the end of the year.”
Newsweek Sports reported renowned NASCAR journalist Bob Pockrass’s comments, who spoke about Spire Motorsports’ interest in having the 40-year-old driver on board. He said:
“I think Kyle Busch wins again, I just don’t know whether it’s at RCR or not. Look, I think Spire would like to have him and see what they can do with him. You know, sounds like he’s, you know, as they’ve all said, staying for next year. But you know he can’t be happy. And if they continue to run the way they’ve been, he’ll want to leave. I think that’s the challenge now, getting a new crew chief.
“Do you bring somebody in who is probably wondering, ‘Gosh, am I coming in to crew chief Kyle Busch? And is that just going to be one year? Or am I being brought in to crew chief Kyle Busch for a year and then maybe either Austin Hill, Jesse Love, or somebody else?’”
