Kyle Busch on crew chief change: 'Performance-based business'

Richard Childress Racing announced earlier this week that Andy Street will serve as the interim crew chief for the No. 8 Chevrolet driven by Kyle Busch starting this week at the Charlotte Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

He replaces Randall Burnett, who had been Busch's crew chief since he first joined the RCR organization before the 2023 season. However, it was announced in September that Burnett, who has been with RCR for a total of eight seasons, will move to Trackhouse Racing for the 2026 season to lead promising rookie Connor Zilisch in his first Cup Series season. RCR then decided to shift him into "a support role with the organization through the end of the season."

Busch, the winningest active driver with 63 victories and a two-time Cup Series champion, said change was necessary.

"Obviously, I mean, we're not getting the results, right?" Busch said Saturday. "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 missed this season's 16-driver NASCAR playoffs. He has won only three races for RCR over nearly three full seasons and hasn't won since June 4, 2023. This season, he has a career-low two top-five finishes, eight top-10s and has led just 62 laps.

So the No. 8 team will turn to Street for the last five races. But Busch acknowledged that the singular change might not be all the team needs to start running toward the front.

"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," Busch said. "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."

As for what's next in 2026, Busch said he would leave that in the hands of owner Richard Childress and president Mike Verlander.

"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," Busch said. "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."

--Field Level Media