RCR Changes Crew Chief For Kyle Busch, Looks To Improve Performance

Mar 14, 2026; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Richard Childress Racing driver Kyle Busch (8) during practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. | Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

10 races into the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Kyle Busch and the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team continue to struggle mightily on track. After a 10th-place finish in Sunday's Jack Link's 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Busch's first top-10 finish of the season, RCR has decided to make a change in an attempt to turn things around for Busch.

In a Monday morning press release, Richard Childress Racing announced that Andy Street, who had been serving as RCR's Performance Director this season and has been an employee of Richard Childress Racing for more than 20 years, will take over as the crew chief for Busch's No. 8 team effective immediately.

With Street moving to the top of the pit box, Jim Pohlman, who joined Richard Childress Racing in the offseason after an ultra-successful stint as a crew chief for JR Motorsports in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, will be moved into a leadership role within the competition department at RCR.

“This move is about putting our people in the best position to succeed,” said Richard Childress, Chairman and CEO of RCR, in the team release. “We have strong talent across this organization, and we’re focused on having each person in the right position to help deliver the results we expect.”

Busch is three years removed from his first season with RCR, where he collected three victories in an eye-opening beginning to his stint with the organization. However, in the three years since, Busch has gone on a career-long winless drought, and he now sits 27th in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings after 10 races this season.

Richard Childress Racing has belief in the people within the confines of its Welcome, NC, race shop, but that the team expects better results, especially for Busch, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.

“We strongly believe in the people we have,” said Mike Verlander, President of RCR. “At the same time, we expect better results, and that requires us to continually evaluate and make adjustments. Jim has more than two decades of success in this sport and will remain an important part of our team. We believe Andy and Kyle’s previous working relationship positions us to improve the No. 8 team and compete at a higher level.”

Busch and Street were paired together for the final five races of the 2025 Cup Series season. In that five race stretch, Busch had a best finish of fifth, which he achieved in the season-finale at Phoenix Raceway.

The pairing of Pohlman and Busch was highly touted at the beginning of the season as the thing that would turn things around for Busch, who had found stagnant results with Randall Burnett, who left RCR for Trackhouse Racing in the offseason, as his crew chief.

Busch and Pohlman came out of the gates swinging at Daytona International Speedway, as Busch collected his first-ever pole position for the Daytona 500. However, that was literally the lone highlight of what has been a miserable start to the season for the 63-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner.

With Busch set to become a free agent in the offseason, it will be paramount for Richard Childress Racing to right the ship in an effort to keep Busch as the driver of its No. 8 Chevrolet, or at the very least appear to be a favorable landing spot for another coveted free agent driver for the 2027 season.