Friday Faceoff: Who’s the Next Cup Crew Chief on the Hot Seat?

Rodney Childers was the first major 2025 Silly Season domino to fall atop the pit box. Who’s the next NASCAR Cup Series crew chief on the hot seat?

Christopher Hansen: This is a no-brainer as we’ve documented the struggles of Brad Keselowski and the RFK Racing No. 6 team through the first part of the 2025 season. A change is needed to help boost the performance of the team, which means that Jeremy Bullins should be replaced. After 10 races, Keselowski sits 32nd in points with zero top-10 finishes. Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece, while not quite having race-winning speed yet, have outperformed Keselowski by a wide margin up to this point of the season. A change at crew chief for Keselowski is completely performance-based, as the 2012 Cup champion has a 26th-place average finish after an early accident at Talladega. One more mediocre run from the No. 6 will more than likely lead to a change.

Logan Kendall: Alan Gustafson. Chase Elliott has yet to return to consistently winning since his 2022 season when the Next Gen car was brand new. Yes, Elliott missed a good chunk of the 2023 season and finally returned to victory lane last season at Texas Motor Speedway, but he has yet to win since then. If Gustafson is removed from the pit box, he will still stick around with Hendrick Motorsports in another role as he has been with the organization for around 25 years now.

Landon Quesinberry: Bullins and Keselowski have underperformed tremendously this season. Sure, there have been races that they have had speed and had something go wrong that prevents them from getting a good finish, but that doesn’t excuse their running position for the other 80% of the races run this season. Bullins was the crew chief for Harrison Burton in the No. 21 car before reuniting with Keselowski. Interesting how both Burton and Wood Brothers Racing are running better this year, while Keselowski has tanked to the same position in points that Burton was in last year.

Andrew Stoddard: The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has lagged far behind the No. 11 and 20 teams the past few seasons. That reflects poorly on James Small, who is currently riding a 62-race winless streak as the crew chief of the No. 19. A change in the driver’s seat hasn’t fixed things, with Chase Briscoe only averaging a finish of 15.1 in JGR equipment that has won half of the races so far this season. If the performance of the No. 19 stays flat or gets worse, Joe Gibbs might opt to shake things up atop the No. 19 pit box.

Out of the five former Cup champions who are currently winless, who will reach victory lane first?

Kendall: Ryan Blaney. Blaney was very close to winning at Darlington Raceway until the late caution came out, and he has shown consistent speed throughout the season, even though it has often been ruined by bad luck. 

Quesinberry: Realistically, Blaney should be the first to score a win. He’s finally reached that level of being a championship contender in his career, and with the speed he’s had this year, the No. 12 should already have a win in the bank. If he doesn’t blow an engine at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he’s probably not even in this conversation. I expect him to win pretty soon, maybe at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coke 600.

Stoddard: Elliott strikes me as a former Cup champion who is overdue for a resurgence. He has finished in the top 20 in every race so far in 2025, a stretch that includes four top fives and six top 10s. Elliott’s breakthrough could very well happen this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, where he is the defending race winner. With teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron already winning races and clinching their playoff spots, Elliott is bound to have a chip on his shoulder, and that will lead to a trip to victory lane for the No. 9 team sooner rather than later.

Hansen: Blaney seems to be the most likely to score a win first. Had it not been for a blown engine at Homestead after leading the most laps or a late-race yellow followed by a slow final pit stop at Darlington a couple of weeks later, Blaney could very easily have scored a victory or two in the first few races of the season. The 2023 Cup champion also has four DNFs, including being taken out in a multi-car crash in one of the early rounds of green flag pit stops at Talladega Superspeedway. If Blaney can keep his car in one piece, he will find his way to victory lane before too long.

Which Burton cousin is more likely to make the Xfinity Series playoffs: Jeb, Harrison or both?

Quesinberry: Both Jeb Burton and Harrison Burton have an equal shot to make the playoffs for two reasons. Both of them are on similar caliber teams in terms of performance. It’s just that AM Racing is better at scoring stage points based on unique strategy, while Jordan Anderson Racing and Jeb Burton are better at maximizing their best opportunities like Talladega. The only thing that both need to watch out for is the sheer number of playoff contenders behind them in points. The three Kaulig Racing cars behind them have the potential to make the playoffs if they can be more consistent. Nick Sanchez is in a car that made the playoffs last season. It’s only a matter of time before Taylor Gray finally makes up for the incident with Sammy Smith at Martinsville Speedway. Then, there’s the possibility of William Sawalich finding victory lane considering he is driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, not to mention all the other people who could sneak a win somewhere like Jeremy Clements. The bubble battle will get really interesting down the road. 

Stoddard: Both should be right in the middle of the playoff bubble until the regular season finale. That said, I give the slight edge to Harrison. He has shown a little more consistency then Jeb up to this point in the season, and Harrison already has two playoff points to his name to Jeb’s zero. Furthermore, Ford has only five full-time entries in the Xfinity Series, and Harrison is behind the wheel of one of them. Therefore, Ford might lend a little more help to Harrison down the stretch than Chevrolet will to Jeb.

Hansen: After an emotional runner-up finish at Talladega, Jeb turned a lot of heads last weekend, as his No. 27 sits ninth in the Xfinity standings, while cousin Harrison runs 12th. Both have shown flashes of potential at different stages of the season, with Harrison scoring more top-10 finishes in the first 11 races of 2025 compared to AM’s total in 2024. Likewise, Jeb has put together some solid runs as of late, with an eighth-place run at Rockingham Speedway before placing second at Talladega by inches. Both Burtons have shown flashes of what they can do behind the wheel and deserve to be among the 12 drivers fighting for the Xfinity championship in the fall.

Kendall: Both of the Burtons are likely to make the playoffs. Jeb has had an underrated season, which has just started to get noticed by many people because of how close he was to winning Talladega. Harrison, on the other hand, has shown some speed and has good finishes to show for it, such as a third-place finish at Rockingham two weeks ago, and as long as he keeps up those solid finishes, he will also make the playoffs. 

Which 2024 Silly Season move across NASCAR’s top three series has aged the best so far?

Stoddard: Daniel Hemric seemed like damaged goods, an underperforming driver with two failed, short-lived stints in the Cup Series and just one NASCAR win to his name. Hemric has taken a couple of steps back to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series to pilot the No. 19 for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, and has it ever paid off. Through seven races, Hemric has a race win at Martinsville Speedway, sat on the pole at Bristol Motor Speedway, accrued four top-10 finishes and is the only driver in the Truck Series to finish on the lead lap in all seven races. For Hemric, this might the beginning of a John Hunter Nemechek-esque journey back up through the ranks to the Cup Series.

Hansen: Sam Mayer‘s fast start to 2025 with the No. 41 Haas Factory Team entry in the Xfinity Series. In 11 starts this season, Mayer sits third in points with five top fives and six top-10 finishes. Coming off of three full-time seasons with JR Motorsports, Mayer has shown no signs of growing pains with Haas. With scoring consistent finishes checked off, next up for Mayer is scoring the first victory for his new team and another appearance in the playoffs.

Kendall: Josh Berry to the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 has been the best Silly Season move so far. Berry has already gotten a win this season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which was the first time the Wood Brothers had won a race at a non-superspeedway since Blaney won at Pocono Raceway in 2017. He has brought such a historic team back to being almost weekly contenders again, and I would not be surprised to see him win again this season. 

Quesinberry: Harrison Burton and AM have exceeded the expectations set on them after both parties came off of poor 2024 seasons in their respective series. Some last year felt that AM was almost out of its element at times, especially when Cup drivers like Joey Logano and Berry came down to drive for them just to barely scrape by for a top 10. Then you have Burton, who has been the center of criticism ever since stepping into the Wood Brothers’ iconic No. 21 car when he replaced fan favorite Matt DiBenedetto. Burton and AM both need to prove themselves this year, and they have done more than that with the way they have run and put themselves into the playoff conversation.