Did You Notice? … Kyle Busch is in search of a new crew chief at Richard Childress Racing in 2026?
The seemingly inevitable divorce between Busch and Randall Burnett became official Sept. 23 when Burnett was announced as the new head wrench for Connor Zilisch in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The Burnett-Zilisch partnership will start next season, as Zilisch takes over the Trackhouse Racing car currently driven by Daniel Suarez. It’s a golden opportunity for one of the underrated crew chiefs in the sport. Burnett’s won six times with Busch and Tyler Reddick, snagging all of them within a two-year span, and once guided AJ Allmendinger to one of the best years of his Cup career in 2016. Now, he’ll be paired with a generational talent who’s already setting fire to the competition; Zilisch has 10 wins in his first 30 NASCAR Xfinity Series starts.
But the chemistry Burnett had with Busch at RCR had faded away some time ago. The duo hasn’t won a race together since World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in June 2023. Kansas Speedway in May was the last time Busch led a single lap. The future NASCAR Hall of Fame driver has looked every bit washed up at 40 years old, on the verge of setting career lows in top fives (two), laps led (62) and points rank (22nd).
It’s not what Busch or RCR expected when the two first partnered up in 2023. It’s also not what recent NASCAR history tells us in a sport where Father Time comes a little later than stick-and-ball sports. At age 40, Kevin Harvick was one year removed from a Cup title and finished second in points (to Busch, ironically). Jimmie Johnson won his seventh and final championship at 41 while Denny Hamlin could win his first this year at 44.
All of it suggests Busch could still have some gas left in the tank with the right people around him. And while social media was awash in madness Tuesday (Sept. 23), suggesting a Busch trade to a higher-tier operation (like Ty Gibbs‘ seat), the reality is that’s crazy talk. If Busch is going to rejuvenate his career next year, he’s going to do it in the ride he’s contractually obligated to compete in: the No. 8 at RCR.
But that doesn’t mean the organization should play it safe when looking for a new crew chief. While the more likely move is an in-house candidate, there’s one big name sitting on the sidelines right now RCR could take a look at.
Let’s have a little fun and think about some Hail Mary pairings for a driver in need of a total reset.
Rodney Childers
Kevin Harvick used that other Happy Hour podcast (Reminder: we have one too!) this week to talk about how far Busch has fallen.
“I can’t imagine Kyle Busch going out like this,” Harvick said. “It’s bad for everything. It’s bad for the sport. It’s bad for him.”
If Harvick truly feels this way, there’s a guy he knows on speed dial who could help.
Rodney Childers has been out of the sport a few months, since a move to Spire Motorsports and Justin Haley didn’t go as planned. It was his rebound play after a long-term relationship with Stewart-Haas Racing ended at the end of 2024, a partnership that produced 37 wins and a championship with Harvick.
Childers is no stranger to hard-nosed personalities and remains the most decorated crew chief on the free agent market. There’s also a former SHR connection in the form of RCR technical director Johnny Klausmeier.
For an organization that needs to make a big splash, who needs to excite their primary driver … wouldn’t you give that guy a phone call?
Alan Gustafson
Quick, who was Busch’s first full-time crew chief in the Cup Series?
For those Gen-Z fans who weren’t even born in 2005: it was Gustafson, the longtime crew chief of Chase Elliott and the No. 9 of Hendrick Motorsports.
The duo spent three years together, building a rapport that peaked with a fifth-place finish in points during the 2007 season. It had three wins together, two poles and remained just a small step behind teammate Johnson’s rise to dominance in the playoffs.
But Busch was a casualty of Hendrick signing Dale Earnhardt Jr., sending him to Joe Gibbs Racing for 2008 and beyond. It led to some unfinished business, as Gustafson reminisced on the strong working relationship with NASCAR.com several years ago.
“I always enjoyed working with Kyle,” Gustafson said. “I was certainly very young in my career, and we both had a similar steep learning curve at the time and trying to figure out how to do our jobs. I feel like our team wasn’t very good then, we were learning together. If we had known what we were doing, we could’ve done a lot better. Hindsight is always 20/20.”
The problem 18 years later is that Gustafson remains gainfully employed at Hendrick. But his partnership with Elliott is not what it used to be: just two wins total the last three seasons and a sharp reduction in laps led.
A near-first-round postseason disaster put the Gustafson-Elliott partnership in the spotlight again. At 10 years, it’s the longest active driver-crew chief pairing in a sport where five years feels like a lifetime.
Now, the dominoes that would have to fall to get Gustafson not only out of a job, but to a rival Chevy team seem pretty preposterous. But that doesn’t mean it would be a bad move for either. It’s a crew chief who’s spent the better part of four years working with a different driver that’s had the same problem as Busch: adjusting to the different feel of the Next Gen car. Comparing the notes on both sides might spur a solution, while familiarity might be exactly what Busch needs.
Johnny Klausmeier
Now we’re getting to realistic solutions.
Klausmeier spent six years as a Cup crew chief, doing his best with Aric Almirola during a 2018 season that landed just short of the Championship 4.
But Almirola and Chase Briscoe are both mild-mannered personalities compared to Busch. You could also lay the current struggles of RCR as a whole on the technical director, no?
To be fair, Austin Dillon has a win this season and did sneak into the playoffs: it’s more than other mid-tier organizations like RFK Racing can say for itself.
Nate Troupe
Troupe is the engineer for Busch and the No. 8 team. You could go for a fresh face, promoting someone who’s been at this car for six seasons and spent the better part of his career under RCR’s roof.
Troupe has never been a crew chief before but bounced around as a race engineer with Paul Menard, Casey Mears and a stint with RCR’s NXS teams before settling in at the No. 8. This promotion is the natural one teams make when they’re not trying to ruffle many feathers internally.
Mardy Lindley
At age 53, Mardy Lindley would be a very unconventional approach. He would be a first-time Cup crew chief at an age most people are moving into director of competition roles or higher.
But Lindley has been exceptional for JR Motorsports’ young talent, taking Sam Mayer to seven wins over two seasons before shepherding Zilisch’s explosive growth this year in NXS. Would someone like that want to switch to a 40-something veteran teetering toward the edge of his career? The special touch to get young drivers going isn’t necessarily what works for a veteran.
Did You Notice? … Quick hits before taking off …
- With a record-setting nine wins in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (and more potentially on the way), I don’t know how Corey Heim’s stock could get any higher. It would seem like the recent charter deal between Legacy Motor Club and Rick Ware Racing, giving Legacy a road to three cars, only heightens the chance for a two-step promotion to the Cup Series. Heim is Toyota property and, by the way, just ran sixth in a part-time Cup ride at Bristol Motor Speedway. You also wonder if that forces 23XI Racing’s hand to elevate him to Cup; there’s not currently a seat available there, although rumors persist.
- The guy to watch behind Heim at TRICON? How about 20-year-old Gio Ruggiero? While falling short of the playoffs, three top-six finishes in the last five races (including a fourth at New Hampshire Motor Speedway) have sent a message about how competitive this No. 17 team might be next year.
Follow Tom Bowles on X at @NASCARBowles
The author of Did You Notice? (Wednesdays) Tom spends his time overseeing Frontstretch’s 50+ staff members as its majority owner and Editor-in-Chief. Based outside Philadelphia, Bowles is a two-time Emmy winner in NASCAR television and has worked in racing production with FOX, TNT, and ESPN while appearing on-air for SIRIUS XM Radio and FOX Sports 1's former show, the Crowd Goes Wild. He most recently consulted with SRX Racing, helping manage cutting-edge technology and graphics that appeared on their CBS broadcasts during 2021 and 2022.
You can find Tom’s writing here, at CBSSports.com and Athlonsports.com, where he’s been an editorial consultant for the annual racing magazine for 15 years.
Childers is off the table now, jr has him. Kyle is making millions from RCR and involved with his son. I’m lololol because I like Kyle. I’m laughing ” Denny Hamlin could win his first championship at 44″ is like me saying he could get hit by a meteor on the way to the track. If dog rabbit
Childers would be good for RCR and Kyle. The last top ten in the Cup standings was 2014.
i thought of rodney when it was announced kyle’s crew chief was leaving. i don’t think a young crew chief would work with kyle. whatever the case there needs to be a crew chief that can inspire the pit crew and work with the engineers to get the slug of a car competitive.
i just don’t know about rcr anymore. to miss the set up on their cars like they do on a consistent basis is really disheartening. when kyle signed with rcr, that was a bright spot for the race weary fans who have followed that team for generations. you had a fiery driver back in the stable. seems like that fire got extinguished shortly after the celebration.
do the rcr drivers spend time in the sim? i know kyle is busy with his son’s racing.
Better question…why would any established crew chief want to work for RCR, unless they back up the Brinks truck and give them tons of money? This seems a team on the decline, and I don’t see a crew chief being empowered to make the changes needed to fix it.
I agree with John in the comments, that it’s unlikely Kyle Busch is washed up from a talent perspective. Never been a Shrub fan, but it seems clear the team and equipment are the issues, not the driver.
An established crew chief is likely either gainfully employed with one of the best teams, or maybe has been pushed out for one reason or another and looking for a place to land. It seems to me there would be worse places to be than RCR, although it does appear the team is in decline for some reason. I find it hard to imagine their budget is the issue, and surely Richard still gets support from GM? Surely it can’t be Austin just ruining everything. lol
I think the new car has thrown the “old” guys for a bit of a loop. Denny seems to have adjusted to it better, but Keselowski has struggled with it (granted, taking part ownership of RFK at the same time didn’t help). Busch has struggled. Even Jimmie Johnson had less than expected results when he came back from Indycar (how much was due to a new, lesser budget team vs car, I don’t know). At this level, it doesn’t take much of a miss to put yourself mid-pack or worse.
Totally agree the car has changed the playing field a bit. Look no further Chase Elliott’s performance, though he seems to have mostly figured it out this year, and just hasn’t gotten many wins just yet.
Another piece here is Busch isn’t exactly known for being calm and constructive with his crew chief and team. He’s been known to call cars he eventually won in “junk” during the race. Now imagine being in a position where the cars really are junk, and knowing as a crew chief there’s not much you can do about it. Kyle is a great talent, but he can be a pill to deal with in the best of times.
I do wonder about RCR’s finances. As you said they do receive support from GM, and they do have customers for their engines, but if you look at the quality of their sponsors, there are some head scratchers in there who can’t be paying but so much to get on the car. Oddly, it seems Dillon is able to pull somewhat top tier sponsors more often than Busch.
Kyle deserves someone really good; I don’t think the guy is finished yet,