Jim Pohlman arrived at RCR with a simple goal in sight: rescue Kyle Busch and RCR’s sinking ship. After all, Pohlman was no stranger to success or to RCR. He had won an Xfinity Series championship with Justin Allgaier and had also worked with Richard Childress Racing in the past. His potential was high, and so were the expectations. But 10 races into the season, Pohlman was relieved of his crew chief duties. And his former boss, Dale Earnhardt Jr., has opened up on the same while revealing some behind-the-scenes details.

Speaking on the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. opened up on Jim Pohlman being replaced by Andy Street. “We all know they just haven’t had the results. It’s been tough. There’s been a lot of radio chatter that’s become public, and there’s been a lot of focus on that. Radio chatter like that between guys, between teams, is not uncommon,” Earnhardt stated.

During the Cup race at Bristol, tensions between Pohlman and #8 spotter Derek Kneeland intensified as the crew chief exclaimed, “Same s**t every week!” But this change won’t be a quick fix, as Junior said, despite the RCR chairman and CEO Richard Childress saying that “This move is about putting our people in the best position to succeed.”

Earnhardt further revealed the sequence of events that led to Jim Pohlman’s departure from JRM.

“I think Jim here at Junior Motorsports, he had kind of gotten to the end of the runway. He was like, I need a new challenge. This ain’t getting it. This ain’t doing it. And Cup’s calling. It’s hard to turn that down. Mike Dillon called me. He’s like, ‘Hey, can we talk to Jim? We are really looking for somebody to crew chief Kyle’s car next year, and we’d love to have Jim back.’ Jim used to work at RCR years ago. They saw what he was able to do with Justin,” he explained.

Cut to present, Pohlman is out of his role as a crew chief in the first third of the season, a year after winning a NASCAR championship. However, Earnhardt was confident that Pohlman wouldn’t be too worried about how it all turned out for him.

“I hope that you know, Jim’s an awesome guy, very, very passionate, trust me when I tell you that while Jim’s probably disappointed this didn’t work out, Jim’s going to be fine,” he added.

To Earnhardt’s point, Jim Pohlman was removed as a crew chief from the #8 team, but he wasn’t fired from RCR. He will remain within the organisation in a new role. Pohlman would now be in a leadership role in the competition department after 10 races of disappointing results for the #8 team.

For Busch, though, Earnhardt had a warning:  “I’ve been in this situation, when you make a change mid-season. It is really hard to find positivity and try to figure out how to be hopeful that things are going to improve.”

This comes after Earnhardt recently responded to Busch’s earlier remarks – “It’s never Junior. It’s always the crew chief” – that aimed to mock Dale Jr. when he was midst the roughest stretch of his career.

“You know, it’s a really sh—– thing, and I mean, it’s kind of what he’s dealing with now. It’s very similar. He’s in a bad spot. He’s in a car that isn’t going. His teammate is doing better, getting the better results,” Junior said.

Well, that holds truer now. From Randel Brunett to Andy Street to Jim Pohlman to Street again, Busch has certainly been through quite a lot of crew chief changes.

And except for his first season with RCR in 2023, when he won three races, Kyle Busch’s tenure with the team from has been nothing short of disappointing for one reason or another. He hasn’t won a race in nearly three years, with his last win being at Gateway in June 2023.

2024 became the first season in which Busch didn’t win a race in the first 10 races since 2021. But at least he had one top 5 and two top 10s. In 2025, he still didn’t have a win in the first 10, but there was one top 5 and three top 10s. But in 2026, while the win is still not there, there have been no top 5s, and just one top 10. At Talladega, he scored a top 10 finish, his first of the season. But his results before that? Five finishes outside the top 20 in a row.

However, for now, Busch seems intent on fighting with a resilient spirit.

Kyle Busch refuses to quit

Starting all the way back in 34th, the 40-year-old didn’t waste any time charging forward during the Talladega race. By Lap 20 of Stage 1, he had already carved through the field and cracked the top 10 with teammate Austin Dillon, a sign of speed and track position the No. 8 team has been searching for all season.

As the race went on, he ran up front with other competitors such as Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs, and John Hunter Nemechek, running sixth while Dillon was right behind in seventh. The lead group split off for a stretch, controlling the draft, until Stage 2 brought the inevitable “Big One,” a massive wreck that wiped out a big chunk of the field. But Busch survived where many saw their races come to an end.

“Definitely good to get a good finish. We wanted more, you know,” Busch admitted later. “I thought we were capable of more, but we’ve got to take the top-10 result right now and be happy about that.” And even posted a celebratory post, writing, “First T10 of the year. Fought all day and snuck through at the end. No quit in this @cheddarskitchen No. 8 team.”

This top-10 finish has to feel like a turning point for Busch. But with a new crew chief employed to keep the momentum going, one cannot say anything for sure.