Richard Childress Racing is in a dire situation with its star driver, Kyle Busch, as of 2026. With a contract that pays Busch nearly $17M a year, Childress and his team should be regular contenders for the championship. Yet somehow, for the past three years, his team has been relegated to the back row. To aid him, Childress has paired him with another crew chief, and Busch wholeheartedly agrees with the idea.

Applauding his team owner for the decision, Kyle Busch said, “Well, we had really good success here with Andy, like last year where he was getting the train on the tracks and then sort of doing some good things behind the wheel. Some good results were coming with that, and obviously I have been with my same 8 team for the entire time I have been in RCR, and those guys bust their butts every single week and give their best all the time.

“So, it’s great to work with that group, and we have a lot of fun together. You know, the rotation of the crew chiefs is a little bit strenuous, I am sure, but Andy’s got a good focus here for this weekend so far. Obviously qualifying in sixth is a great start for us; looking forward to keeping that moment rolling going forward into the race.”

Jim Pohlman was brought in from JR Motorsports to aid Kyle Busch‘s winless slump. Yet, the pairing only lasted 10 races into the 2026 season. The turning point behind his removal from his role was probably the heated exchange Pohlman had during one of the races. His frustration spilled out on the radio, and Busch’s spotter, Derek Kneeland, was heard trying to calm him down.

While some are wondering if changing the crew chief midway through the Regular season is the right move, Kyle Busch clearly has no doubts about his team owner’s decisions. Instead, he is defending Andy Street’s return as his crew chief. Street seemingly did a good job last year as the interim crew chief for Busch, and now Childress thinks this experiment might end up becoming their winning formula.

Andy Street was the performance director at Richard Childress Racing before his new appointment. Until Pohlman’s addition to RCR, he was seemingly the best choice for becoming Kyle Busch’s crew chief at the end of last season. Andy Street has won 11 O’Reilly races, 10 of which came with Austin Hill between 2022 and 2024, so he definitely has the winning experience needed for a driver of Busch’s caliber.

Moreover, it’s not like Richard Childress is actually making a huge gamble in this case. Sure, his crew chief is being replaced midway through the season, but the context matters: Street had five races with Busch at the end of 2025, while Pohlman had ten in 2026. Neither stint is a large enough sample to draw definitive conclusions, but Street’s prior run with Busch, which included a top-five finish in the 2025 season finale at Phoenix, at least gives RCR a known quantity to work with.

Not that RCR has any other option.

Was Pohlman not the best choice for Kyle Busch?

Pohlman himself is a championship-winning crew chief who mentored Justin Allgaier to his title with JR Motorsports in 2024. Although even experts believed he might be a bit too emotional and aggressive to be paired with Kyle Busch. In his podcast, Kevin Harvick was the first to call out his Bristol meltdown and demand that he be replaced.

“He can be mad at me,” Harvick said on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast. “But talking like the way they talked on Channel 2 after Bristol that week, that was unacceptable. That is the wrong guy.”

His frustration might partly be the reason behind his removal. But the major factor at play here is Busch’s performance and future with RCR.

Sitting P27 in the driver standings, Busch isn’t living up to his status in the Cup Series. As a guy who has gone winless for more than 100 races, he looks like a mere shadow of the Rowdy who holds the record for most wins in the three NASCAR national series combined. Busch is also nearing the end of his contract this year with RCR, so it is fair to say that Childress wants to give him as many chances as possible.

While other veterans are warning Childress not to make hasty decisions and let go of Kyle Busch yet, the $17M price tag might be slightly more exorbitant than what the team can handle, considering his results. Moreover, RCR itself is facing a tough time in the Cup Series with its operations.

Busch already has his priorities straight. During his pre-race interview, he confirmed that he is only thinking about his own performance when addressing his team.

“Basically, I am all in. I am here to work; I am here to do my job, and I am here to do what I am supposed to do. And that’s whatever’s asked of me. You know we have got plenty of partners aboard our racecar.

“We support them; they support us. It’s been a lot of fun being able to do that and meet so many different people and go into the sim all the time, being there two times during the week and doing whatever it takes to be able to put all of that together.”