CONCORD, N.C. — Kyle Busch has a new interim crew chief at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval as Andy Street moves atop the pit box for the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
Randall Burnett had been Busch’s crew chief since Busch joined RCR for the 2023 season and spent each of the last eight seasons working for the organization. But Burnett will be heading to Trackhouse Racing in 2026 to lead rookie Connor Zilisch through his Cup Series inauguration, Trackhouse announced Sept. 23. RCR made the decision Oct. 1 to move Street into the interim crew chief role, while Burnett “will continue contributing in a support role with the organization through the end of the season.”
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Busch has won three races for RCR in his nearly three-season tenure, but each of those three wins at Auto Club Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway came within Busch’s first 15 races for the company. With five races left in 2025, Busch has a career-low two top fives and eight top 10s with just 62 laps led.
Change, Busch said, was necessary.
“Obviously, I mean, we’re not getting the results, right?” Busch said Saturday. “Results (are) what matters. We’re in a performance-based business and not getting the results. It’s got to fall back on someone, and they re-signed me for another year. So that kind of gave me the notion of they’ve got my back. And we needed to find a change somewhere.”
Busch cautioned, though, that one hire may not be the difference. He compared the end results as a cumulative product of a football staff working together, from head coach to running backs coach, quarterbacks coach, receivers coach and so forth.
“I mean, it’s not just going to be a crew chief that comes in and fix the whole program. I’m going to put that out there,” Busch said. “We’ve got to have from top to bottom, from inside out, an opportunity of being able to orchestrate the proper personnel to go out there to execute.”
Street will serve as the No. 8 team’s crew chief through the balance of the season. But who will fill the position in 2026? Busch, the two-time Cup Series champion, is leaving that in the hands of team owner Richard Childress and team president Mike Verlander.
“I would say they’ve got to have a Rolodex,” Busch said. “And whoever they can pinpoint to have an opportunity to come inside and do the work, or whether they’re from the inside and do the work, it’s about leading us in the right direction.
“It’s not that I don’t want any input or to be in those conversations, but they’ve got to put together their list. And obviously, time is of the essence because people are probably getting their deals done right now in order to get it done by the end of the year. So once that’s together, then you kind of go over that and say yea or nay.”
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