TALLADEGA, Ala. — Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch has been on the hunt for a new crew chief over the last month. He has found his next commander-in-chief of the No. 8 Chevrolet.
After spending the last three seasons calling the shots for Justin Allgaier in the Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports, Pohlman will return to Richard Childress Racing in 2026 for his rookie campaign as a full-time crew chief in Cup. Replacing a departing Randall Burnett, it was about finding the best leadership skills for Busch, with him believing that quality supersedes everything.
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“I would say his passion and the leadership conversations that we had,” Busch said on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway about what set Pohlman apart in auditions. “You are not hiring a guy based off results in a Cup car. That is yet to be seen and made, but hopefully he‘s the guy that can lead us in the right direction with not just the 8 car, but RCR as a whole.”
Fresh ideas were needed for the No. 8 team. RCR brass, which consisted of team owner Richard Childress, team president Mike Verlander, executive vice president Mike Dillon, Busch and Austin Dillon, had conversations with a few different individuals. Pohlman‘s resume jumped out compared to other candidates.
“I know he‘s done some great things the last couple of years in the Xfinity Series with Justin, and I hope this doesn‘t take away from that for them for the remainder of the year,” Busch said. “It would be nice to have a two-time championship leader coming back over to RCR, as he was with us years prior in the early years of development with the Next Gen car.”
Pohlman was among the leaders of RCR‘s research and development program during the initial campaign of the Next Gen car in 2022 before moving to JRM. Having prior history with RCR was crucial in bringing him back in-house.
“We know what kind of a person he is, what kind of a worker he is,” Austin Dillon said on Saturday. “His attitude is infectious. We missed him when he left. I think remembering what it was like having him here and some of the things that he did for our organization made it a great fit to come back at the right time with Kyle. I‘m really excited to get him in the building and helping build the 8 team, so the 3 and 8 teams can work together next year really well and try and start the season off with more speed than we have so far this season.”
Through a pair of one-hour meetings, Busch noted Pohlman had interchangeable personality traits, as some of his prior crew chiefs with whom he had success. The duo has had limited interactions despite being in the same garage for more than two decades.
“I‘ve been in this garage since 1998, and Kyle has been here since 2003. We‘ve raced and crossed paths, talked here and there,” Pohlman told NASCAR.com on Friday. “I wouldn‘t say Kyle and I were best buds and haven‘t had a whole bunch of conversations. I would say mostly at the professional level.”
Busch kept falling back to leadership being the point of emphasis, which Dillon added, Pohlman is a “leader among men.” In the Next Gen era, the 63-time Cup victor believes that trait trumps anything, building a relationship away from the race track.
“Speed comes from the race shop — it starts there,” Busch noted. “It doesn‘t happen at the race track. Crew chief, driver relationships now, with 25 minutes of practice, is pretty much just dial in your balance and try to make it as good as you can. Make the right adjustments into qualifying to qualify good and then make the right adjustments going into the race so you come out of the gate strong in that.
“It seems like those are areas that we‘ve not been as strong as we‘d like. If you look at every single race, we get better throughout and we‘re finally OK in the final stage but it‘s too late. It‘s about making the right educated decisions with the squiggly lines on the computer.”
Busch confirmed that the bulk of the No. 8 team will remain the same. Currently, Pohlman is the only change. The No. 8 team is amid a 90-race winless drought dating back to midway through the 2023 season at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. He earned his first top-10 finish since mid-July last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
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