Richard Childress Racing (RCR) has recently made a crew chief change for Kyle Busch, replacing Jim Pohlman with Andy Street, effective immediately for the remainder of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season. Former NASCAR driver-turned-analyst Jamie McMurray shared his thoughts on the major change in Kyle Busch’s crew chief.
Busch’s crew chief change came after a tough start to the 2026 season, with two-time NASCAR Cup champion standing 27th in the points standings and having recorded just one top-10 finish through 10 races. A P10 finish came this past weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.
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In the latest episode of the NASCAR Inside The Race podcast, Jamie McMurray analyzes Busch’s crew chief change. He knew the crew chief change was coming after what happened in the tense radio exchanges between Busch and his crew chief Pohlman at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“No, not completely. I mean, after you heard the radio from Bristol, you could tell that relationship was over. In Jim Pohlman’s defense, I think being Kyle’s crew chief would maybe be the hardest crew chief to be. Kyle’s a tough one, and his success over the years, I think, makes that even harder because that’s where he wants to be, and they’re not there right now.” McMurray said.
Jim Pohlman now moved to a leadership role within RCR’s competition department. Whereas Andy Street served as the Performance Director for RCR in 2026 and has been associated with the organization for more than 20 years in various roles, including as a crew chief.
Street had served as the crew chief of Busch at the end of the 2025 season after former crew chief Randall Burnett departed for Trackhouse Racing.
RCR made the immediate crew chief change to achieve “the results we expect” for Kyle Busch and his team
The move is a desperate attempt to boost performance for Kyle Busch and the #8 RCR team, who are currently enduring a 103-race-long winless streak.
Speaking about this change, Richard Childress, the chairman and CEO of RCR, said:
“This move is about putting our people in the best position to succeed. We have strong talent across this organization, and we’re focused on having each person in the right position to help deliver the results we expect.”
Kyle Busch, who has been regarded as the most accomplished active driver on the grid, has struggled mightily over the last few seasons at RCR after scoring three victories with the team in his first season with them in 2023.
Edited by Yash Soni
