Sportscasting | Pure Sports
Home / NASCAR / Kyle Busch Losing Crew Chief To NASCAR Cup Series Rookie

Kyle Busch Losing Crew Chief To NASCAR Cup Series Rookie

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
Updated –
We publish independently audited content meeting strict editorial standards. Ads on our site are served by Google AdSense and are not controlled or influenced by our editorial team.
Kyle Busch

As announced in May, Kyle Busch will remain at Richard Childress Racing for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Turns out he won’t have the same crew chief, though.

So, why is Busch’s crew chief — garage area veteran Randall Burnett — leaving Busch’s No. 8 RCR team next season? And, better yet, where’s he going?

An announcement this week revealed the answers.

Randall Burnett And Kyle Busch Have Endured A Bumpy Ride Together At RCR

When Richard Childress Racing announced late in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season that then-lame duck Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch would be coming to work for the organization in 2023, hope sprang eternal for both Busch and RCR.

But since going to Victory Lane three times in the first half of their first year together, the once unlikely marriage between driver and team has bore little fruit.

Shut out of Victory Lane since June 2023, Busch is currently mired in by far the longest losing streak of his largely successful Cup Series career. The two-time Cup Series champion and winner of 63 Cup Series races recently missed the playoffs for the second year in a row and is on pace to record his worst points finish as a full-time driver in NASCAR’s premier series.

So, it’s no wonder that the crew chief who’s been with Busch since Day One at RCR — Randall Burnett — has found what he clearly believes to be greener pastures for the 2026 season.

Trackhouse Racing Welcomes Randall Burnett To Crew Chief Lineup

While Richard Childress Racing has yet to make any formal announcement about Randall Burnett’s departure at season’s end, an announcement from another organization this week left no doubt about his intentions.

Trackhouse Racing revealed that the veteran crew chief will call the shots next season for newcomer Connor Zilisch, who’ll compete for the organization as a Cup Series rookie.

Zilisch is currently a Trackhouse Racing development driver who the team essentially loaned out to JR Motorsports for the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season. While Zilisch will race for JRM next year on a part-time basis in NASCAR’s No. 2 division, his main job will be wheeling a Cup Series entry for Trackhouse.

Thankfully for the 19-year-old, he’ll have a well-traveled crew chief in Burnett to lean on. Although Burnett has enjoyed minimal success with Kyle Busch at RCR, he’s not lacking in experience. The Fenton, Missouri native’s resume includes 250 races as a Cup crew chief, and an additional 89 races atop a war wagon in Xfinity Series competition.

Burnett has celebrated 12 wins as a crew chief — with half coming at the Cup level and the other half coming in Xfinity. Nine of his 12 victories across the two series have been with Tyler Reddick — whose departure from RCR at the end of 2022 made room for Busch to join the organization.

Whether Burnett ultimately accomplishes more with Zilisch at Trackhouse than he did with Busch and Reddick at RCR will be fascinating to watch. For now, though, Zilisch — an emerging superstar who’s the current NASCAR Xfinity Series points leader — seems thrilled about the selection of Burnett as his future Cup Series crew chief.

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
Jared Turner is a motorsports writer who has covered NASCAR for 20 years. He has interviewed over 20 NASCAR Hall of Famers and around 100 drivers, crew chiefs, and team owners, both past and present. He has also covered the sport for FOX Sports (where he was a two-time recipient of the FOX “X” Award for “Xtraordinary” job performance), NASCAR.com, Sporting News, NASCAR Pole Position Magazine, the SPEED network, and plenty of other online and print-only publications throughout his career. Notably, Jared has penned dozens of articles for NASCAR souvenir programs, including several featured prominently in Daytona 500 keepsakes. A Virginia Press Association award winner and former member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Jared has racked up accolades both for his writing and his academic work. He studied both Communication and Psychology at Virginia Tech, where he was permanently enshrined in Phi Beta Kappa — the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. Jared excels at feature writing and opinion writing, much of which stems from his dedication to all levels of racing.
All posts by Jared Turner
Other News