Kyle Busch to lose crew chief in 2026

WELCOME, N.C. — Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch is losing his current crew chief in 2026.

Busch’s current crew chief, Randall Burnett, is joining Trackhouse Racing to work with the No. 99 team and incoming rookie driver Connor Zilisch in 2026. Burnett and Zilisch will replace Matt Swiderski and Daniel Suarez at season’s end.

It’s unknown where Swiderski and Suarez will land.

Many have linked Suarez to Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 team with talks of the team possibly moving on from Justin Haley. Swiderski could also land there or with Busch at RCR. Nothing is confirmed yet.

Worst season… Ever?

Statistically speaking, 2025 has been that way for Kyle Busch.

For the first time since his illustrious Cup career began in 2005, Busch is both winless and out of the playoffs for the second season in a row.

After 30 of 36 races in 2025, Busch has led 62 laps, 42 of which he led in the third race — at Circuit of the Americas in March. In fact, COTA was the only race where Busch has had an average running position inside of the top 10 — and the last non-superspeedway race where he took the lead on his own and not during a green flag pit cycle.

In 2025, Busch has two top-five finishes and eight top-10 finishes so far, compared to five and 10 at this point (and overall) last season. 2025 has been a downturn from 2024 when he took the lead on his own in several races, contended for wins, top-fives and top-10s more often and had an average running position of 10th or better in multiple races.

Busch’s struggles — and RCR’s struggles overall despite making the playoffs with Austin Dillon — even prompted Richard Childress to say, “we need better cars,” after the race at Dover Motor Speedway. 

Despite the struggles, Busch will be back with RCR in 2026 — his 22nd full-time season.

Busch is set to become only the 14th driver in history to hit 750 Cup starts — in this year’s season finale. By the end of next season, if Busch doesn’t miss any races, he will have 786 starts and rank 11th all-time, just ahead of Michael Waltrip (784).

If he races full-time in 2027, he’d have 822 starts — which would push him to ninth all-time — just ahead of Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip.

How much time does Kyle Busch have left in the NASCAR Cup Series?

Kyle Busch’s only tentative plan is to continue racing in Cup until his son Brexton Busch is almost old enough to race in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

To race part-time at ovals 1.25 miles or shorter and road courses in Trucks, you need to be at least 16 years old. Once you turn 18, you can race full-time.

Brexton turned 10 in May and is getting various dirt and paved experience — even racing against his dad. Brexton could make his first Truck start in May 2031 and go full-time in 2034.

If Busch wants to go for a Truck championship before splitting a ride with Brexton, he’d likely want 2-3 years to go for it — putting the start of the timeline in 2028 or 2029.

Combined with the recent performance, Busch doesn’t have much time left in Cup — but his accomplishments are plenty in NASCAR, especially as a Cup and Xfinity champion. Becoming a Truck champion would make him the first to win all three NASCAR national series championships — but not doing so wouldn’t diminish his legacy any. He is a future first-ballot NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee and an important voice for the sport for years to come.