Richard Childress Racing has pulled the lever on a change to Kyle Busch’s No. 8 team, with Andy Street set to replace Jim Pohlman as crew chief starting at Texas Motor Speedway. The move drew a response from Kevin Harvick, who said the pairing of Pohlman and Busch had turned into a clash that was not built to last.
Per the announcement from RCR, Street, who led the No. 8 team at the end of the 2025 NASCAR season after the team split with Randall Burnett, will take over the role.
Burnett had since moved to Trackhouse Racing to work with Connor Zilisch. In his place, Pohlman was brought in from Justin Allgaier’s No. 7 team at JR Motorsports in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series.
The switch gives Busch another crew chief change following his first top-10 finish of the 2026 season. Harvick, however, sees merit in the move.
On the latest episode of his podcast, Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, the Hall of Fame candidate said the fault lines were clear from the start. With Busch known for speaking his mind and Pohlman cut from the same cloth, a combination that led to a gap between what was done and what was expected within the No. 8 camp.
“Now it was just a really, really combative scenario that you had with those two personalities of Jim Pohlman and Kyle Bush in the car. We can sense that just from listening to the radio. If I had a crew chief that talked about me like that, I’d fire his ass quickly because that is unacceptable. They can be mad at me, but talking like that, they talked on that channel two after Bristol that week, that was unacceptable. That is the wrong guy. When I hear the crew chief talk about me like that, he has zero confidence in anything that I’m doing in the car. After that, I was like, there is no way that this will possibly work because this is way too toxic.” — Kevin Harvick
Harvick is referring to a moment when tensions spilled over on Busch’s radio at Bristol, as Pohlman lost his cool and appeared to direct it toward spotter Derek Kneeland. Busch was dealing with a loose car and struggled to carry speed into the corner.
As adjustments failed to yield gains, Pohlman’s frustration came through on the radio in a now viral clip from the race.
“Kyle Bush cannot have a guy that’s tipped over the edge anytime something goes wrong. And it just seemed like that was the scenario that they were in. So, I don’t even drive the car or have any skin in the game. And I was pissed off.”
Turning to Street, Harvick said he knows him from his time at RCR and described him as calmer in approach, with years of work behind him.
Street has been part of the Childress setup for 20 years and most recently served as Performance Director. He has called races in 167 NASCAR O’Reilly Series events, with 11 wins, and guided Austin Hill to the Championship 4 in 2024. He has also worked with Jesse Love and helped Myatt Snider land his lone win in the O’Reilly Series.
As mentioned above, Street has also worked with Busch, too. In the final five races of the 2025 Cup season with Street on the pit box, Busch finished 34th after a crash, followed by results of 8th, 19th, 13th, and 5th in the finale.
Harvick now looks to see whether the Street–Busch pairing can click this time and bring results to match.
What do you think about this? Let us know your opinion on Discord or X. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
