Kyle Busch and the No. 8 team at Richard Childress Racing were off to a dismal start in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season.
A change of crew chief in late April brought Andy Street atop the pit box. And through two races, Busch has finally shown glimpses of speed again with competitive runs at both Texas Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen International, offering a glimmer of hope that the two-time Cup Series champion is on the verge of finding success again.
Advertisement
In a team sport like NASCAR, one hire doesn‘t typically lead to a radical change in a team‘s performance. Yet it‘s hard to ignore the uptick the No. 8 team has had since Street stepped in at Texas. But who is Andy Street, and why is the No. 8 car suddenly competitive again all of a sudden?
“I’ll tell you the whole story,” Street said.
MORE: Cup Series standings
He offers an early disclaimer: Street says he hasn’t done anything in particular to build speed into the No. 8 car. He instead points to the tireless efforts that have been taking place behind the scenes in different departments, and the Nos. 3 and 8 teams are reaping those rewards now.
Advertisement
“That may not be what you want to hear,” Street laughed.
But there is reason to take Street at his word. Let him explain.
Most people may recognize Street’s name from his three years of success in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series as crew chief for Austin Hill and the No. 21 Chevrolet, winning 10 races together and earning a 2024 Championship 4 appearance. What most likely don’t know is Street has been a fixture at RCR since 2003. After an interview at Thanksgiving in 2002 while he was a student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Street was eventually hired for a spot on the team’s engineering department two weeks before he graduated from college in the spring of 2003.
“The landscape of NASCAR has changed so much over the last 23 years, right?” Street said in a phone interview Wednesday evening. “RCR was structured different. I mean, at that time, you had four Cup cars, and they were all kind of like their individual teams. It wasn’t this like big team aspect, and so you were exposed to a lot of different things.”
Advertisement
Street loved motorsports and he wanted to be a part of it, but stock-car racing was new to him when he first joined RCR. Drag racing was where Street’s passion for motorsports began. But as an engineer at RCR through the mid-2000s, Street got a crash course in NASCAR and found his strengths in research and development, designing through CAD drawings and working closely with the fabrication department to assist with the many midweek test sessions that occurred at that time, all providing valuable lessons before Street joined Kevin Harvick’s No. 29 team as an engineer in the 2006 season.
“It was very cool because it was the turning point, I felt like, of a lot of development stuff with the aero side of things and the suspension side of things,” Street said. “It was very cool. Todd Berrier was the crew chief on the 29 car with Kevin Harvick, and he and I got along really well. We still get along really well. And he took me under his wing and showed me a lot of things. He knew I was green to circle-track racing stuff, so it was very cool to have him take an interest in me and want to see me succeed.”
In all, Street spent time from 2006 through 2017 either working as an engineer on the road or in the team’s R&D program back at the shop, with team leaders placing full belief in Street as the man who could help revamp the organization’s development.
Street departed in 2017, however, for a brief sabbatical that helped fulfill his passion for drag racing, working with NHRA Pro Stock Car racer Tanner Gray — yes, the now-NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver — for just over a year. RCR and NASCAR called Street back, though, leading to Street’s return in 2018 as engineer for the No. 2 Chevrolet in O’Reilly Auto Parts Series competition.
Andy Street serves as crew chief during a NASCAR race.
But even after his debut as crew chief in a one-off opportunity in 2019, Street’s strengths in development always shone brightest. What couldn’t be ignored, though, was the speed he brought to his cars as crew chief. That led to his first full-time gig in 2020, heading the No. 21 team with four different drivers before he and Myatt Snider paired in 2021 in the No. 2 Chevrolet, earning a win at Homestead-Miami. One year later, he and Hill rocketed to success from 2022 through 2024.
Advertisement
Street earned a promotion in 2025, becoming the organization’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series engineer manager while also crew-chiefing RCR’s part-time entries in both O’Reilly and Cup. He and Johnny Klausmeier, RCR’s technical director, alternated time at the track. That allowed Street to connect with all of the organization’s drivers and teams through post-practice and post-race debriefs. So when RCR parted ways with then-crew chief Randall Burnett on the No. 8 team late in 2025, Street got the call to step in for the final five races of the year. Jim Pohlman began the 2026 campaign atop the No. 8 pit box, but Street was tabbed for the job again with Busch sitting 27th in points after 10 races.
MORE: Busch speaks on crew chief change: ‘The writing is in the points standings’
“The relationship that (was) established with Kyle in the post-race meetings or post-practice meetings and so forth, it was really good,” Street said. “It was really good from the beginning. It’s been easier this year for us to get into the transition with me back in that position because of our five races that we had together. But I will say that we were fine before the five races last year. But then during those five races to end the season, he and I got on the same page together. And his guidance — he knows that I don’t have a ton of experience in the Cup Series, especially with these cars. And so last year, he was a huge asset for me to help me. Like he would tell me what he’s feeling and what he thinks. And I’m like, ‘Well, I’m thinking this,’ and he’s like, ‘No, I think you need to think this’ and just constantly bouncing ideas off of each other.”
That brings us to the present. Busch enters Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway (1 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) 24th in points on the heels of an uptick in speed. What’s led to it, Street says, is a united belief within the walls of RCR.
Advertisement
“The team is incredible. That 8 team, everybody that works dedicated to the 8 team, that is an incredible group of guys,” Street said. “They are dedicated. They are committed. They want to see the program succeed. And I can’t tell you that there’s one thing that I did anything different than the previous guy, or even Randall when he was on the program, or Jim. I mean, I’ve got a ton of respect for Randall and Jim, and so excited Jim’s at RCR. He’s a great asset to us all. But I can’t pinpoint anything other than the fact that I’ve just worked with (Busch), and I kind of understand what he needs a little bit better, maybe, than (others).”
The team won’t earn any points to better their position in Sunday’s exhibition, but the upcoming slate of tracks — Dover, Charlotte, Nashville, Michigan and Pocono — offers a chance to build upon this newfound positivity.
“I look forward to finishing out the year with Kyle,” Street said. “I mean, they’re all not going to be top-10 weekends. They’re all not gonna be top-five weekends. But try to keep the momentum going as much as we can, and try to strive for those top fives and top 10s. And if you do that enough, you might squeak in a win or two.”
Read the full article here