“I Just Remembered How to Drive!” Kyle Busch Makes Painful Joke After Return to Form

Coming into 2026 season Kyle Busch and new crew chief Jim Pohlman had one goal, redeem themselves from the winless streak. But the start of the season turned out to be a disaster, as the No:8 team marked three years and 100+ races without a win. RCR made the tough choice to sack the crew chief, after seeing no signs of redemption 10 race into the year.  

The reign of the team was given to Andy Street and since taking over, he had led the two times champion to his best runs of the season. Ahead of the Dover All-Star race, the veteran talked about it and joked how is remembering how to drive again and how the new team leader is influencing a change. Behind the laughs, there hides the true pain of not being able to deliver on the elite standard he has set for himself.

I guess I just remembered how to drive, It’s [Andy] Street; I don’t know. I don’t know what he’s doing differently. I don’t feel like I’m talking to anybody any differently. I don’t feel like I’m relaying the information any differently. I just feel like it’s maybe construed or thought about in a different way, and then the execution of being able to listen to my words and put it into race car translate differently.

Kyle Busch said at Dover.

The Chevy driver is more hopeful about his new crew chief that he has ever been, as the relationship he has built in a short time with Street has given him the same feelings he had, when Adam Staeven was leading the team for him at JGR. In their five years together, the made playoffs every time with multiple wins in the bag, collecting a combined 35 trophies.

It’s no different than (with former crew chief) Adam Stevens. I had him for five years, we made the playoffs for five years in a row, and we were unstoppable. We won 35 races in those years, I think, or something like that.

Kyle Busch added via RACER.

In the very own words of Kyle Busch, it was his Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus era, as the Hendrick Motorsports duo is the epitome of successful partnership in the modern era. The No:8 Chevy driver has been looking for another individual he would click on the same way for many years and seems to have finally found it when he was the most desperate.

It was crazy, and it was just easy, and I was like, ‘This is Jimmie [Johnson] and Chad [Knaus].’ So when you can find those moments and find those guys that you can really, really click with, man, you try to do everything in your power to keep it all together as much as you can.

Kyle Busch asserted.

Kyle Busch explains how form affects mindset of drivers

The performance on the driver and the mind set of the team is positively correlated. When they are running well the team morals will be high and vice-versa. Right now, RCR is slowly but surely finding the positive momentum.

I would say so. I would think that anytime that you have positive mojo going, it’s a good feeling and it kind of gives you that vote confidence of, ‘OK, we’re doing our job.’ Then, when you’re not doing well, you’re like, ‘Well, what am I doing wrong? I’m doing everything that I normally would be doing.’

Kyle Busch said.

The good vibes about potential redemption were not only visible in the No:8 team, as the No:3 team of Austin Dillon is also on the rise, and the two times second division champion shared his expectations for the good days coming as well. It would be interesting to see how everything going to playout for the star drivers in the coming events.

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