Ten races into the 2026 NASCAR Cup season, Richard Childress Racing has only one high ten end as a corporation — a tenth by Kyle Busch this previous weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.
Jim Pohlman, who left behind a profitable profession as crew chief for Justin Allgaier within the NASCAR O’Reilly Collection to take over crew chief duties for Busch, is now being moved off the pit field. Pohlman, who gained the 2024 O’Reilly title with Allgaier at JR Motorsports, will stay with RCR and transition right into a management position throughout the competitors division.
Busch at present sits twenty seventh in factors, and the one vibrant spot for the Pohlman/Busch duo was incomes pole place for the Daytona 500.
Kyle Busch and Richard Childress after successful pole for 2026 Daytona 500
Photograph by: James Gilbert / Getty Pictures
Andy Avenue, who labored with Busch within the closing few races of the 2025 season after former RCR crew chief Randall Burnett left the group, will transfer again into that position.
Avenue has been with Childress for 20 years, and most lately labored because the group’s Efficiency Director. He was additionally as a crew chief in 167 NASCAR O’Reilly races previously. He gained eleven races atop the pit field, and led Austin Hill to the Championship 4 in 2024. He additionally helped Myatt Snider to his one and solely win as a NOAPS driver.
Within the closing 5 races of the 2025 Cup season with Avenue atop the pit field, Busch completed thirty fourth (crash), eighth, nineteenth, thirteenth, and fifth within the season finale.
“This transfer is about placing our individuals in the most effective place to succeed,” mentioned Richard Childress, Chairman and CEO of RCR. “Now we have robust expertise throughout this group, and we’re centered on having every particular person in the precise place to assist ship the outcomes we count on.”
Added Mike Verlander, President of RCR: “We strongly imagine within the individuals we now have. “On the similar time, we count on higher outcomes, and that requires us to repeatedly consider and make changes. Jim has greater than 20 years of success on this sport and can stay an essential a part of our group. We imagine Andy and Kyle’s earlier working relationship positions us to enhance the No. 8 group and compete at a better degree.”
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