Randall Burnett: Meet Kyle Busch’s Crew Chief in Richard Childress Racing

A NASCAR driver cannot win raves on their own, no matter how hard they try. Without a competent crew chief to help maximize the car’s setup as well as coordinate the crew to ensure efficiency, a driver’s skill wouldn’t get the chance to shine. This had been the case for Kyle Busch ever since his longtime championship-winning crew chief, Adam Stevens ‘blindsided’ him and moved over to Christopher Bell’s side. Fortunately, the #8 Richard Childress Racing garage has Busch covered, with crew chief Randall Burnett helping the 2x Cup Champion get back up to speed. As the 2024 season unfolds, let’s look at what makes the #8 RCR crew such a formidable force.

Who is Kyle Busch?

For most NASCAR fans, Kyle Busch needs no introduction. Since his Cup debut in 2005, the 38-year-old has quickly cemented himself as one of NASCAR’s winningest drivers. Not only does Busch have the most wins to date in the Xfinity and Truck Series, but he has also led his team, Kyle Busch Motorsports, to a record 98 career wins and 7 owners championships.

In the Cup Series, Busch has broken records belonging to the legend Richard Petty (consecutive wins) and bested Bobby and Donnie Allison along with his brother Kirt Busch for most wins. Naturally, Kyle Busch doesn’t expect anything lesser from his crew chief at RCR. And so far, in their time together, the pair have brought in 2 wins last season.

Who is Kyle Busch’s crew chief Randall Burnett?

Speaking of the man responsible for Busch’s resurgence, Randall Burnett himself is no stranger to success. After helping Tyler Reddick secure his Xfinity championship in 2019, the duo were promoted by Childress to the Cup Series.

Whilst Reddick and the Fenton native had a good run until 2022, Burnett became the crew chief of the #8 Richard Childress Racing Chevy on the arrival of Kyle Busch at RCR. Since then, the pair have quickly made their way back to the front lines, bringing home solid three wins in only their first season together.

Randall Burnett’s early life

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Hailing from Fenton, Missouri, the #8 crew chief has quite a similar journey in his formative years to William Byron’s crew chief, Rudy Fugle. As children, both built and raced late models near their hometowns, and moved over to the University of North Carolina, Charlotte to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. After graduating, Burnett got the call from Chip Ganassi Racing to work as an apprentice, and the rest was history. The next decade was spent by Burnett under the shades of the Ganassi building. During his time, he worked there in many positions from data acquisition engineer, lead race engineer to 7-post analysis engineer and lead team engineer.

Randall Burnett’s racing career

While Burnett is now famously known as one of NASCAR’s winningest crew chiefs in the Next Gen era, his passion for racing saw him take the wheel of go-karts and late models at the WWT Raceway, which hosts the Cup Series Series Illinois 300. With the help of his parents’ go-karting business, Trackside Motorsports, Burnett quickly made a name for himself in the local scene and began building his late models.

Reflecting on his past as a racer himself, Burnett was quoted in an RCR statement, “My Dad worked road construction for Fred Webber Incorporated and then ran this go-kart business in the evening with my mom and that’s how I raced. My Dad and the St. Louis Karting Association and a bunch of people built an asphalt racetrack for us to race on off Telegraph Road. We’d go watch Pevely or Tri-City on Saturday nights and hang around and watch the dirt late models and modified guys race and then we’d race on Sunday at Telegraph Road at Whitman Park.”

Randall Burnett’s Debut in NASCAR

For Randall Burnettx his big break would finally come in 2016, when he made his crew chief debut in the Cup Series for JTG Daugherty Racing and A.J Allmendinger. Together, the pair brought in two top-fives, and nine top-tens and nearly won a race at Martinsville over one season. However, Burnett then stepped back to the Xfinity Series with Reddick and RCR, feeling that he still had a lot of learning to do.

He was quoted by Racer, “Starting on the Cup side with AJ [Allmendinger], I had a lot of hurdles to overcome, a lot of things to learn. I’d been a race engineer for a long time and definitely switching into the crew chief role, it presents its own challenges. It’s more than just when to pit or what springs you want to run in the car. There’s a lot of stuff that goes into it on a weekly basis, and I had to learn my footing on that.”

Randall Burnett’s Role as a Crew Chief

While it’s safe to say Randall Burnett has certainly stepped up his game as a crew chief ever since he moved back to the Cup Series with Reddick, he believes the role is a “seven-day-a-week battle.” For Burnett, weeks start by getting to the office on Monday and reviewing reports, debriefing, and more paperwork. All data from the previous weekend is analyzed to improve the setups. Although some may not be too fond of the desk aspect of the job, Burnett believes it’s crucial.

He stated, “The guys that do that and do it regularly are the ones that excel their teams and get their teams better, and are the ones that are battling for the championship at the end of the year.” And at the end of the day, Burnett has no reason for complaining.

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After all, the crew chief couldn’t be more honored to help restore RCR’s former glory. Burnett concluded, “I think (it’s special). Richard has done so much for the sport in general and he deserves to be on top and obviously went through long years of slumps, just not performing at the level that any of us had hoped. So to be able to help guide that back toward where it should be has been great.”

Randall Burnett’s Pairing up with Kyle Busch

After helping guide RCR back toward a resurgence with Reddick’s stellar in 2022, the focus for Burnett now remains with his new star driver. While the crew chief had nothing but praise for his former driver, Burnett is wasting no time catching up to Kyle Busch’s level. Now, the two are constantly fighting for top tens, even giving Christopher Bell a run for his money last week.

With success eventually coming to the #8 on a more consistent basis, signs are only looking more enticing. Burnett shared with Racer, “Fortunately for us, I feel like that transition went pretty well.” Despite many believing that the #8 would take some time to gain momentum with a completely new crew and driver in 2023, Busch was surprised with the three wins that put him well above 2022.

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The #8 crew chief has had a major effect on that morale building up again. Speaking of Burnett’s opinion on their chemistry, he shows great confidence; “I think our transition went pretty well. I feel like we’ve worked long enough together now — it’s only been half a half season or whatever, but I feel like it went well.”

Randall Burnett’s Achievements as a Crew Chief

During his time at Chip Ganassi Racing as an engineer, Burnett played a major role in his former team’s victories at the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in 2010. But that’s not all, back in 2014, he was also responsible for helping Kyle Larson secure 8 top-fives and 16 top-ten finishes in his rookie season. Fast forward to 2016, and AJ Allmendinger brought in 2 top-five finishes and 9 top-ten finishes with Burnett as his crew chief.

For Randall Burnett, winning in NASCAR’s top categories has become second nature. If he hadn’t already established himself as a competent leader after Tyler Reddick’s 2019 Xfinity championship and 6-win run, then he certainly did so during his time with Reddick in the Cup Series. It was Burnett who was also responsible for Reddick’s first cup win after 92 starts. The pair brought in multiple poles and made it into the playoffs consecutively in 2021 and 2022. As for his stint with Busch, two wins are already in the books as of 2024.

Will the 2024 season be a turnaround year for Kyle Busch and Randall Burnett?

In only his first season as Kyle Busch’s crew chief, Randall Burnett has turned around the fortunes of the #8 unlike any other. In the 2023 season, the #8 brought home 10 top-fives and 17 top-tens apart from his 3 wins. This was already a major upgrade to his last season with Joe Gibbs Racing, which ended with 2 fewer wins and top-fives. This season, Busch kicked off the year strong with a podium at Atlanta but has fallen short in the following races. Heading into the weekend at Richmond Raceway, Busch finds himself outside the top 10 in qualifying once again.

With that said, Burnett is aware of the pressure on him to deliver and feels the teams can make a comeback soon. He was quoted by Racer, “We all feel the pressure of that, knowing that we’d better win some races, and we’re doing everything we can with Kyle’s help. He’s been great for RCR and brought some good ideas in and some things that we’ve adapted and I feel like it’s helped us.”

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While it’s safe to say Randall Burnett shows no signs of slowing down on his path as the Next Gen’s winningest crew chief, do you think Kyle Busch can continue to deliver too?