Slip in performance leads to new crew chief for Kyle Busch
Since his move from Hen-drick Motorsports to Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch has won 12 races, made the Chase last year and missed it by just eight points this year.
Apparently that wasn’t enough for crew chief Steve Addington to keep his job.
Addington was Busch’s crew chief for the last time Nov. 1 at Talladega as Joe Gibbs Racing announced Oct. 28 that Nationwide Series crew chief Dave Rogers would replace Addington starting next week.
“It’s probably [a performance-based decision] for the standards that were set for the 18 car,” Addington said Oct. 30. “The way things went last year [with eight wins], it went really smooth and there’s things that have happened to other guys in this Chase that happened to us in the Chase with engine problems [last year].
“[I’m] not pointing fingers at anybody in the organization. Things happen. And somebody has got to be the person that is responsible for that, and that was me. And I understand that. I’ve got big enough shoulders to carry that. That’s just part of being in this position.”
Busch said he was told that the change was going to be made and indicated that he didn’t lobby for or against his crew chief.
“I wouldn’t say I wanted [the change], but when I got told about it Monday morning, I gave my opinion on the side of, sometimes the grass is greener on the other side like it was when I came over here, and sometimes it’s not,” Busch said. “We can only hope that Dave will be the right fit.”
Rogers has limited experience as a Cup crew chief, working for Jason Leffler at JGR, and has no experience with the new Sprint Cup car.
When asked if he felt forced out by Busch, Addington said he couldn’t say that.
“I don’t know,” Addington said. “Something happened there. I don’t know. I can’t comment on that because I don’t know what the whole story is. I just got that we were going in a different direction with the 18 car and we will move on. And Steve Addington will land on his feet.”
Team President J.D. Gibbs said Busch didn’t demand a change.
“Kyle and Steve get along,” Gibbs said. “It wasn’t like Kyle was saying, ‘Do this or else.’ That’s not how we operate. We just felt like for the whole program, it was time to make a change.”
Addington said his relationship with Busch had not deteriorated significantly but added that it was hard to talk about their car sometimes with Busch running both the full Nationwide and Cup schedules.
Busch also said he didn’t think their relationship had gotten stale.
“What got stale was results,” Busch said. “Our cars, we just never really got any better. … We had a couple of good runs at the beginning of the year … [but] it’s like we seemed to lose a little bit of what other people gained as far as speed in their cars.
“It seemed like we were either feast or famine – we were either going to win the race or we were going to finish 30th. Some of that is my fault, but some of that is just not having the right stuff in the cars for me.”
Addington isn’t sure if he’ll remain at JGR as there are several crew chief jobs open.
