The slightest mistake on the part of a pit crew can make all the difference on race day and set teams back both financially and competitively. This crucial role that it has adds multiple layers of pressure to perform. After Team Penske’s Joey Logano spoke about this on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio this week, RCR driver Kyle Busch joined in to detail the weight of the job.
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In the pre-race interview in Texas, Busch was told of Logano’s opinion that expressed how the level of pressure on a crew varies from working on a top-five car to a mid-pack car. Continuing, he was asked if he had to condition his crew in such a way to perform during races. Busch responded by concurring with Logano’s take and continued to provide his defense for it.
He said, “I feel like, sometimes, just the nature of a driver’s name might put added pressure on a team. Because they’re looked at a lot more and they’ve got eyeballs on them a little bit heavily. The teams that I’ve had in the past have done phenomenal jobs of living up to the pressure.” He touched upon how his crews have worked immensely well in the season finales at Homestead-Miami to make a case.
Busch explains how pit crews react to working for him and a driver like William Byron
Busch used the example of himself and Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron to clarify his thoughts further. “I look at the #24 bunch when William got over there,” he said. “They probably were like, ‘Okay, there’s a young kid coming in. Whatever, nobody’s going to have any eyeballs on us.’ But Kyle [himself] moving over to RCR there are certainly more eyeballs on that pit crew and the things that they do.”
Busch’s pit crew in Richard Childress Racing has undergone significant changes midway through the 2024 season owing to consistent owes. The driver told the media before the race in Bristol, “I would say it’s still unsettled. The proof is in your results, right? You’re only as good as your last race as drivers tend to say. You’re only as good as your last stop, I guess, as a pit crew guy should say.”
After major reshuffling, he has managed two top-ten finishes in his last four outings. In Sunday’s race in Texas, he started in 35th place and climbed the ladder expertly to finish in 9th place, thanks to clever strategizing by crew chief Randall Burnett.
