Denny Hamlin has chimed in after Richard Childress Racing made major changes to Kyle Busch’s No. 8 team shortly after the NASCAR stars were embroiled in a war of words. In recent weeks, Hamlin and Busch have exchanged a flurry of verbal jabs after the No. 11 Toyota driver made several damning comments about his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate.
During an episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin raised doubts about whether Busch still possesses the ability to consistently secure victories in the Cup Series. Despite the skepticism, the two-time Cup Series champion remains the most successful driver in NASCAR national series history, holding the all-time wins record. He also leads in victories within both the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series—formerly the Xfinity Series—and the Craftsman Truck Series.
His last win came at the 2023 Cup race in Illinois. Busch missed the last two playoff campaigns and is far back in the standings to make this season’s postseason championship “Chase.”
Busch recorded his first top-ten finish last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. The top 16 drivers will make the postseason, but Busch currently sits 27th, and so RCR has made a major shakeup to his team in hopes of turning his 2026 fortunes around.
The change will see Andy Street reunite with Busch as his crew chief for the remainder of the 2026 season, while Jim Pohlman transitions into a new position within the team. The pair worked together in late 2025, stepping in after longtime crew chief Randall Burnett left for Trackhouse Racing.
Hamlin has now issued his reaction to the news. “Oh, s—-, really?” the JGR driver said on the April 28 episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast. “Has Andy Street been in that car? I feel like these guys, they’re off and on, and they’re off. Now wait a minute, let me. I can’t keep up.”
Busch will hope to put right what has been a career-worst start to a Cup season. He still has that competitive fire, but the results aren’t translating.
‘Beat those guys’
“We’re a traveling circus… or a traveling trailer park, whichever you want to call it, because we’re in the same motor home lot every single weekend,” he told Sean Hannity on Tuesday’s podcast episode.
“I grew up in Vegas and when I went to the racetrack… I kind of grew up the way of like, you bring your friends with you, and you hate everybody else that’s there, because they’re your competition, right?” he continued.
“You want to beat those guys. You want to beat them into the ground. You want to go home with the trophy and the money and come back and do it all again next week, you know?”