Kyle Busch’s tenure at Richard Childress Racing, paired with crew chief Randall Burnett since 2023, has been a mix of high expectations and uneven execution. Since first pairing together in 2023, the Burnett-Busch duo earned three wins, 15 top-5s, and 27 top-10 finishes in 72 races together. They also qualified for the NASCAR playoffs in 2023. Yet in the two years since, the winless streak and failure to make the playoffs cast a long shadow over what was supposed to be a later-career surge. Burnett also worked with Matt Tifft, Austin Dillon, Paul Menard, and Ben Kennedy in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at RCR. But now, his trajectory is set to change.

On the other side of NASCAR’s rising storyline, 19-year-old phenom Connor Zilisch has officially secured a full-time ride in the NASCAR Cup Ser

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