Benching Addington wasn't his call, Kyle Busch says
Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Kyle Busch, speaking publicly for the first time about the removal of crew chief Steve Addington, said the decision was made by team owner Joe Gibbs and team president J.D. Gibbs.
“It’s their organization and they’re one of the best at knowing what’s best for their organization,” Busch said. “Steve was a great asset to the team – he’s done a great job over the past two seasons and, unfortunately, we haven’t quite had the success we would have liked this year and we’ve struggled a lot.”
Since Busch joined Joe Gibbs Racing at the start of the 2008 season, he and Addington have won 12 races. They qualified for the Chase last season, but four wins mixed with several bad performances left them out of the Chase this season.
“I don’t think it was Steve that didn’t give me what I needed, I don’t think it was the engineers. It was just something didn’t click,” Busch said.
“Obviously, this is a performance-based business and we’ve got to be the best we can out there. When you’re not beating (Jimmie Johnson), something has to change.”
JGR’s Nationwide crew chief, Dave Rogers will take over as crew chief of the No. 18 next weekend at Texas.
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