Kyle Busch Claims Former Crew Chief Adam Stevens ‘Quit On Me’

So, it doesn’t sound like the split between Kyle Busch and Adam Stevens was amicable.

The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing driver has a new crew chief this season following a change of direction in the offseason.

Busch, during an appearance on Graham Bensinger’s “In Depth”, claimed that he approached Stevens about making changes to the staff ahead of 2021. What resulted was a difference in opinion that, as Busch puts it, effectively led to Stevens throwing his hands up and quitting on him.

“I asked Adam for a couple changes to be made over the offseason, and he didn’t agree with my philosophy on those changes,” Busch said, via NASCAR.com. “So he said you know what, I’m going to do something different and let you do something different and we’ll see what happens.’

“ … I was like, well, essentially you just told me you quit on me,” Busch added. “So … uh, OK. See you later. Now I have to go find somebody else on who’s going to be the next guy to step in and take over the reins to be crew chief for the 18 M&Ms team.”

That new crew chief is Ben Beshore, but it’s worth keeping in mind that this only is Busch’s side of the story. Stevens might very well have a different version of the truth.

Stevens and Busch had been together since 2013, but now Stevens is the crew chief for Christopher Bell, who is in the No. 20 on the Toyota Team.

As for Busch, after feeling like he “got fired” from the No. 18 car, he’s off to a decent start. He won Tuesday’s Busch clash after a Ryan Blaney-Chase Elliott wreck opened the door for him to win at Daytona.