The conversation at Kyle and Samantha Busch’s house lasted for a couple of hours.
Adam Stevens remembers the Busch’s inviting him over. He remembers that, mixed in with the general racing talk, were the serious issues that needed addressing. It was 2014, and a successful relationship between Busch and crew chief Dave Rogers had run its course — and an unsuspecting Stevens had become the next man up.
At the house that day, the group discussed whether Stevens thought he was the right fit as Busch’s crew chief. Did the Busch’s feel the same way about Stevens? How were they going to get along? How would they operate together?
At the time, Stevens was calling the shots for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 Toyota in the Xfinity Series. He and Busch were no strangers to each other. Busch drove the car in 26 of the season’s 33 races, and the duo would run 52 Xfinity Series races together by the end of the 2013-14 seasons, with 19 trips to victory lane.
Life was good for the then 35-year-old Ohio University graduate. Stevens was happy competing and winning in the Xfinity Series. The schedule gave him Sundays at home with his family. Being Busch’s crew chief in the NASCAR Cup Series was not on his radar.
Joe Gibbs, the late J.D. Gibbs, and Todd Meredith, the team’s former chief operating officer, had other plans.
“They didn’t ask me,” Stevens tells RACER with a laugh. “I mean, they did eventually, but before they had that inkling, there was no, ‘Let’s go see what Adam thinks’, because I’m not sure Adam would have said, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll do it. Whatever.’”
Stevens also remembers being a little surprised when he got a “pretty good heads up” that Busch and Rogers would be separating. It was about April when he eventually went home to tell his wife Aubrey that the job of being Busch’s crew chief was his if he wanted it. In December, Gibbs made the news official: Stevens and Busch would be paired together beginning with the ’15 season.
Five years after that gathering at the Busch household, Busch and Stevens are two-time series champions. Together, they’ve won 27 times, and the No. 18 Toyota Camry has qualified for the Championship 4 every year since Stevens began working on it.
Told that his numbers as a Cup Series crew chief are phenomenal, Stevens jumps in with a question.
“Are they?” he asks. Success of this magnitude was something Stevens says he could not have comprehended when the decision was made that he was the guy for Busch.
“We have all the tools at our disposal to win races, so I’m not surprised we’ve won that many races,” says Stevens. “If it wasn’t me in this chair, it would be somebody else because the team is that good, Kyle is that good, and Joe Gibbs Racing is that good.”
NO CHEERLEADERS ALLOWED
Samantha Busch has watched her husband work with other great crew chiefs. In his early tenure at JGR, Steve Addington and Dave Rogers both guided Busch to victories. But there have been more races won with Stevens.
“Astronomical” is how Samantha finishes the sentence concerning the numbers Stevens has put up as her husband’s crew chief.
Busch and Stevens are very alike. According to Samantha, they have similar mannerisms; similar routines. They see the world the same way. Both would admit their hobbies are “racing, racing, racing,” and they are perfectionists. The two balance each other out, and like Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus back in the day, there’s just something about Busch and Stevens that clicked.
If Busch is in a bad mood, or concentrating, others might start poking about what’s wrong. Stevens lets him be and wants to know about the car. If Stevens is quiet, Busch isn’t going to press him on what’s wrong.
“They know how to focus on the car, how to read each other, how to talk to each other, and that’s what makes them an amazing team,” says Samantha to RACER.
There is also another important detail. Over time, Samantha came to see that Kyle was reacting well to how Stevens handles him versus the others when he gets mad — sometimes really mad as Busch’s in-car radio and interviews can prove.
“Kyle never did well with somebody who was like a cheerleader; he doesn’t want a cheerleader,” Samantha says. “If the car isn’t handling right or something else, Adam is very upfront. He’s like, ‘You’re right, it’s not handling right, but that’s what you have so you’re going to drive it until the next pit stop, and I can’t do anything else for you. So quit whining and drive it.’
“Then Kyle will tell him in full detail what’s wrong. Adam’s not like, ‘Oh no, that’s not my car.’ He’s like ‘You’re right, we’re going to change it.’ I think because they have that honest, no sugar-coated conversation, they excel.”
Busch needs someone like Stevens who is down in the trenches with him. Someone who feels every win and every defeat, every frustration that Busch does.
The chemistry between crew chief and driver is critical, but Gibbs says you never know how a pairing is going to work until they get together. Gibbs describes Busch and Stevens as two strong personalities.
“Lots of times you’d say that wouldn’t work out,” Gibbs tells RACER with a laugh. “But it has in this case.”
Stevens also admits the reason he and Busch have been successful is that they are themselves, 100 percent, all the time. There are no fronts. Neither pulls any punches. If something has to be said by either one, it gets said, and there are no apologies. Deep down, both know it’s not personal.
Much like the example Samantha gave about their communication, if Busch is complaining on the radio, it isn’t uncommon for Stevens to basically tell him to shut up and drive. When something goes wrong, doesn’t feel right, or Busch believes the race is over, Stevens is right there with tough words to snap him out of that mood. Similarly, Busch isn’t afraid to speak up when the car is not reacting as expected.
“For me, I think it’s important for everybody’s mental health more than anything, because you can’t have something that’s on your chest,” says Stevens, “and you don’t want to leave the weekend not pointing out where things went wrong or being honest with each other. That’s what makes things fizzle out or not be as fruitful as what maybe they could be, because people aren’t honest with themselves. That’s not a bridge Kyle and I have ever had to cross.”
With Stevens calling the shots, Busch won at Indianapolis for the first time in 2015 and then added a second in ’16. Martinsville and Kansas were both crossed off the list in ’16. A Charlotte win came last year – another first. Charlotte also gave Busch a victory at each active track on the Cup Series schedule.
Busch won five races this year. Every season since Busch joined forces with Stevens, the team has won four or more races. But there was a 21-race drought between wins four and five (Pocono to Homestead). While outsiders were quick to keep count and question what was happening, Samantha says Kyle and Stevens didn’t have to say much about it because they still had consistency, and knew they would have won races had it not been for other circumstances.
For the second-straight year, Busch was also crowned the regular-season champion. And just like in ’15, he didn’t win a race in the playoffs until getting to Homestead, where he won the race and the championship.
“With those two, you’re kind of used to how they banter back and forth,” says Samantha. “They love each other, they respect each other, but they also know they have to push each other to be the best because they rely on one another. If one of them is off, it’s off for the whole team. So they always have to make sure the other is up to par.”
Whenever a change is made, a driver hopes for the best, but when asked if he could have comprehended how influential Stevens would be to his career, Busch admitted “probably not”. Busch wishes he had more success with Addington, and feels he missed out on a championship in ’08 with him. The ’13 season with Rogers was could have, should have, would have.
“Would things have been different if I would have won with either one of those guys? I’m not sure,” says Busch. “But things work out the way they do for whatever reason sometimes, and you’ve just got to live in the moment. When Adam was slated to come on over and be my crew chief, I wasn’t apprehensive about it. He and I had worked together on the Xfinity side and grown a relationship for a couple of years, and we had success over there, [but] sometimes that success works and sometimes it doesn’t. You just never know.
“But obviously, I’m very fortunate and thankful for Coach and making that decision and putting us together, and having the success we’ve had has been really, really good. Could it have been better? Sure. Could it have been worse? Probably. But it’s good right now.”
Busch and Stevens are the first driver/crew chief pairing to win two championships under the elimination format. Busch is the 16th driver to win multiple Cup Series championships, and Stevens is the 15th crew chief to win multiple titles.
In the last five years, the duo has finished no worse than fourth in points.
“One hundred percent honest with you, the first one hasn’t sunk in yet,” says Stevens of being a two-time champion. “I think those are things I’ll contemplate when I’m done – and I’m not done – but you’re just so day-to-day and in the thick of it all the time that I’m happy that we were able, as a team, to get it done for Coach [Gibbs], get it done for J.D., get it done for Kyle.”