A significant milestone start is in the making for Randall Burnett, crew chief for Tyler Reddick and the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE team in the NASCAR Cup Series. By participating in this weekend’s Cup event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Burnett will call his 100th race in NASCAR’s premier series as a crew chief.
A native from Fenton, Missouri, Burnett is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a degree in mechanical engineering. He spent 10 years at Chip Ganassi Racing, working in multiple engineering roles for the organization. In 2010, Burnett served as Ganassi’s lead engineer for the No. 1 Chevrolet team piloted by Jamie McMurray, who won the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 and the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway during the season. Burnett also worked as team engineer for CGR’s No. 42 Chevrolet team piloted by Juan Pablo Montoya in 2013 and Kyle Larson in 2014 and 2015.
Prior to the 2016 Cup Series season, Burnett joined JTG-Daugherty Racing and assumed the role as crew chief for AJ Allmendinger and the No. 47 Chevrolet team. Participating in all but one of the 36-race schedule, Burnett and Allmendinger achieved a season-best runner-up result at Martinsville Speedway in April, two top-five results, nine top-10 results and a 19th-place result in the final standings.
Burnett remained as Allmendinger’s crew chief in the early stages of the 2017 Cup season. Despite achieving a third-place result in the season-opening Daytona 500, Burnett returned for six additional Cup races with Allmendinger before being replaced by veteran Ernie Cope in May. Burnett ended up joining Richard Childress Racing to serve as crew chief for the team’s No. 2 Chevrolet Camaro team in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Between 2017 to 2019, Burnett was an Xfinity Series crew chief for RCR in 89 races. During this span, he achieved six victories, six poles, 35 top-five results and 56 top-10 results, all while working with names like Austin Dillon, Daniel Hemric, Ben Kennedy, Paul Menard, Matt Tifft and Tyler Reddick. Burnett’s accomplishments as an Xfinity crew chief were guiding Hemric to the 2017 Xfinity Series Championship Round and winning the 2019 Xfinity Series title with Reddick, which marked Burnett’s first title in NASCAR as a crew chief.
A month after winning the 2019 Xfinity Series title, Burnett was named a full-time Cup crew chief for Reddick and the No. 8 RCR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE team for the 2020 Cup season, where Reddick entered the series as a full-time rookie competitor. Throughout the season, Burnett and Reddick achieved a season-best runner-up result at Texas Motor Speedway in July, three top-five results, nine top-10 results and a 19th-place result in the final standings, with Reddick ending up as the runner-up finisher to the Rookie-of-the-Year battle behind Cole Custer.
Burnett remained as Reddick’s crew chief for the 2021 Cup season. Thus far, they have achieved a pole, one top-five result and 11 top-10 results through the first 21 races scheduled. They are ranked in 13th place in the regular-season standings.
Through 99 previous Cup appearances, Burnett has achieved a pole, seven top-five results and 30 top-10 results with two different competitors.
Burnett is primed to call his 100th Cup Series race as a crew chief at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 18, with the race scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
