When Kyle Busch found out that he and Adam Stevens were separating ahead of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, Busch knew who he wanted to lead the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team.
Ben Beshore spent four seasons as the lead engineer for Busch. They had a dominant run, collecting 22 trophies and never missing the Championship 4 between 2015 and 2018. Beshore was also coming off two successful seasons as a NASCAR Xfinity Series crew chief, racking up eight victories.
“I really enjoyed Ben and liked him a lot as an engineer and as a crew chief, but more so as an engineer based on our results and the success that we had together,” Busch said. “We were unstoppable in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and even through the first part of 2019. Then, we won [the championship] in 2019 as well, but then it fell off from there.
“Whether we got the full potential out of his team or me or not, there was a little bit of a disconnect when [Beshore] was the leader. It didn’t work as well as I would have hoped.”
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Beshore called the shots during the final two seasons of Busch’s 15-year run with JGR. However, they scored just three victories and didn’t make it to the Championship 4 either year.
Although there were plenty of close calls — 22 top fives and 36 top 10s in their 68 races together between those seasons — it all came to a head when Busch failed to advance out of the Round of 16 in 2022, his lowest postseason finish.
“Having a couple of motor issues in the first round of the playoffs really set us back and knocked us out of the first round,” Beshore recalled. “That was disappointing last year, and 2021 with missing the final four by a couple of points and finishing second at Martinsville in that transfer race. There were just a lot of near misses and a lot of heartache for sure.”
Beshore also had to tune out Busch’s public contract talks and focus on the race team. Fortunately for the crew chief, he managed that, not believing it was a factor in the team’s dearth of success.
“I had a great group of guys that were all professional and put their best foot forward every week,” Beshore added. “We tried to put the best car we could underneath [Busch] and focus on the things we could control and keep our head down and work on your area of the car and block out the outside stuff.”
With Busch moving to Richard Childress Racing and Ty Gibbs’ promotion to Cup with veteran crew chief Chris Gayle, Beshore was on the outside looking in at JGR’s Cup operation. Over the offseason, he was paired with John Hunter Nemechek, who was returning to the Xfinity Series after two seasons in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
“We had a couple of phone calls towards the end of last year to talk it over, see what his goals were and what my goals were,” Beshore recalled. “That’s something that JGR does when there’s a little more turnover in the Xfinity Series than the Cup Series, as far as driver-crew chief lineups. They just see what chemistry meshes the best.”
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The No. 20 team had instant success to begin the 2023 Xfinity season. Nemechek was inches behind Austin Hill when a caution flew to end the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway. The following week at Auto Club Speedway, Nemechek controlled the final stage en route to his first 2023 win.
Nemechek began the season with five straight top 10s before picking up his second win at Martinsville Speedway in early April. Although he didn’t find Victory Lane again until July, Nemechek went on a summer streak of three wins over five races between Atlanta Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Michigan International Speedway.
The pairing ended the regular season five points shy of the regular-season crown after leading 154 of 200 laps and scoring maximum points at Kansas Speedway.
“I feel like at the start, [Beshore] and I had to figure out how to communicate with one another,” Nemechek said. “We are different people than what we had worked with in the past. We’re different personalities from what we worked with in the past.
“I have the trust in him that I’m going to tell him something and he’s going to go and try and fix it. I feel like Ben is older than he is age-wise, but he’s been around for a while. Being able to have a little bit of a younger mindset with Ben and having him come off the Cup Series the last two years working with KB, getting a lot of good information and feedback.”
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Nemechek stamped his name into the Round of 8 by winning at Texas Motor Speedway in late September. The No. 20 enters the round with a 37-point cushion over the elimination line and goes to three of Nemechek’s best tracks on the circuit.
By most measures, Nemechek is the championship favorite, should the No. 20 team arrive at Phoenix still in championship contention. However, Beshore won’t put the pressure of having to win the championship on his team.
“I don’t think it’s championship or bust, but that’s the ultimate goal,” Beshore said. “With the pedigree of this team and organization, that’s what our sight is set on for sure.”
Following Phoenix, Nemechek will move to Legacy Motor Club, taking over the No. 42 Cup car full-time. Beshore hopes to return to the Cup Series himself, but first, the focus is on winning another NASCAR championship.
“This certainly wouldn’t have been my first choice if you asked me what I was going to be doing in 2023 at the start of 2022,” Beshore said. “There are some benefits to the Xfinity Series. It’s a little bit better for family balance, but would that have been my first choice at the time? Probably not.
“I would like another crack at the Cup Series again in the future, and hopefully that works out.”
Busch believes Beshore is a Cup-level crew chief, too.
“I feel like he’s a great crew chief,” Busch said. “He can do the job, and he’s good at it.”