Kyle Busch’s crew chief is puzzled by his firing

TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — Kyle Busch celebrated 12 wins with crew chief Steve Addington, including a comeback victory last year at Talladega Superspeedway.

It seemed like a lifetime ago, though, on Friday as Addington prepared for his final weekend with Busch. He’ll call Sunday’s race at Talladega and then hand the job over to Dave Rogers in a firing that admittedly left Addington “pretty confused.”

“Do I agree with it? No,” Addington said. “But it is what it is, and I felt like we had a good run.”

Busch said the decision was made by team owner Joe Gibbs and president J.D. Gibbs, and it was based on lack of consistency this season.

“It seems like we’re either feast or famine — we’re either going to win the race or finish 30th,” Busch said. “Some of that’s my fault, some of that’s just not having the right stuff for me, and Joe and J.D. felt like we needed to try something new to get something of a more consistent basis and championship-caliber.”

Addington and Busch charged out of the gate at the start of the 2008 season. Busch moved to Joe Gibbs Racing after his firing from Hendrick Motorsports, and Addington got the job of trying to rein in NASCAR’s wild child.

He made it look easy with immediate results. They almost won the season-opening Daytona 500, and did get their first win together three weeks later with a victory at Atlanta.

There were eight wins in all, and Busch led the points standings for 21 weeks. Although they faltered in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship — Busch finished 10th after starting as the top seed — the duo seemed to rebound at the start of this season.

Busch has four more wins this year, but the consistency was off and a summer slump cost him a spot in the Chase. Busch missed the final qualifying spot by just eight points.

Rogers, crew chief for JGR in the Nationwide Series, will replace Addington beginning next week at Texas.

A.J. Allmendinger was required to take a breath test before Friday’s practice at Talladega Superspeedway following his arrest on a drunken driving charge.

Allmendinger was arrested by Mooresville (N.C.) police early Thursday morning. He was placed on probation by NASCAR through the end of the season and said he had no problem when series officials asked him to take the test.