Kyler Johnson has seen a remarkable turnaround in the second half of 2025, thanks in part to the efforts from his newest crew member.
Younger brother Kahne Johnson joined the Quinter, KS-based team in the crew chief role halfway through Kyler’s fourth campaign with the American Sprint Car Series this year, and the results speak for themselves.
Kyler’s first 11 Feature starts of the season produced only two top-fives and three top-10 results with an average finish of 12.5. In his next 12, the 22-year-old collected five top-fives, nine top-10s, with an average finish of 6.5.
The brothers have been working together for only a few months, but the progress they’ve made in that short time has been making all the difference on track.
“I think we’re getting a lot better at communicating what [Kyler’s] feeling, and me combining what he’s telling me what he’s feeling inside the car along with what I’m seeing from outside the car,” Kahne said. “Obviously, my dad is there as well to chime in on what he sees. But we’re getting a lot better at him being to communicate with me.”
At 20 years old, Kahne shares the distinction as the Series’ youngest full-time crew chief with Chase Richards, who joined Jason Martin Motorsports in May.
Growing up alongside Kyler and younger sister Kendyl, Kahne and the Johnson family have been in dirt track racing for decades — spurred by their father, CJ Johnson, who raced Sprint Cars through the 1990s and 2000s before retirement in the 2010s. CJ gave all three children their first start in motorsports in the flat-kart ranks.
When Kyler moved up to a Sprint Car in the late 2010s, Kahne came around the track in support of his brother. Watching the ways of the winged, open-wheel cars circle the tracks at high speeds, it was there that Kahne spawned a newfound curiosity for Sprint Car anatomy.
“At first, when Kyler started racing, I was a little bit jealous of it because I wanted to be the one racing,” Kahne said. “But the more I got to learn about being a crew chief and everything, the more I realized there’s a lot more to it than you would think. I realized that you can also still be competitive with your team being a crew chief as you would a driver and realizing the crew chief is just as important as the driver when it comes to this sport.”
His first job on a Sprint Car crew came in the summer of 2023, working as a tire prep specialist for Missouri veteran racer Brian Brown. The following season, Kahne joined fellow Missourian Ayrton Gennetten’s operation, working as both a tire prep and car chief, which gave him his first look into making decisions on a racecar.
“Those two stints, especially the one with Gennetten, really helped me because he was a really good mentor on why he does certain things,” Kahne said. “(Brown’s program) was more so just him and Chad (Morgan) that would talk about the car, and I would just do tires and stuff. Whereas Gennetten really helped me understand why you do certain things and why he does it and what the meaning behind it is. So, I learned a lot last year with them.”
For the start of 2025, Kahne decided on a more typical employment path, taking a job as a traveling salesman of residential solar panels through the month of June. But then came the call of duty back to racing, rejuvenating his crew chief role as part of Kyler’s operation.
“I just kinda missed the racing deal too much, and I just decided that if I’m not gonna be enjoying what I’m doing, then why am I doing it,” Kahne said. “I’ve always enjoyed Sprint Car racing, I’ve always enjoyed being at the racetrack. So, I came back to one — help with Kyler’s race team and everything, and two — my dad wasn’t in the greatest of health at the time, so I came back to help in that regard, as well.”
They set the bar high in their first weekend together, posting back-to-back podium finishes with the national Series at WaKeeney Speedway and El Paso County Raceway in August. But their finest moment came at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park in September, when Kyler led 20 laps of the main event and finished a career-best second place.
“We just went with the baseline stuff, and we knew it was gonna be a good night after Hot Laps when he came in and had no complaints,” Kahne said. “He was like, ‘Whatever you did there was perfect; we’ll just leave it for Qualifying.’
“We were just watching the track; tightened it up for the Heat Race. He really liked the direction we were going with how I was tightening it up, so I just kept doing more of that same thing for the Dash and he liked it even more. I just kept doing the same thing, just more aggressively as the night went on. It just kept getting better and better.”
Since taking his first job at turning the wrenches, Kahne has taken an all-in approach at sharpening his skills. Both on and off the track, he’s constantly watching and absorbing new information.
“I just like to watch how the cars work,” Kahne said. “I love to watch David Gravel and Carson Macedo. Those are my two favorite cars to watch because you can just see how beautifully they sit in the corner. I just sit there, watch the race, and just think, ‘How could they possibly get the car to sit that nicely?’”
At the track, Kahne has learned from the more experienced wrenches in the pits as well. He takes pride in the grind to becoming one of 360 Sprint Car racing’s best young minds and has begun to earn the respect from his competition.
“I talk to Dalton (Seigler) a lot — Blake Hahn’s crew chief — about certain stuff,” Johnson said. “He gives me nothing crazy, obviously, because we’re competitors, but he’ll kind of help me out and give me some tips. I’ll be like, ‘Dalton, I have no idea what’s going on, I don’t know why the car’s doing this,’ and he’ll kinda give me a little bit of a… he won’t tell me what to do, but he’ll get my head thinking and get my wheels turning in the right direction, for sure.
“Just bits and pieces that I’ve learned from all the different people that I talk to, trying to be a student of the sport and learn as much as I can.”
The American Sprint Car Series brings the 2025 season to a close Friday–Saturday, Nov. 14–15, at Creek County Speedway in Sapulpa, OK, in the annual running of Fuzzy’s Fall Fling.
Tickets for both nights of the event will be sold at the track on race day. If you can’t be there, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
