1999–2011: Pre-Penske years After graduating college, Bullins began his career in NASCAR with
Wood Brothers Racing in October 1999, whose No. 21 car was driven at the time by
Elliott Sadler. After his time with the Wood Brothers, he would work in the
Busch Series (later Nationwide) for
ST Motorsports, which is now
JTG Daugherty Racing. He would later leave that team for
Robert Yates Racing. Before the 2005 season, Bullins joined
Richard Childress Racing. During his time there, he worked as the engineer for
Kevin Harvick and
Clint Bowyer, and with those two drivers, he racked up a total of nine wins.
2012–2014: Penske NNS No. 22 Bullins was hired in December 2011 by
Penske Racing to crew chief the No. 22 team in the Nationwide Series beginning in
2012. He replaced
Todd Gordon, who was promoted to crew chief Penske's No. 22 team in the Cup Series after
Steve Addington left for
Stewart–Haas Racing to be defending series champion
Tony Stewart's crew chief that year. In his first year as crew chief for that team, he worked with
Brad Keselowski,
Parker Kligerman and
Jacques Villeneuve. Kligerman would be released and replaced by
Ryan Blaney for the rest of his part-time schedule in the car during the season. He earned three wins that season with Keselowski and came close to winning with the other two drivers as well, as Blaney finished second at
Texas in November and Villeneuve finished third at
Montreal after running out of fuel on the last lap and losing the lead he had held for most of the race. The team finished the year sixth in owner points. For
2013, the team saw a notable uptick in performance. Bullins won at least one race with all four drivers of the No. 22 car that year. Keselowski scored six wins (up from three in 2012), and Blaney would earn his first win in the series at
Kentucky in September. Also,
Joey Logano, Penske's new full-time Cup Series driver, also ran 14 races in the No. 22 car (Keselowski and Blaney each reduced their schedules by a few races to make room for Logano to drive the car as well). Logano came to Penske from
Joe Gibbs Racing at the start of the year, and he was instrumental in leading JGR's No. 18 car to the 2012 NNS owner's championship.
A. J. Allmendinger replaced Villeneuve as the No. 22's driver for the standalone road course races of
Road America and
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (which replaced Montreal on the schedule), and would win both of them in dominating fashion. Logano would pick up three wins, which came at both
Dover races plus
Chicago in July. All of this success resulted in the team winning the 2013 owner's championship.
2015–present: NASCAR Cup Series 2015–2019: Ryan Blaney (left) and
Brad Keselowski at
Pocono in 2016. Bullins has crew chiefed both drivers. talking on pit road before the
2019 Daytona 500 Bullins returned to the Wood Brothers team in
2015. Now only a part-time team, the No. 21 car was driven by Blaney starting that year, replacing
Trevor Bayne, who moved to
Roush Fenway Racing to replace the departing
Carl Edwards as a full-time driver on that team. WBR also switched from a Roush alliance to a Penske alliance starting in 2015, which is why Bullins was able to work for the team as he was still part of the Penske family. He had previously made his Cup Series crew chiefing debut on Penske's part time No. 12 car when Blaney drove it in his first two Cup races at
Kansas and
Talladega.
2020–2024: Brad Keselowski, Austin Cindric and Harrison Burton Despite even having a solid 2019 season, Penske announced a crew chief shakeup for the
2020 season in an effort to be more competitive and dominant like the successes
Joe Gibbs Racing was having. During Bullins' time with the No. 12 of
Ryan Blaney, the car was arguably the weakest in the Penske stable both years, and he was reassigned to
Brad Keselowski's No. 2 team, replacing
Paul Wolfe, who moved to
Joey Logano's No. 22.
Todd Gordon, who had been Logano's crew chief and was very much successful in that role, replaced Bullins as Blaney's crew chief on the No. 12. The duo started the year off on a good note, and Keselowski led 30 laps in the
Daytona 500 and 82 at
Phoenix three races later. After the first four races, the season was halted for two months due to the
coronavirus pandemic. Keselowski and Bullins won 4 races that year, including the
2020 Coca-Cola 600 and finished second in the final standings behind
Chase Elliott. (on left) talking on pit road after the
2022 Toyota/Save Mart 350 at
Sonoma In 2021, Keselowski finished sixth in the final standings and only won the race at Talladega in April. It was his last season with Penske before leaving for Roush Fenway Racing to become the driver of their No. 6 car as well as a co-owner of the team, which was renamed
RFK Racing. Bullins would remain the crew chief of the No. 2 car in 2022 when
Austin Cindric moved up from Penske's Xfinity Series No. 22 car to replace Keselowski. Cindric and Bullins won the
2022 Daytona 500. On July 20, Bullins was suspended for four races due to a tire and wheel loss during the
2022 Ambetter 301 at
Loudon. Engineer Grant Hutchens would fill in for Bullins in these four races. He also previously filled in for Bullins in the
Coca-Cola 600 when Bullins was sick. After Cindric had a
sophomore slump in 2023 and failed to qualify for the playoffs, and
Harrison Burton, the driver of the Wood Brothers No. 21 car that year, also failed to qualify for the playoffs, Penske decided to move Bullins back to the Wood Brothers to be Burton's crew chief, switching cars with Brian Wilson, who moved from the WBR No. 21 car back in-house to Penske to crew chief Cindric and the No. 2 car. (Wilson and Cindric also previously won the
2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship together for Penske.) After struggling throughout the
2024 season, Burton and the No. 21 won at the
Daytona night race, scoring the Wood Brothers' 100th win and making the playoffs. The team was eliminated at the conclusion of the Round of 16 at the
Bristol night race. On October 25, Bullins parted ways with WBR, with Grant Hutchens replacing him for the remainder of the season.
2025–present: RFK Racing On November 21, 2024, it was announced that Bullins would reunite with
Brad Keselowski at
RFK Racing, crew chiefing him on the No. 6 car in 2025, replacing
Matt McCall. ==Personal life==