There's sorta like a "tree" of maintainers for each part of Linux -- with Linus at the top of the tree. When you make a patch for the kernel, there's a script you can run on the patch:
scripts/get_maintainer.pl
It'll output the appropriate subtree of maintainers who "own" the code in the kernel that the patch applies to. Then, you can email your patch to them. The maintainer will send the patch up the "tree" until (hopefully) it ends up in Linus' repo.
Two years ago Linus took a break and Greg Kroah-Hartman was leading the project during that. Greg normally maintains the LTS branch of the kernel (and possibly many other things also).
scripts/get_maintainer.pl
It'll output the appropriate subtree of maintainers who "own" the code in the kernel that the patch applies to. Then, you can email your patch to them. The maintainer will send the patch up the "tree" until (hopefully) it ends up in Linus' repo.