Watch Austin Hill prepare to race on behalf of Kyle Busch in Coca-Cola 600
Richard Childress Racing announced Austin Hill will replace Kyle Busch in the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, NC. Kyle Busch passed away suddenly this week at the age of 41.
Kyle Busch enjoyed a lot of success as a driver in NASCAR with candy brand M&M’s as his primary sponsor.
Busch often piloted the yellow No. 18 Toyota splashed with the candies on it during his 15-year stint at Joe Gibbs Racing, where he won a pair of Cup Series championships.
Now, months after Busch’s shocking death, the iconic paint scheme is returning.
Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 Toyota will be covered in a tribute to Busch when the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for the annual night race on Sept. 19. Gibbs’ car will have M&M’s as the primary sponsor with a paint scheme akin to the one Busch ran in 2008 — his first season with JGR.
But if fans take a closer look at the car — beneath the M&M colors of yellow, green, blue and red — they’ll see a mosaic of photos of the Busch family, featuring some of the more memorable moments from his NASCAR career. Many of the photos show Busch celebrating with his family in victory lane or performing his celebratory Busch Bow.
Busch, who won a record 234 races combined across NASCAR’s top three national touring series, died on May 21 at the age of 41 due to complications from sepsis caused by presumed bacterial pneumonia. His widow Samantha announced that Gibbs would race in the tribute car in a video posted to her social media accounts on Thursday, Aug. 13.
“Some moments in racing become part of history and, for Kyle, so many of those moments happened under the lights at Bristol,” Samantha said. “Bristol wasn’t just another race to him. He loved everything about that place — the intensity, the energy, the fans and the challenge of racing there. Some of the greatest moments of his career happened on that track in the yellow M&M’s car, which became such an iconic part of Kyle’s legacy. Kyle became the M&M’s guy.
“… Seeing Mars and Joe Gibbs Racing come together to honor Kyle in this way is incredibly emotional for me. The M&M’s car holds so many memories from our life together and seeing it back on the track knowing that Kyle won’t be the one behind the wheel is going to be both heartbreaking and beautiful all at once.”
Throughout his career in all levels of NASCAR, Busch often dominated at Bristol. In the top level Cup Series, he took the checkered flag at the storied short track eight times. In the second-tier O’Reilly Auto Parts Series he won nine times, and in the Craftsman Truck Series he pulled into victory lane five times.
Busch is the only driver in the history of NASCAR to win in the Truck Series, O’Reilly Series and Cup Series in the same weekend — and he did it twice, both at Bristol, completing sweeps in 2010 and 2017. Additionally, Busch’s 22 combined wins at Bristol are the most victories at any one track that a driver has ever achieved in NASCAR history.
His final win at Bristol was in the No. 18 Toyota for JGR in 2022, when the track hosted its dirt race. After that season, Busch moved over to Richard Childress Racing and began driving the No. 8 Chevrolet. That car has since been re-numbered after his death to 33 and is being piloted by Austin Hill.
When Busch left JGR for RCR, Gibbs filled his open seat on the team.
The 23-year-old Ty Gibbs — grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, who was the three-time Super Bowl-winning head coach of Washington — has climbed to second in the point standings after winning his second race of the season last weekend at Iowa.
“For me, Kyle inspired most of my racing career. I grew up going to the track with him. I remember spending a ton of time with Kyle going back and forth to races when I was young,” Ty Gibbs said two days after Busch’s death, speaking before the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “I’ve spent so much time going to the track and sitting on Kyle’s box. It’s super sad.”
In a post on his Instagram on Thursday, Gibbs said he was “so honored” to drive the scheme that once belonged to Busch.
The Bristol night race is the third competition in the postseason Chase.