Continuing to honor the life and legacy of Kyle Busch.
It’s been nearly 3 months since we lost the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, who passed away on May 21 following a battle with pneumonia that eventually progressed into sepsis.
Busch’s #8 car for Richard Childress Racing was renumbered to the #33 and has been driven by Austin Hill since his death. And throughout the summer there have been plenty of tributes to the late NASCAR legend. From his #8 painted in the infield of each track, to fans holding up 8 fingers on lap 8, the winning driver doing Busch’s signature bow after taking the checkered flag, there have been tons of opportunities to honor the memory of the racing legend.
The new docuseries “NASCAR Americana” will feature the first sit down interview with Kyle’s brother, Kurt Busch, who is a Hall of Fame driver. Peyton Manning produced the three-part docuseries focused on motorsports, and it just started airing on the USA Network this month. It’s being produced by Full Speed Entertainment, NASCAR Studios, Words + Pictures, and it will be executive produced by Peyton Manning and his company, Omaha Productions.
The first episode premiered on August 9th after the NASCAR Cup Series Iowa Corn 350, and in a clip from the next episode, we get to see a glimpse of Kurt’s interview as he explained how badly Kyle had hoped to race against Brexton one day:
“As fatherhood came around for him, Kyle wanted to keep racing and stay active, that way, he could race against Brexton. The way that he races, it’s really a lot of what my dad taught Kyle and I.”
It had always been a dream of Kyle’s to race alongside Brexton in the Truck Series, which you have to be over 18 to compete in, and sadly, that is no longer a possibility, but they did get to go up against each other several times at the smaller tracks over the years.
Kurt also recalled watching Brexton standing by his mom Samantha Busch at the memorial in Kyle’s honor at the 2026 Coca-Cola 600 race, which he was scheduled to race in days after his death, and Kurt got visibly emotional as he talked about his nephew and the realization that Kyle wasn’t coming back:
“To have that moment of symbolization for Kyle and just see Brexton standing there, there’s a moment of ‘Wow. He’s gone and we’re not going to get him back.'”
It was an incredibly emotional moment, and I’m sure this entire episode is going to be a touch watch, so I’d suggest grabbing some tissues when it airs on August 15 at 10:30 p.m. ET:
Kurt previously shared a lengthy post about his late brother and how much he loved him:
And now, Kyle’s former team is rolling out an emotional tribute to their driver who brought them two Cup Series championships. Busch drove for Joe Gibbs Racing for 15 seasons, winning 56 races behind the wheel of the #18 car. And for many of those wins, his longtime sponsor M&M’s was along for the ride.
Mars, Inc., parent company of M&M’s, left NASCAR at the end of the 2022 season, ending their longtime partnership with Joe Gibbs Racing and Busch and leaving the #18 team without a primary sponsor. The result was that Busch ended up leaving the team for RCR, and his #18 car was renumbered to the #54 car for Ty Gibbs (grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs), who brought his own sponsorship with Monster Energy (and no doubt didn’t require as big of a contract as a driver like Busch).
Busch’s wife, Samantha Busch, announced today that M&M’s would be returning to NASCAR to pay tribute to Kyle, sponsoring Ty Gibbs during the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway next month as he drives the M&M’s car, which was specially-designed and features photos of Busch’s career throughout the design, which is an incredible touch and is sure to make for an emotional moment when fans finally get to see it on the track.
You can watch the first full episode here:
