Kyle Busch Tribute Car Set 2026-08-03

Credits
Bases - Myself, RAH (Interstate Zebra, Doublemints, America Mix, 2018 Throwback and PB Squared), CamoCreative (Interstate 2020), Stunod (Crispy), Alan Harkleroad (Snickers Flames), Qboi (Chocolate Bar and Peanut), SDG (FireFire273 for sharing the base) (Liquid chocolate and characters on the 2012 cars)
Driver - CamoCreative
Number - Big Evil Racing
M&M’s Candies - WalkerVisual
M&M’s Characters - Lation, MamaLuigi, Siromoru, Eric Hostetler, BlyonsDesigns, Antigordo, DeviantArt
M&M’s Row - FreddieGDesigns, Kritz0ne
Logos - Big Evil Racing, N X D Designs, xmar00nx, Santi’d, Stunod, Horton Designs, Johan Seminario, Antigordo, RAH, Zak103tv, StarClonesProd, EPD (for 2008 Pink and 2010 Green characters) Logopedia, NASCAR Heat 2 textures, Google
Pit Crews - SteveZ

Kyle Busch was a man known by many names. Rowdy, KFB, Wild Thing, The Candyman, Shrub. And there were some fans that called him even more colorful names that can't be posted here. But no matter what you called Kyle Busch, you had to respect the talent. He was a legend of the sport and an icon. The boldest personality you could have in an era desperate for more like him. A driver who showed up every Sunday and had as strong of a chance to win as anyone. And if you were one of the unfortunate many that rooted against him, he probably ruined a lot of your Fridays and Saturdays, and even some rain delayed Mondays and Wednesdays too.

He showed promise in his early days at Hendrick, and he showed he still had talent in his last years with RCR, but Kyle Busch became the icon he was in the Joe Gibbs Racing #18 Toyota. Fresh off being dropped by Hendrick in a questionable decision that hinged on Kellogg's being tired of Busch's immaturity and his teammates liking Casey Mears more, Kyle took his talents to JGR. He inherited the team's longtime Interstate Batteries sponsorship but Joe Gibbs never raised the cost of their sponsorship, which meant the team lacked funding compared to it's teammates with big time sponsors FedEx and The Home Depot. JGR knew this was the chance to step up the #18 to that level again and signed on Mars Chocolate to sponsor the new face of the team, while Interstate's sponsorship now covered only 6 races annually. Kyle Busch would win quick for his new team, finishing 1st in his fourth race for JGR at Atlanta. He would win often too. His 8 wins in his first season there were a sign of things to come. There were some late season collapses and some moments where Kyle's temper was costly, but everyone could see that the #18 would eventually win another title.

2015 was the year it happened. A season that started with a brutal crash that would leave Kyle out of the car for 3 months, it eventually became a storybook comeback with wins in 4 out of 5 races and a Chase run punctuated with a final fifth win to win the championship. That was the start of Kyle Busch's prime as 2015-2019 was undoubtedly the best run of Kyle's career, with 2 championships, Championship 4 appearances every year, at least 4 wins annually, and the 5 highest average finishes he had. The run eventually slowed down though. A crew swap, a new car and losing the Mars sponsorship later, Kyle's time with the #18 team he returned to relevance came to an end. But the run it had was a glorious one, filled with amazing paint schemes and that's why I made it the focus of this carset. Whether you were a huge fan of Kyle, or you just liked a lot of his paint schemes, I hope everybody that downloads this carset enjoys it and races like Rowdy would.

I'll admit I wasn't one of Kyle Busch's biggest fans or anything like that. I didn't root against him like most, but it usually took my drivers being out of the race to root for him. I always liked him though, going back to the Team Lowe's Racing days with Jimmie. I loved the radio soundbites, the sarcastic interviews and even some of the questionable moves on the track while he was maturing into the champion he would become. Many hated those things at the time, but those things provided so many iconic moments that will entertain fans for years to come. Which is a lot like Dale Earnhardt in a way. Fans old and young, who watched Dale's career or didn't, can still go online and see the life Dale lived, and they see it in a completely different light than the polarizing figure that was perceived before February 18th 2001. In most legendary careers, fans never truly appreciate the greatness they witnessed until the person behind it is gone. Sadly, the same thing now applies for Kyle Busch.

There will never be another Rowdy.