The car bearing number 18 and driven by Kyle Busch can be found parked outside the Mars factory in Hackettstown, New Jersey. Mars Inc., which owns M&M's, severed its ties with Kyle Busch at the end of 2022. However, the car stayed. When Busch passed away on May 21, 2026, at 41 years old, due to pneumonia that turned into sepsis, that image stopped being a fun detail. Eddie Kalegi, a sports journalist, noticed it and had something to say.
"You're still promoting this guy," Kalegi said. "He has been the biggest ambassador for your company, whether you like it or not, over the last 20 years, and he is the reason so much merchandise has been purchased."
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He came prepared. He held up an M&M's clock he has owned since 2011, which never worked, still on his wall. He talked about a neighbor wearing a Kyle Busch M&M's jacket, someone he had never even spoken to. His point was simple: Mars built real cultural reach through this man, and now they are standing in the way of honoring him.
"It seems like Mars is holding up this whole process because we could have so many awesome Kyle Busch throwback schemes," Kalegi added. "Right now, it doesn't look like they can happen because of Mars itself."
From 2008 to 2022, Mars spent roughly $20 million a year sponsoring Busch's No. 18 Toyota at Joe Gibbs Racing, the primary sponsor, for roughly 25 to 32 races per season. Kyle Busch won two championships under that deal, in 2015 and 2019, and 55 Cup races total.
"With 55 wins & 2 Cup titles together, we've built friendships that will last way past 2022," Busch wrote on X in 2021.
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The car rotated brands all season: M&M's, Skittles, Snickers, Starburst, taking turns on the hood. Busch's "Rowdy" persona, paired with M&M's "Candyman" branding, carried well past race fans.
Mars announced the split in December 2021. JGR president Dave Alpern said: "(Mars) wants to try some new things, and no matter how big a brand is, they have a finite budget, so when you want to try something new, it has to come from somewhere else".
Mars Wrigley North America president Anton Vincent added: "There's a lot of consumer interest and other passion points we need to get to".
JGR spent nearly a year to find a replacement at that price and failed to secure one. The only sponsorship it got was a six-race deal from Interstate Batteries but no full-season sponsor. Without that, Busch refused the offer and switched teams to Richard Childress Racing before the 2023 season, bringing an end to his 15-year stint at Gibbs.
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After Busch's death, NASCAR fans left bags of M&M's candies at memorials set up outside Daytona International Speedway and RCR's office. But now, many believe the company blocked the one tribute the fans really wanted.
Days before Lime Rock Park's July ARCA race, Nitro Motorsports scrapped a planned tribute scheme for Thomas Annunziata's No. 70, modeled on Busch's 2019 championship car, after fans accused Mars of blocking it. A team rep pointed only to a stalled "approval process."
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