No Gibbs driver has ever been as successful as Kyle Busch, and there's still a few more weeks left for him to add to those impressive numbers.
In the Cup Series, 56 of the team's 198 Cup Series victories are courtesy of Busch. He also won the Cup title in both 2015 and 2019.
And that's without even mentioning his incredible NASCAR Xfinity Series record. So with the news of his imminent departure, it's time to take a look back on some of Busch's biggest moments with Joe Gibbs Racing.
Busch signed with JGR for the 2008 season after three years full-time with Hendrick Motorsports. He joined a lineup that included Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin at the time, and it didn't take long for them to find Victory Lane...
In just his fourth start with the team, Busch won at Atlanta Motor Speedway after leading 173 of 325 laps. The victory was also the first for Toyota at the Cup level.
But it's also worth mentioning that his first win with the now iconic No. 18 M&Ms machine came a few races later at Talladega. He would win a total of eight races in that first season with JGR, a personal record he only matched one other time in his career. The decision by M&M's parent company, Mars Inc., to end their sponsorship deal after 2022 became the main catalyst for Busch's move elsewhere.
His time with JGR wasn't just about winning. No, there was another side to the success. 'Rowdy' Busch as would later be called had a run-in with NASCAR's Most Popular Driver in an event still talked about to this day. The contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr. as they battled for the win solidified him as the villain in the eyes of many fans, but he became an anti-hero to others. It's a role he didn't particularly shy away from.
Busch entered the 2008 playoffs as the title favorite, but suddenly, the magic of the regular season was gone. He began the postseason with a 30-point advantage over the competition, but it quickly evaporated with finishes of 15th or worse in five of the first six races. After winning eight of the first 26 races, he never placed higher than fourth in any of the final ten. Busch ended up tenth in the 12-driver playoff standings, a disappointing end to what was an incredible maiden season as a JGR driver.
There would be no playoff redemption in 2009, as Busch missed the playoffs entirely. Eight points was all that stood between him and a shot at the title. He won another four races that season, but a championship still wasn't on the cards. However, the moment most people remember from that year in regards to Busch has to be the Fourth of July race at Daytona Int. Speedway, where ex-teammate Tony Stewart hooked him into the outside wall for the win as they raced towards the checkered flag. Daytona and blocking ... it never ends well.
Although we're going to focus mostly on his Cup exploits, it would be wrong not to mention his incredible record in the Xfinity Series. Driving for 'Coach' Gibbs, he was winning races hand-over-fist and captured his first NXS title in 2009 -- all while running full-time in the Cup Series. There were multiple seasons in fact were he amassed double digit NXS wins.
In 2010, Busch added another three victories to his resume, a total of 15 since joining JGR. Most impressively, he completed a weekend sweep at Bristol Motor Speedway in August. Busch ran the Cup, Xfinity and Truck races, winning all three. He led 515 of 956 laps run in an unprecedented trifecta. Not satisfied with making history once, he would do it again at Bristol in 2017. There was nothing more to do after that, other than bow.
At New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2011, Kyle Busch earned his 100th career NASCAR victory across the three national divisions. In the same race, he also matched Mark Martin for most wins all-time in the Xfinity Series. It was a win record he would more than double in the coming years.
In the years that followed 2011, he would capture over two dozen more victories between Cup and Xfinity starts. But it all came to a sudden stop in the 2015 NXS season-opener at Daytona. A broken leg sustained in a late-race crash put Busch on the sidelines for three months. His return -- well -- it was nothing short of spectacular.
After missing the first third of the season, he returned to competition in the Coke 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It took him just five races to find Victory Lane again. With a win at Sonoma, he only needed to crack the top-30 in points to lock himself into the playoffs.
Well, he wasn't content with simply accumulating the necessary points. Busch kept on winning. Three consecutive race wins in July ended with a victory in a crown jewel of NASCAR -- the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Having beat the odds and made the cut for the postseason, Busch rode the momentum all the way to his first ever NASCAR Cup Series title in 2015. In the finale, he beat past and future champions including Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. to do it. And yes, he won the race too.
In 2017, Busch would finally win the NASCAR All-Star Race, although his position as a NASCAR 'all-star' was undisputed by this point in his career.
Although new tracks have since joined the schedule, Busch accomplished another impressive feat in 2018. His victory in the Coke 600 meant he had won a race at every single track on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule at the time (23 total). He was the first driver in the modern era to do so.
It may seem like all we're talking about are race wins now, but it's pretty much all Busch was doing during this part of his career. Between 2015 and 2018, he won no fewer than four Cup races every season and made the Championship 4 every single year. At Richmond Raceway in 2018, he snagged his 50th career NASCAR Cup Series victory. Only 14 drivers in history have won 50+ races at the top level of the sport.
History is made ... again. At Auto Club Speedway in 2019, Busch earned his 200th win across all three national divisions of NASCAR. He now has more wins than any other driver in both the Xfinity and Truck Series. As for Cup, he's among the top-ten on the all-time wins list.
Later that same year, Busch would earn his second NASCAR Cup Series championship. Beating teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin, as well as Kevin Harvick, he became the first and currently only driver to win multiple titles under the unpredictable elimination-style playoffs. He is now the only active multi-time champ in the Cup Series.
But after that second title, something changed. He was still competitive, but by his impressive standards, Busch was no longer winning like he used to. He won a total of four races between 2020 and 2022 (so far), but after six straight seasons of winning four races or more before 2020, it was a step down in performance. He ended 2020 eighth in the standings, 2021 ninth and currently, he is facing possible elimination in the opening round of the 2022 playoffs. Something is missing, and maybe it was time for a change.
On the dirt at Bristol, he captured what may be his final win as a Joe Gibbs Racing driver. He passed Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick as they collided in the final corner, winning for the 60th time in his career. 56 of those wins have come with JGR.
So what's next? This week, he announced his intentions to leave JGR and Toyota after a deal could not be struck for 2023. He will now take on a new challenge as the driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro. RCR hasn't won a Cup title in almost three decades, last taking the crown with NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 1994. Well, if anyone can return RCR to their former glory, it might just be KFB...
