M&M's Returns to NASCAR for One Night: Ty Gibbs Will Run Kyle Busch's Colors at Bristol

via Joe Gibbs Racing

M&M's left NASCAR at the end of 2022 and everybody understood it was over. It is coming back for exactly one race, and the reason is the best and worst reason there could be.

Ty Gibbs will drive the M&M's paint scheme on the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at the Bristol Night Race on Saturday, September 19, 2026, honoring Kyle Busch. Samantha Busch announced it herself. The car is not a straight reissue of the old yellow and brown livery either. It is built as a mosaic, with photographs from across Kyle's career worked into the design.

Bristol was one of his favorite tracks. It is also where the M&M's car won for the last time.

What Was Announced

The tribute was first reported by @joe_srigley before the teams confirmed it. Here is the full picture:

• The car: the No. 54 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing, in M&M's colors.
• The driver: Ty Gibbs.
• The race: the Bristol Night Race, Saturday, September 19, 2026.
• The sponsor: Mars returns M&M's to a Cup car as primary sponsor for this one event, roughly four years after leaving the sport.
• The design: an M&M's scheme with a mosaic of moments from Kyle's career built into it.

Samantha Busch Announced It, and That Is the Part That Gets You

The announcement did not come from a team press office first. It came from Kyle's wife.

"Bristol was always one of Kyle's favorite tracks," Samantha Busch said. "He loved racing under the lights, found so much success there." She did not dress up what the weekend is going to feel like either. "Going back without him will be heartbreaking. He should be there."

She also said she was grateful that "those iconic M&M'S colors will be coming back to Bristol, one last time."

There is no way to read that and be neutral about this car.

Ty Gibbs kept his own response to four words on Instagram: "So honored to drive this."

The Mosaic Is the Right Call

A tribute paint scheme can go two ways. You can reissue the original livery exactly, which is clean and safe and says nothing new. Or you can build something that only works because of who it is for.

Mars went the second way, and the execution is smarter than a straight reissue would have been.

The base is not the yellow-and-brown people might expect. The car is built from large blocks of the full M&M's candy palette, red, yellow, green, blue, and orange, each panel flowing into the next across the hood, doors, and quarters. That is what makes it read instantly from the grandstand and on a television cut, which is the entire job of a paint scheme. The red and yellow characters ride the rear quarter, the lowercase m logos sit on the hood and door, and the 54 is a white numeral with a single black outline, which is the right amount of separation on a car this busy.

Then look closer, because this is the part that makes it.

Every one of those color blocks is filled with photographs from Kyle's career, and here is the trick: each photo is duotoned into the color of the block it sits in. The blue panel is entirely blue-tinted images, the red panel entirely red, the orange panel entirely orange. That is why the car still reads as clean blocks of M&M's color at 130 miles an hour instead of turning into visual mud. The detail costs nothing at distance and pays off completely up close.

via Joe Gibbs Racing

And the photographs are not generic. In the blue block alone you can pick out the No. 18 Camry, the Interstate Batteries car, a Snickers Truck Series entry, a young Kyle in a helmet, the KYLE BUSCH windshield banner, and arms raised in victory lane. The red block carries the Sprint Cup era. From a hundred yards it is the M&M's car. From ten feet it is fifteen seasons of a person's life.

That is a genuinely hard thing to execute at 1:1 scale on a stock car, and it is the difference between a tribute and a decal package. Bristol is also a half mile, so the cars are never far from anyone. This is one of the few tracks on the schedule where a scheme with this much detail actually gets seen.

via Joe Gibbs Racing

One more thing worth noticing on the full car: JGR35 sits on the front fender. Joe Gibbs Racing was founded in 1991, so 2026 marks 35 years, and fifteen of them had Kyle Busch in the 18. Putting that badge on this particular car was not an accident.

The Number Is the One Thing We Would Change

We are going to be honest about the part that stings.

It is not the 18. Kyle Busch and the M&M's car means the No. 18 to anyone who watched him, and no amount of understanding the situation fully fixes that. The 54 is Ty Gibbs' number and there is no version of this where he runs somebody else's, so the answer here is correct even when it does not feel correct. It still catches you when you look at the roof.

The number treatment itself is the smaller complaint. NASCAR numbers used to sit centered on the door, and the modern forward-shifted placement has never looked as good, on this car or any other. On a scheme this deliberately nostalgic, centered numbers would have closed the loop. That is a sanctioning-body layout rule, not something Joe Gibbs Racing chose, so it is not really a mark against the design team.

Neither of those is enough to knock this car down. They are just the two things a Kyle Busch fan notices before anything else.

Why Bristol Is the Only Track This Works At

Bristol is not a neutral choice. Kyle Busch's record there is the best of anyone's in the modern era:

• 9 Cup Series wins
• 23 NASCAR wins across all three national series
• Two full weekend sweeps, taking all three national-series races in both 2010 and 2017

And the detail that makes this whole thing land: the last time the M&M's car ever won, it won at Bristol, on the dirt in April 2022. The scheme's final victory and its final appearance will have happened at the same half mile.

There is one more piece of symmetry nobody planned. Ty Gibbs got his first career Cup win at Bristol this spring, on April 12, 2026, holding off Ryan Blaney by 0.055 seconds in the closest Cup finish there in 35 years. It came in his 131st start, and it came about five weeks before Kyle died. The driver taking the M&M's colors back to Bristol is the driver whose own career changed at that track, in front of Kyle.

Our Grade: A+

This is the best tribute scheme NASCAR has put on track this year, and it is not particularly close.

The colors are the ones people actually associate with him, not a modern reinterpretation of them. The mosaic gives the car a reason to exist beyond nostalgia. The venue is the track where he was better than anybody and where his most famous car won last. The announcement came from his wife instead of a marketing department. Every single decision here was made by someone who cared more about getting it right than getting it approved.

We would run it as the 18 with centered numbers if the world worked that way. It does not, and this is what getting it right looks like inside the rules that exist.

The Bottom Line

Bristol under the lights in September is going to be emotional for everyone in the building, and the M&M's car rolling through tech is going to be the moment it hits. Mars brought a retired scheme back for one night. Joe Gibbs Racing put it on a car with the family name on it. Samantha Busch announced it in her own words. Kyle Busch won nine Cup races at that track and the last M&M's win in history happened there.

It is not the 18. It is still the most beautiful thing on the 2026 schedule. Grade: A+.

For more on how the sport has honored him this year, we covered the track tributes in the days after his death, Richard Childress Racing's 2026 tribute schemes including Austin Hill's No. 33, and the Coca-Cola 600 Memorial Day tributes. Our own goodbye is here: Remembering Kyle Busch, NASCAR's Number 18, Forever. For everything else on track this season, see our 2026 NASCAR paint scheme coverage.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is driving the M&M's car at Bristol in 2026?

Ty Gibbs, in the No. 54 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

When is the Ty Gibbs M&M's Kyle Busch tribute race?

The Bristol Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, September 19, 2026.

What does the Kyle Busch tribute paint scheme look like?

The No. 54 Toyota is divided into large blocks of the M&M's candy colors, red, yellow, green, blue, and orange, and every block is filled with a dense photo mosaic of moments from Kyle Busch's career. The M&M's characters appear on the rear quarters, the lowercase m logos sit on the hood and door, and the 54 is a plain white numeral.

Why is M&M's returning to NASCAR?

Mars ended its NASCAR sponsorship after the 2022 season. It is returning as primary sponsor for this single race specifically to honor Kyle Busch, who drove the M&M's car for 15 seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Why is the tribute at Bristol?

Bristol was one of Kyle Busch's favorite tracks and his most dominant. He won 9 Cup Series races and 23 NASCAR national-series races there, swept all three series in a single weekend twice, in 2010 and 2017, and the M&M's car's final victory came on the Bristol dirt in April 2022.

Why is the car the No. 54 and not the No. 18?

The No. 54 is Ty Gibbs' car number at Joe Gibbs Racing. Kyle Busch drove the No. 18 M&M's car for JGR from 2008 through 2022, but the tribute is running on the car Gibbs already drives rather than reviving the 18.

What happened to Kyle Busch?

Kyle Busch died on May 21, 2026, at the age of 41, from complications following a severe illness. He was a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, in 2015 and 2019, and was driving the No. 8 for Richard Childress Racing at the time of his death.

Did Ty Gibbs ever win at Bristol?

Yes. Ty Gibbs earned his first career Cup Series win at Bristol in the Food City 500 on April 12, 2026, beating Ryan Blaney by 0.055 seconds in the closest Cup finish at the track in 35 years.

What grade does the Kyle Busch tribute car get?

Our grade is A+. The colors, the career mosaic, and the choice of Bristol all land, and the only thing we would change is the number, which was never actually available to change.

What car is Ty Gibbs driving at Bristol?

The No. 54 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing, in the M&M's paint scheme, at the Bristol Night Race on September 19, 2026.

Is M&M's coming back to NASCAR?

Only for this one race. Mars ended its full-time NASCAR sponsorship after the 2022 season and is returning as primary sponsor of the No. 54 for the Bristol Night Race specifically to honor Kyle Busch. No further races have been announced.

Who announced the Kyle Busch tribute car?

Samantha Busch, Kyle's wife, announced it on social media. It was first reported by @joe_srigley before the teams confirmed it.

How many times did Kyle Busch win at Bristol?

He won 9 NASCAR Cup Series races at Bristol and 23 races there across all three NASCAR national series. He also swept all three national-series races in a single Bristol weekend twice, in 2010 and 2017.

What was Kyle Busch's car number?

He drove the No. 18 M&M's Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing for 15 seasons, from 2008 through 2022, and the No. 8 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing from 2023 until his death in 2026.

How many championships did Kyle Busch win?

Two NASCAR Cup Series championships, in 2015 and 2019.

When was the last time the M&M's car won a race?

April 2022, on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway. The scheme's final win and its final appearance will both have come at the same track.

What is the Bristol Night Race?

The NASCAR Cup Series race run under the lights at Bristol Motor Speedway, a half-mile concrete oval in Tennessee. The 2026 running is Saturday, September 19.

Will the M&M's car run after Bristol?

Nothing beyond the Bristol Night Race has been announced. Samantha Busch described it as the M&M'S colors coming back "one last time."