Outside the Mars factory in Hackettstown, New Jersey, Kyle Busch’s No. 18 car is still on display. Mars Inc., the parent company of M&M’s, cut ties with Busch at the end of 2022. The car stayed. After Busch died on May 21, 2026, from pneumonia turning to sepsis at 41, 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 was essentially a moving billboard, and Mars knew exactly how to use it. Every quarter had its brand. Spring meant M&M’s Flavor Votes. Summer was Skittles and Starburst. Playoffs meant Snickers. Mars also used Busch’s face to win end-cap displays, the prime real estate at the end of grocery aisles, at Walmart, Kroger, and Target.
Chains gave Mars that space in exchange for co-branded NASCAR promotions. TV ads could not get you that. Kyle Busch could. The media numbers speak volumes. Mars tracked broadcast exposure using an industry valuation metric. Because Busch was always leading, crashing, or getting interviewed, the No. 18 showed up on screen constantly. Mars was getting three to four times the value of what they paid. On a $20 million investment, that math is hard to argue with.
The reach went beyond race fans. The “Rowdy vs. Candyman” persona made Kyle Busch recognizable to people who had never watched a lap. Kids knew the car. Kalegi’s neighbor wearing that jacket, never talked to the man, no idea if they even follow the sport, was exactly his point.
As for this association, Mars announced the split in December 2021. The official reason was a pivot to digital marketing, TikTok, Instagram, younger audiences. This wasn’t the real reason. Their internal data showed the NASCAR fanbase was aging out.
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They were also pushing a purpose-driven corporate identity, sustainability, and inclusivity, and decided a carbon-heavy motorsport did not fit that image. The $20 million, in their view, went further elsewhere.
JGR spent over a year trying to replace them. Nobody matched that number. Without a primary sponsor, they could not justify Busch’s salary. He left for Richard Childress Racing ahead of 2023, ending 15 years at Gibbs, the direct consequence of a corporate budget decision made in a boardroom.
When Kyle Busch passed, fans left bags of M&M’s candy at memorials outside Daytona and Charlotte. Mars put out a statement calling him “The Candyman” and thanking him for 15 years of memories.
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