Whispers of the past tend to reappear, stirring up fond memories. Kyle Busch may be a Richard Childress Racing driver now, but he is best known for his time at Joe Gibbs Racing. Rowdy clinched 60 of 63 Cup Series race wins and two championships under JGR. Yet his estrangement with Joe Gibbs was also bitter. After Gibbs lost M&Ms and Mars, Inc. as primary sponsors, he also lost Busch due to financial complications. “Did JGR try hard enough to sell me? My answer to that is no,” Busch told The Athletic in 2024.

Despite this strained ending, Joe Gibbs fondly remembers Rowdy’s era in his team. Kyle Busch left a legacy of excellence in JGR, one which he has been unable to replicate at RCR so far, going winless for the first time in his career in 2024. So Gibbs recently made a tribute to Busch, leaving fans a little befuddled as the two are no longer aligned.

A salute to Kyle Busch via a young racer

William Sawalich, a two-time ARCA Menards Series East champion, is now under Joe Gibbs’ wing. The 18-year-old speedster has already proved his stock car racing mettle. He clinched victories in 18 of 39 races across all three ARCA series – national, east, and west. Last year, Sawalich scored three top-tens and one Talladega pole win in a part-time Craftsman Truck Series schedule. Last October, Gibbs signed him up for a full-time Xfinity ride in 2025. Although he has yet to find his mojo, Gibbs has faith in him. That is evident in the number assigned to him in JGR – No. 18, the same number used by Kyle Busch.

So as William Sawalich treads further in his Xfinity Series journey, Joe Gibbs is giving him a gift. His No. 18 Toyota would be adorned with the colors of Kyle Busch‘s legendary 2016 Xfinity run. Besides sporting a snazzy throwback scheme, this initiative also marked a tribute of respect to Busch – although he is not on the team. Joe Gibbs Racing posted the new scheme for Darlington Raceway on X: “We’ve seen this look before 👀@WilliamSawalich is bringing back @KyleBusch ’s dominant 10-win 2016 scheme next weekend at @TooToughToTame. Featuring a retro @starkeyhearing logo on the hood, the No. 18 will highlight Starkey’s 57 years of hearing innovation.”

Kyle Busch’s 2016 Xfinity run was one for the ages. He competed in 6 of the first seven races and took the checkered flag in four of them, winning his first three attempts! Then, he notched up another three race win streak at Kentucky, Nashville, and Indianapolis, tormenting any driver that stood in his way. Busch even added two wins during appearances in the playoffs at Kansas and Phoenix, solidifying his dominance in the Series. With this iconic run being given a tribute in 2025, the question looms: Is William Sawalich worthy of such a throwback?

Who knows, maybe Joe Gibbs saw the same spark in William Sawalich that he saw in Kyle Busch? Yet, Sawalich has not struck luck recently. During the Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his No. 18 Toyota got loose on the very first lap in Turn 2, triggering a multi-car accident. A similar accident happened back in Daytona, resulting in a 28th-place finish. However, glimmers of improvement were also visible, as Sawalich logged a top-ten finish in Atlanta.

After starting in 11th place, William Sawalich banked upon strategic pit stops to work his way up. Although he was never in a position to battle for the race win in the closing laps, he could finish 9th. In the end, Joe Gibbs’ youngster came away with insights. “I learned a lot about how to stay in the draft and how to manage your position and how to manage runs,” Sawalich observed. “We had a good Soundgear GR Supra today. We had some speed — not so much in the first and second stage, but brought it together for the third stage and we had good pit stops and did the little things right today.”

Although Joe Gibbs’s young driver is in the spotlight and steadily improving, fans are concerned about the nature of this throwback. Is it too soon to be giving Kyle Busch a throwback tribute?

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Fans spot Gibbs’ nostalgia

Kyle Busch’s bond with Joe Gibbs Racing runs deep. From dealing with a broken foot and clinching a championship to engaging in legendary fights, Busch left an imprint on the team. So whenever questions about his retirement popped up, most believed that Rowdy would bid adieu as the No. 18 JGR driver. Instead, Busch moved over to Richard Childress’ fold.

Despite his estrangement, JGR is still treating it as a permanent farewell, as one fan wrote about the new scheme. “Throwing back to a driver whos still racing is diabolical.” What is more? Throwback schemes are usually meant for older drivers who have retired a long time ago. For instance, Austin Cindric’s Dale Earnhardt throwback scheme for Darlington. So another fan wrote, “Looks awesome but he isn’t that old yet!!”

Yet, the overall sentiment was positive among fans. Joe Gibbs’s nostalgia was not lost on them, and in fact even fans fondly share it. After 2016, NASCAR implemented the Kyle Busch rule, limiting the races that a Cup Series driver can run in trucks or Xfinity. That is because of Busch’s indomitable 232-win count across NASCAR’s three tiers. One fan wrote, “Ah, the car that sparked what people call the Kyle Busch rule. Making it so Cup drivers have a limited amount of lower series starts…and the car still looks good today.” In 2016, Busch emerged from a fresh Cup Series championship and tormented the Xfinity Series. His 10-win Xfinity run was so dominant that another fan wrote: “That paint scheme still haunts every 2016 Xfinity driver.”

Every season, Cup Series teams compete with each other not only on the racetrack but in their design studios as well. And Joe Gibbs’s team of designers is sending ripples of joy in the fan community. Ranging from Denny Hamlin’s new Progressive scheme to Christopher Bell’s DeWalt colors, fans lauded JGR’s designs: “jgr designers out here pushing constant bangers.”

Evidently, Joe Gibbs’s silent tribute to Kyle Busch is getting mixed reactions among fans. Let us see if William Sawalich can do justice to Busch’s legacy.