When Kyle Busch started his tenure at RCR with a thrilling win at Auto Club Speedway, I thought the driver who had dominated the mid-2010s had returned.

“Who needs Joe Gibbs Racing?” I rhetorically asked my wife. 

Three years later, I sat watching Ty Gibbs in his grandfather’s #54, formerly Busch’s #18, win for the first time in his Cup Series career while Busch toiled away in the mid-20s and created beef with Riley Herbst. Who needs JGR, though, right?

Anyone who has paid attention to NASCAR in the last few years understands the downfall of Busch, it was just leaving JGR, but a myriad of issues that cropped up at the same time leaving Rowdy Nation in ruins. From the lack of practice time to the Next Gen car not working with him, it’s been a slow descent into madness for fans of the #8 and, seemingly, the driver himself.

Now, before we get started I’m not here to lament that my favorite two-time championship winning driver isn’t the dominant force he used to be. I’m self-aware enough to understand that father time is undefeated and nobody likes to hear the rich bemoan losing it all after a decade of winning. However, there is a grieving process we all must go through when it becomes clear your guy has lost it and that’s what we are here to do.

In the beginning of my NASCAR fandom, my dad raised me as primarily a hater of Hendrick Motorsports and secondly a fan of Kurt Busch. Driving his Miller Lite #2 car, Kurt was what originally got me into the sport, but as a child there was something alluring about his brother, who drove a bright yellow M&Ms sponsored car.

As I grew older that fandom remained, collecting every #18 diecast I could find and building a collection of bright yellow merchandise that I was absolutely clowned on for wearing in middle school. That journey culminated in Busch’s first championship in 2015, an impeccable comeback effort that made me a fan of the NASCAR playoff system for two years.

Busch’s dominance continued throughout the 2010s, creating historic moments in the sport like ‘SLIDEJOB’ and ‘If you don’t like that kind of racing, don’t even watch ’ en route to his second championship in 2019. As a KFB fan, I was eating good. All it took was shouldering the disdain of fellow NASCAR fans everywhere, but it was worth it to root for a fun villain in the sport.

Then, COVID happened.

Like everything in the world, NASCAR came to a halt, ending Busch’s momentum and throwing him down the death spiral to come. As the Next Gen car arrived, the driver went from dominating races to barely scraping by in JGR equipment.

Then came the contract negotiations with JGR, a year long spat that dragged on and while I attempted to assure myself that JGR wouldn’t let him walk because of Kyle Busch Motorsports, his truck team. Boy was I wrong, yet again.

Without a sponsor heading into 2023, Gibbs took over his team and Busch walked into the free agency pool for the first time in my waking lifetime. While he found a new home at Richard Childress Racing, the #8 looked wrong and the day he signed I just felt that childhood piece that kept me with Busch fade into the background.

After a hot start with his first season with RCR, Busch’s tenure in the sport has become one of pity. Former teammates like Denny Hamlin will openly speak about his struggles, Hamlin even claiming his title as most hated driver for two years as fans suddenly couldn’t hate the driver in 25th place anymore.

So as I sat watching Gibbs celebrate his first career victory and at first I was upset. My fan brain thought that should be Busch, it was his car for a decade after all. Yet in the days that followed, more clarity has entered my brain and suddenly, I feel free.

Not free from the burden of rooting for such a horrible car and organization, no that should come next offseason, but free from the expectations and on some level free from the hope. The hope that one day Busch would be back up front running with Hamlin and winning races again.

While I still believe he has the talent to do so, Gibbs’ win was a passing of the torch. Busch’s era is done and that’s okay. Like an old dog, it’s better that we, as KFB fans, take this time to enjoy every radio crashout, every intentional spin of Herbst and good finish because there will come a day, sooner than we think that it’s gone.

So I’ll host the cookout, you’re all invited. Let’s put some Mars candy on the grill, drink a combination of NOS and Monster Energy and throw a Jalapeno-Lime ZONE pouch in our mouths, crank the washed anthem and watch KB put it in the fence this Sunday at Kansas.