When Kyle Busch was approached by M&M’S to re-create scenes from the blockbuster movie Days of Thunder, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, he didn’t need any convincing that it was a great idea. Besides, the driver nicknamed Rowdy counts it among his all-time favorites, and he can recite line after line from the legendary NASCAR movie.
A new video series, which launches tomorrow (Thursday, July 9) at YouTube.com/MMSChocolate, stars Busch, his crew chief Adam Stevens, team owner Joe Gibbs, and Busch’s wife Samantha. Along with the re-creation of several scenes, M&M’S Crispy will launch behind-the-scenes footage with each participant.
Real life sometimes imitates art, and that could be the case for Busch and the M&M’S Crispy team with regard to the Days of Thunder storyline. Like Tom Cruise’s character in the movie, Busch has also recovered from injury this season to return to the M&M’S Crispy Toyota – just 82 days following his February accident at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. And, in impressive fashion, Busch raced his way back to victory lane in just his fifth event back in the car during an emotional afternoon two weekends ago at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.
The M&M’S homage to Days of Thunder comes as Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’S Crispy Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), continues his comeback tour as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to one of his best tracks, statistically – Kentucky Speedway in Sparta – for Saturday night’s Quaker State 400. The Las Vegas native has quite the record at the racetrack that sits some 65 miles north and east of Louisville’s Churchill Downs, a legendary racing facility known for horsepower of an altogether different variety.
Busch has notched victories at Kentucky Speedway in all three of NASCAR’s top divisions – Sprint Cup, Xfinity and Camping World Truck. Add his 2003 ARCA series win at Kentucky and Busch has been victorious in four racing divisions and has made quite a Kentucky home of his own in the state’s second-most-famous victory lane.
In the inaugural Sprint Cup event at Kentucky in 2011, Busch proved his worth when he led six times for a race-high 125 laps to be the historic first winner in NASCAR’s top series in the state. He enters Saturday night’s race tied with teammate Matt Kenseth with a series-best average finish at Kentucky of 4.5, and he also leads the series in several statistical categories during the four races contested there thus far in NASCAR’s top division.
Busch’s winning history at Kentucky started way back at the ripe age of 18, when he dominated the 2003 ARCA race there while competing for Hendrick Motorsports. He led a race-high 91 laps en route to the victory.
He returned to the Bluegrass State the following year and found victory lane again, this time in his Xfinity Series debut at the 1.5-mile oval. In all, Busch has one win, five top-fives, and has led 423 laps in seven Xfinity Series starts there. He also won the 2011 and 2014 Truck Series races to give him five top-10 finishes and 310 laps led in four Truck Series starts at the speedway.
So as the Sprint Cup Series makes just its fifth appearance at Kentucky Speedway Saturday night, Busch will hope to channel the dramatic ending to Days of Thunder and return to victory lane – this time for the second career Sprint Cup win there.
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