Joe Gibbs has now come forward to reveal that he is partnering with Richard Childress Racing to pay tributes to one of NASCAR’s greatest legends, Kyle Busch.

Seeming quite emotional, Joe Gibbs went on to add how he backs RCR during such a trying time and assured that his priority right now remains to back RCR up as much as he can.

“Yes, and so we just want to encourage them,” Gibbs said. “Secondly, I just want to say that for Richard and RCR, we just wanted to work in concert with them.”

He then revealed he had personally contacted Richard Childress. “I reached out to Richard and told him that we just want to be together on this,” Gibbs explained. “We feel so, so much hurt for him and RCR. Just a terrible thing to happen to them, and what’s happened to him also in the past.”

This partnership is even more important now than ever. “We just really want to do anything we can to encourage RCR,” as Gibbs explained. “And we want to work together as we go forward with this, with them.”

He later added, “We want to make sure we work with Richard, and we don’t want to step on anything there that they want to do. So we’re working together.”

Dropping plans on his intent to tribute Busch, Gibbs added, “We’re going to do some things, obviously, for the race,” he said. “We’re going to do some things on our cars. All of our cars are going to have Rowdy over the door.”

This much-deserved tribute doesn’t end there. “They’re going to have a sticker that shows Kyle with the trophy, with the NASCAR trophy, and things like that,” Gibbs added.

Many drivers have replaced their names above their driver-side windows and replaced it with 'Rowdy', to honor him. Charlotte Motor Speedway has already painted Busch’s name and his signature No. 8 onto the infield grass entering turn 1.

Even more importantly, Gibbs was very open to confirming that this was just the beginning. “There’ll be other things as we go forward that I’m sure we’ll all work together,” he said. “I texted Richard and told him that we want to be a part of whatever he wants to be a part of.”

The tributes for Kyle Busch seem to be pouring in. Let’s take a look at how the garages are reacting.

NASCAR garage unites through special Kyle Busch tributes

Tributes for Busch now seem to be spreading even beyond JGR and RCR, with teams and individuals across motorsport chiming in with their own memories of the American racing legend. It started with RCR officially suspending the No. 8 car and putting it on pause for Brexton Busch to race in the future, while placing their hopes on the No. 33 vehicle.

Outside the bounds of NASCAR, Dale Coyne Racing and Romain Grosjean will run the No. 18 at the Indianapolis 500 under Busch’s classic and beautiful font.

Even tracks don’t want to be left behind, with Indianapolis Motor Speedway, for example, planning to illuminate the scoring pylon right on lap 18.

Ross Chastain and Layne Riggs took bows in Busch's tribute after winning their respective races in O'Reilly and Trucks, respectively.

These small gestures are now crossing the entire field, with reports flowing in that FloRacing Motorsports is also preparing its tribute to the American legend, assuring that his legacy stays unending forever.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Uday Jakhar

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason