NASCAR is still coming to terms with the sudden loss of Kyle Busch after his sudden passing in May 2026. His absence is felt across every level of the sport, from the tracks where he built a legacy as a two-time Cup Series champion to the record books as the winningest driver in NASCAR’s national series history, and as one of its most polarizing figures. Through it all, Bill Janitz was his PR rep for 15 years. Now Janitz has something blunt to say for the man behind the “Rowdy” persona. 

“Every sport has its villain,” Janitz said. “Some people lean into that role, and others aren’t as comfortable with it. But if you had a bunch of people who weren’t passionate and didn’t care, nobody would want to watch the sport. He was one of the people who made NASCAR fun to watch, and I was incredibly lucky to have a front-row seat to watch greatness for 15 years.”

Busch’s part in being the villain wasn’t just stumbling upon it. He cultivated that reputation; he unapologetically owned it. He gave himself the name “Rowdy”, inspired by the villain in Days of Thunder.

Nashville, 2009. Busch wins a custom Gibson guitar as a trophy. Walks out to Victory Lane and smashes it on the ground. No reason. Just did it.

A year earlier at Richmond, he spun Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR’s most popular driver, and the crowd got so ugly he needed a police escort to leave the track. He came back the next week, as if nothing happened.

2011, he wrecked Ron Hornaday in the Trucks while Hornaday was chasing a title. Did it under caution. NASCAR threw him out for the rest of the weekend. Then in 2017, he swept Bristol. Won the Truck race, the Xfinity race, the Cup race, all in one weekend. Got on top of his car afterward, pulled out a broom, and stood there plugging his ears while the whole place booed him.

Janitz had a name for what it was like working through all of that. The “Kyle Busch School of Hard Knocks.” Fifteen years of it. He says it made him better.

Here is the thing, though. Busch had the results to say whatever he wanted. 234 wins across the three series. Nobody has more. Cup titles in 2015 and 2019. Sixty-three Cup wins total. Plus, from 2005 to 2023, he won at least one Cup race every single year. Nineteen seasons in a row.

He built Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2010. Won seven owner titles, racked up 98 wins, and put Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, and Erik Jones into the sport. Sold it all to Spire in 2023 for $14.5 million.

The last stop was Richard Childress Racing. Same man who punched him after a Truck race in 2011. Water under the bridge by then.