When he signed with Richard Childress Racing in 2023, Childress jokingly asked Kyle Busch to ‘hold his watch.’ It was a hilarious nod to an infamous incident from 2011. Back at Kansas Speedway, Childress took off his wristwatch and proceeded to put Kyle Busch in a headlock and punched him several times. It was a direct consequence of their rivalry heating up after Busch’s repeated run-ins with RCR drivers. Childress had warned him that he would personally take care of it, and he did.

The two laughed about it when Busch came to RCR. And today, three years later, while that chapter came to an abrupt, heartbreaking end, Childress wants to ensure that a ‘Busch’ next takes the #8 to the victory lane.

RCR has hence suspended the use of Busch’s car, effective immediately, and it stays in reserve for his son, Brexton Busch, for when he is ready to make his NASCAR Cup Series debut. In a statement released on their social media handles, RCR announced:

“Richard Childress Racing has elected to suspend use of the No. 8 and will run the No. 33 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and beyond. Kyle Busch was instrumental in the design of RCR’s stylized No. 8, and it has become synonymous with Kyle and an important symbol for his fans and the NASCAR industry.

“No one can carry it forward to the level that he did. The No. 8 is reserved and ready for Brexton Busch when he is ready to go NASCAR racing.”

The announcement comes a day after Kyle Busch passed away at 41. And the decision to retire the No. 8 is reminiscent of 2001, when Childress decided to retire the No. 3 car in honor of Dale Earnhardt.

In fact, the No. 8 connects the Busch and Earnhardt families in a rather unique fashion. It was Dale Earnhardt Jr. who first gave the number its modern identity when he raced it for Dale Earnhardt Inc., the team his father built for him. Jr. never drove for RCR during his career, but when Childress brought the number back, it was Busch who inherited it – even though Tyler Reddick had also competed in the same car way before ‘Rowdy’.

It is worth noting here that NASCAR doesn’t usually retire numbers, since they are more about race teams and owners rather than individual drivers or the league as a whole. Even Earnhardt Sr.’s #3 was never formally retired and was reintroduced with Austin Dillon. Forbes had further explained in its report that the sanctioning body remains hesitant to retire numbers because the current pool is relatively small. What teams can do, however, is choose not to use a number they control. That is an entirely voluntary act, and it is pretty rare itself.

On another note, while Busch succeeded in JGR’s #18 to collect two Cup Championships, to many, it always felt like JGR’s inherited history. Bobby Labonte drove it to a championship in 2000, and then J.J. Yeley occupied it. When Busch arrived in 2008, he made it his own over 15 seasons of two championships, 56 Cup victories, but the number didn’t exist solely beside his name. It was a great car driven by a great driver. And then they went their separate ways.

The No. 8, by contrast, was constructed around Busch’s identity – he even personally helped design the stylized No. 8. He then made an immediate mark with it. In just the second race of the 2023 season, he drove the No. 8 to victory at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, a win that extended his record to 19 consecutive Cup seasons with at least one victory. He collected three wins across that debut season with RCR, all of which would become the final Cup victories of his career.

And even though there was a long winless stretch for him, the determination and the hunger to win never waned. He evolved as a person, too, wishing to be a better example for his son. For those reasons, the #8 has become synonymous with the name Busch and hence retired, by his team, within three years of when the ‘Rowdy’ first drove it.