Samantha Busch didn’t hide her excitement when Landman unexpectedly crossed paths with the NASCAR world. The wife of two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch took to Instagram after spotting a familiar sight in Season 2, Episode 6 of Taylor Sheridan’s hit series.

Sharing photos from the episode, she wrote, “Already loved this show, and now I do even more!! This was a cool surprise @lucasoilproducts #landman,” she wrote, sharing photos from the episode.

For longtime NASCAR fans, the appearance carried weight because at its center was Lucas Oil. A brand deeply intertwined with Kyle Busch’s current chapter at Richard Childress Racing. This partnership has been one of the more stable and meaningful relationships in the garage. During the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, Lucas Oil served as a primary sponsor on the No. 8 Chevrolet in multiple marquee events, including Martinsville, Mexico City, and Bristol.

Beyond paint schemes, the connection runs deeper. Lucas Oil has worked with Richard Childress Racing and ECR Engines for over a decade, providing technical support and race-day engine oil development, benefiting performance on track and innovation off it. The relationship has also become personal, as Lucas Oil didn’t just back Kyle Busch but also sponsored Brexton Busch (along with Kyle) in two of the biggest dirt open-wheel events on the planet: the 2025 Tulsa Shootout and the 2025 Chili Bowl Nationals, reinforcing how invested they are in the Busch racing family.

Busch’s car making an appearance on Landman felt oddly perfect. After all, this is a show built around oil, and it features a brand synonymous with horsepower, and endurance is not product placement but more like alignment. For Samantha Busch, this was a proud, full-circle moment, and for NASCAR fans, it was another reminder that Kyle Busch’s RCR era isn’t just racing forward. In fact, it’s showing up everywhere.

When Kyle Busch himself became the story

Long before Landman slipped a Kyle Busch–adjacent moment into prime-time television, an entire film was already dedicated to unpacking who Busch really is when the helmet comes off. Rowdy (2022) was a full-length character study of one of the sport’s most polarizing figures.

Directed by Richard Valenzuela and J.J. Terry, the 105-minute film premiered at Regal Opry Mills in June 2022 ahead of the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, later reaching a wider audience through a limited theatrical run and a streaming debut on Amazon Freevee.

Produced by Chance Wright in collaboration with Venture 10 Studio Group and NASCAR Productions, Rowdy earned a 7.7/10 IMDb rating, largely for its willingness to go where most racing docs don’t. The film dives headfirst into Busch’s abrasive public persona while peeling back the layers that shaped it.

One of its most emotional threads centers on Busch’s reaction to the 2004 Hendrick Motorsports plane crash that killed his close friend and confidant Ricky Hendrick, a moment that quietly redefined him long before the wins piled up. The documentary also explores Busch’s complicated relationship with his brother Kurt Busch, his rivalry with Dale Earnhardt Jr., and the pressure of living up to and rebelling against NASCAR’s expectations.

At its core is the arc of Busch’s 2015 season, which began with a brutal Daytona crash and months of rehabilitation, only to end with his first Cup Series championship. Featuring candid interviews with Samantha Busch, Jeff Gordon, Rick Hendrick, Joe Gibbs, Marty Smith, and others, Rowdy succeeds because it humanizes a driver many fans loved to hate.

Writer Derek Daugherty frames Busch’s career as a story of resilience, showing how criticism became fuel. Initially reluctant, Busch eventually signed on. And in doing so, allowed fans to see the man behind the nickname.