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AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kyle Busch dropped the window net on his No. 18 car and climbed out of what was likely the last M&M’s-branded car to ever run a NASCAR race.

Busch removed his gear — gloves first, then his helmet — and put a yellow M&M’s hat on his head. He tore off the Breathe Right strip he wears on his nose during every race and popped on a pair of sunglasses.

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Then he turned to see a reception line of people waiting for their chance to say goodbye.

First was Jimmy Makar, the longtime crew chief turned racing operations chief at Joe Gibbs Racing. Then came an assortment of M&M’s-branded crew members, each of whom received full hugs and hearty back slaps.

Next was Victoria Mars, the former Mars chairwoman whose support for Busch was instrumental in creating one of NASCAR’s most successful and longest-running driver/sponsor relationships. Other Mars executives got their turn for farewell hugs, as did Busch’s longtime public relations representative, Bill Janitz — who helped Busch navigate more battles than one can count.

It was sinking in now: This was really the end. Busch concluded his 15-year tenure at Joe Gibbs Racing on the most emotional of days after learning team COO Coy Gibbs had died in his sleep on Saturday night.

Between Gibbs’ shocking death and Busch’s own flood of emotions over seeing his time with JGR, M&M’s and Toyota come to an end, it was a lot to handle. Though sunglasses covered his eyes, the setting sun over the Phoenix grandstands revealed tears welling up several times during a seven-minute interview with a handful of reporters.

Of all the difficult times Busch has been through this season, he acknowledged Sunday “was obviously the worst of all and the hardest of it all.” After finishing his pre-race sponsor visits, Busch was on the way back to his motorhome when he learned the news of Coy Gibbs’ death. He remembered Gibbs as someone who was “a lot like me.”

“He didn’t take any bullshit and told everybody the way it was straight to their face,” Busch said. “Loved Coy for that and for his tenacity. He took on a huge role in filling the shoes of his brother (J.D., who died three years ago).

“He’s done nothing but to try to push us all to go forward and win races and be competitive and strong and all that. That’s what I’ll remember most about him.”

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There were sprinkles of unusual moments all weekend for Busch, including before the race when Denny Hamlin — Busch’s teammate of 15 years — walked over to the No. 18 car to embrace a man with whom he often didn’t see eye-to-eye. Hamlin is particularly close to the Gibbs family, but it was not a consideration for either driver to skip the race because “that’s not in our DNA,” Busch said.

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But the most powerful emotions for Busch kicked in when he glanced at his M&M’s car before climbing in for the final time. He could barely look at it without crying. It truly felt like the end of something special, with that paint scheme on that car with that driver something which will be viewed with increasing nostalgia as the years go by.

Even after the race, Busch’s voice choked with emotion and his eyes filled with tears in recounting how it felt to see his car on pit road for the last time.

“It’s hard, man,” Busch said, struggling to speak. “It’s not easy. I just wish it wasn’t what it was or what it is. Gonna miss a lot of fun folks we got to spend a lot of time with over the years. Look forward to new adventures.”

Busch won a single race this season and has only won a total of four races combined in his final three years at JGR. For a driver who averaged 5.4 wins per season in the previous five years before his dry spell, the dropoff was baffling.

But he pointed to the post-2020 split with crew chief Adam Stevens, who took JGR’s Christopher Bell to the championship race this year.

“We were Jimmie (Johnson) and Chad (Knaus),” Busch said. “We had that capability. Tried to form that again with a new group and it was never the same.”

A Busch-JGR split once seemed impossible to fathom, even as the team struggled to find a replacement sponsor for M&M’s throughout the summer. As the door eventually closed for a JGR return, Busch found a new home at Richard Childress Racing — where he’ll drive the No. 8 car next season.

He wanted to go out with a better performance than a seventh-place run on Sunday, but it was all the car had. And all Busch had to do was glance up at the scoring pylon behind a group of reporters on pit road to see his result ended his JGR tenure on a positive note.

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“I’ll take the satisfaction of being the top Gibbs car,” he said.

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As Busch walked back into the Cup Series garage, several fans in M&M’s gear rushed toward him in search of signatures on their apparel. Then he was stopped by a fan wearing a GM Goodwrench shirt; fitting, since that was Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s sponsor at RCR.

Busch greeted several more crew members before disappearing into the No. 18 team transporter — a hauler adorned with tribute messages to M&M’s such as “Thank you Mars family & associates for 15 incredible years together!” and “Thank you William (Clements, a Mars vice president) for 15 years of guidance and friendship.”

After he emerged wearing an orange M&M’s polo shirt and jeans, Busch began walking along a chain link fence toward an opening where a six-seat golf cart was awaiting him on the other side.

Busch glanced back toward a reporter who had been documenting his every move.

“This is it,” he said with a shrug. “No beer bongs on pit road. This is the end of the line.”

(Photo of Kyle Busch and Victoria Mars: Jared C. Tilton/  Getty Images)

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