Twenty-five years of candy-colored race cars

Mars got into this through a different candy. In 1997 it joined MB2 Motorsports' No. 36 Pontiac with its Skittles brand and driver Derrike Cope, and in 1998 Ernie Irvan drove the Skittles car. In 1999, M&M's replaced Skittles on the No. 36, and Ken Schrader drove the M&M's Pontiac from 2000 through 2002.

In 2000, Mars also became an official partner of NASCAR itself, the sport's "Official Chocolate." That mattered: it meant Mars could work the whole sport, from hospitality to race naming rights, not only one car.

From 2003 through 2006, M&M's rode on Elliott Sadler's No. 38 at Robert Yates Racing, then with David Gilliland. And then Mars made a deliberate choice about what kind of team it wanted.

Choosing a winner on purpose

Mars's head of sponsorships explained the thinking years later: a car running poorly didn't fit its brands, so it went looking for a team that could win races and championships.

In 2008, M&M's became primary sponsor of Kyle Busch's No. 18 at Joe Gibbs Racing, in his first season with the team. It paid off. On November 22, 2015, Busch won his first Cup championship at Homestead in the green M&M's Crispy Toyota, in a season where he had missed 11 races with injuries. On November 17, 2019, he won the Homestead race and his second title in the No. 18 M&M's Toyota.

The race car as a product launch

What made Mars different was how it used the car. NASCAR described the company as using the sport as a backdrop to debut new products, and the No. 18 changed its look often to do it.

1. 2015Halloween schemes, and the title-winning M&M's Crispy car.
2. 2018Fans vote between Crunchy Espresso, Raspberry and Mint flavors. Mint wins and races at Watkins Glen.
3. 2019The M&M's Chocolate Bar launches at the Daytona 500 with a special car and an on-site activation.
4. 2019An M&M's Hazelnut Spread car promotes the new flavor. The "M&M's Glampground" hospitality sells out.
5. 2021Other Mars brands take turns, including Snickers, Skittles and Ethel M chocolates in Las Vegas.

Add a pink M&M's car for breast-cancer awareness to that list. Every one of those was a reason for a store to build a display, a reason for a press release, and a reason for fans to look twice at a car they'd seen many times before. The car stayed news.

Leaving while it still worked

On December 20, 2021, Mars announced it would leave NASCAR after the 2022 season. By Joe Gibbs Racing's count, the company had spent 32 years sponsoring race cars, 24 of them with M&M's. JGR president Dave Alpern said the program was delivering a good return; Mars simply had a finite budget and wanted to try some new things.

The final season let fans send in photos for a mosaic "legacy" car, and Busch's last win with Mars came on the dirt at Bristol. Without a full replacement sponsor at Joe Gibbs Racing, he moved to Richard Childress Racing for 2023.

Kyle Busch died on May 21, 2026, at the age of 41. In August, Mars announced it would return for one race: an M&M's mosaic tribute scheme on Ty Gibbs's No. 54 at the Bristol Night Race in September.