NASCAR Veteran Kyle Busch & Rebel Bourbon Collaborate on a New Single Barrel

Love or hate him, Kyle “Rowdy” Busch is one of the most talented drivers currently competing in NASCAR. Known for his uber-competitive nature, penchant for trash talking, and aggressive driving style, Busch has set many impressive records in his 20-plus year career on the track—including all-time wins across all three national series, the most wins in the Trucks Series, and the most consecutive seasons with a win. But now his palate is in the spotlight, with his new single barrel bourbon made in partnership with MGP’s Rebel Bourbon rolling out nationwide.

The bourbon, dubbed Rebel Kyle Busch 108 Single Barrel, was pulled from over 100 barrels, each selected by Kyle Busch at the Lux Row Distillery in Bardstown with guidance from master distiller John Rempe. It has a mashbill of 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley—it’s the same recipe as Rebel’s other wheaters, which the brand claims have been around since 1849. The bourbon was aged for at least 4 years, but each bottle has a unique “aged since” statement on the label denoting the exact fill date. The final product was proofed to 54% ABV (108 proof), a bit higher than the 50% that the brand widely uses across its mainline Rebel 100 expressions, as a reference to Kyle’s racing number 8.

Busch Takes the Whiskey Wheel for the First Time

Though Kyle enjoys bourbon in his downtime, this was the first time he selected barrels. The process included guided tastings with help from Rempe and the distillery team, who walked Kyle through some of the more nuanced flavors found in each sample. “It was a funny story, because we’re doing everything with the tasting, and John’s there and he’s talking about [each sample],” Kyle told Whisky Advocate. “And he’s like, ‘do you taste this? Do you taste that?’ At first, I couldn’t. But after [about] five minutes of it setting on your tongue and in your mouth and you’re like, ‘oh, now I can pick up on it.’” In the end, Kyle homed in on banana and caramel as key flavors, and picked barrels that had them.

“It’s been a lot of fun being able to go to Rebel headquarters in Kentucky and be able to go through some of the bourbon barrels and do a tasting,” said Kyle. “It was awesome. A great, great experience for me. John and all the guys are a lot of fun to work with,” he explained, adding that he’s proud to have his name on every bottle.

Kyle Busch 108 Single Barrel is currently available at retailers nationwide, with approximately 30,000 bottles (5,000 cases) released. Each bottle has Busch’s signature printed on the label, and the whiskey carries a suggested retail price of $40.

Whiskey In the Fast Lane

This new whiskey is just the next step in a multi-year partnership between MGP’s brand division Luxco and Kyle Busch’s NASCAR team Richard Childress Racing (RCR). The partnership took form in mid-January 2024, when the groups inked an agreement positioning Rebel as an official sponsor of both RCR and Kyle Busch. As part of that deal, Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet received a new black paintjob, complete with “Rebel Bourbon” printed across both its hood in bold white letters and its doors on a graphic that resembled the brand’s Old West-style label art. Kyle’s uniform and helmet also bore Rebel’s logo.

As the sponsorship moved into its second year at the start of 2025, Busch’s Chevy was given yet another Rebel-themed makeover—but this one was much more involved than last year’s. The new look was inspired by a bourbon barrel, with the entire top part of his car made to look like wood grain, while the remaining black parts were supposed to resemble barrel char. Right above his rear wheels, the phrase “Live Against the Grain” could be seen in white, while his trunk lid had a brand-new Lux Row Distillers emblem. Busch debuted the new look last week at the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix in Texas, where he finished 5th.

Luxco isn’t the only whiskey company to hit the track with NASCAR-themed partnerships. For quite some time, spirits companies were barred from participating in sponsorships with NASCAR teams. But NASCAR lifted the ban in 2005, and Crown Royal was one of the first brands to jump at the opportunity—starting a partnership with Roush Racing that lasted for 6 years and saw three separate drivers take to the track with purple paintjobs inspired by Crown Royal’s iconic velvet bag. While the big guys like Jim Beam and Jack Daniel’s had similar sponsorships in the past, recently we’ve seen some of the smaller players sponsor cars too. Last month, Bardstown Bourbon Co.’s Green River Distillery became the primary sponsor of NY Racing Team driver J.J. Yeley in his qualification runs for the Daytona 500 this year. His No. 44 Chevrolet now sports a jade green and orange paint scheme with Green River branding, including a picture of a Green River bourbon bottle on his doors. A few years ago, Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery sponsored driver Stefan Parsons for the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series. During that race, Parsons drove a green and white No. 7 Chevy Camaro with prominent green and white branding from the distillery.

Though some may be surprised to hear it, NASCAR’s history is inextricably tied to the whiskey business. The sport of stock racing can be traced back to Southern moonshiners and bootleggers, who turned to highly customized Ford V-8’s as a means of dodging the taxman in the years following the repeal of Prohibition—packing their trunks with gallons of whiskey and leading revenue agents on daring and dangerous chases through the red-dirt hills of Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Over time these smugglers would start racing their machines against each other, first informally and then at more organized events. As the sport caught on, eventually a group called the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) was formed to oversee and regulate the sport. Bootleggers would start vanishing from the races as the sport grew in popularity, with the last-known moonshiner/driver getting locked up in 1972. Though the sport has gone completely mainstream these days, the recent collaborations with whiskey distilleries show that the old bootlegging spirit lives on.