Lightning McQueen

KBM was founded after Busch purchased the remaining assets of Xpress Motorsports from J.B. Scott (father of driver Brian Scott) in late 2009 as well as purchasing trucks from Roush Fenway Racing, which had closed its Truck team the previous year. Rick Ren, the crew chief on Ron Hornaday Jr.'s 2009 championship team, would be signed as the team's competition director. Busch had competed in the truck series for the 2008 and 2009 seasons in the No. 51 for Billy Ballew Motorsports with Miccosukee Indian Gaming as his primary sponsor, and had split the ride with Brian Ickler the previous year.[1]

Busch brought Ickler to the KBM stable, and signed Tayler Malsam away from Randy Moss Motorsports after he finished second in series Rookie of the Year standings to former Cup and Busch/Nationwide driver Johnny Sauter. The team ambitiously planned to run three trucks in its debut season: Busch and Ickler would split the primary truck (No. 18), Malsam was to drive a second truck for KBM, the No. 56 ActivWater/Talking Rain Tundra, and a third was to be fielded for 2008 series champion Johnny Benson if sponsorship could be found. The Miccosukee sponsorship was to carry over to Busch's primary truck as part of an agreement with Phoenix Racing.[1] On February 7, however, the Miccosukee tribe's new leadership pulled out of NASCAR altogether, leaving Busch's team and Phoenix's Cup and Nationwide series teams without sponsorship.[2] Benson would also be limited to a part-time schedule with KBM and Ballew,[3] and Malsam's team ceased operations after only seven races.