Kyle Busch probably didn’t think much about it. Sinus infections can be irritating, but drivers fight through this kind of stuff all the time. Colds. The flu. Upset stomachs.
It’s not going to keep you out of your car. If it’s bad enough, you may need an IV after the race, treatment of some kind, but you’re not getting out of your car. You race because, well, that’s what drivers do. They race.
So, Busch ran the Cup race at Watkins Glen and, over the radio, requested that a team physician give him a shot when it was over. It did not sound like he was in any major distress. He was told the physician would meet him at his bus and that seemed to be the end of it.
Actually, from a competitive standpoint, it was a very good day for Busch. He finished eighth, his best showing of the season. A few days later he was in Dover, where he won the truck race and then finished 17th in the All-Star event. If anything was still wrong, it seemed to be minor and under control.
And then it all fell apart. Wednesday, Busch was testing in the Chevy racing simulator at Concord, N.C., looking ahead to the Memorial Day race in Charlotte, when he began having difficulty breathing.
A 9-1-1 call was made and an unresponsive Busch was taken to the hospital. Busch’s family then issued a statement saying he would not run Charlotte’s Memorial Day race and had cancelled all his activities because of “a severe illness resulting in hospitalization.”
Busch’s car owner, Richard Childress, followed that with a release that said “Kyle Busch’s health is our utmost priority and he and his family have the full resources of RCR behind them.
“Kyle is an integral part of our organization and we wish him a safe and speedy recovery. His No. 8 Chevrolet will be ready and waiting for him. We’re thankful to Austin Hill for stepping in to drive the No. 8 Chevrolet this weekend.
“Please keep Kyle and the Busch family in your prayers and help us respect the family’s privacy at this time,” the release concluded.
Then came Thursday, and the announcement that stunned the entire NASCAR community as well as others in motorsports around the world.
“On behalf of the Busch family, Richard Childress Racing and all of NASCAR, we are devastated to announce the sudden and tragic passing of Kyle Busch,” the release began. “NASCAR lost a giant of the sport today (Thursday), far too soon,” it concluded. Shockingly, Kyle Busch had died.
Saturday, the family said Busch contracted a severe case of pneumonia that triggered sepsis, which attacks the body’s vital organs.
Longtime teammate and sometimes rival Denny Hamlin summed up the thoughts of almost everybody. “I absolutely cannot comprehend this news,” he said.
Joe Gibbs Racing, where Busch spent most of his career, also issued a statement. “Kyle was a fierce competitor, an incredible teammate, and, far more importantly, a devoted father, husband and son. His impact on our organization and on the sport of NASCAR will never be forgotten,” the JGR release read in part.
While his talent is undeniable, Busch was probably the most physically gifted driver in NASCAR, his often belligerent, confrontational attitude toward NASCAR, other drivers and even the fans shaped the way he was perceived.
When he was winning, Busch’s standard victory celebration was to bow to the grandstand while sweeping the checkered flag in front of him, usually to a resounding chorus of boos.
Busch was considered a phenom when he came up in his late teens and quickly advanced to Cup as a development driver for Hendrick, wining his first cup race when he was just 20 years old.
But Hendrick fired him to make room for Dale Earnhardt Jr., a source of contention between the two for many years, and Busch hooked up with Gibbs.
In his first year with JGR, Busch won eight races, and he won at least once every year he was there.
But after the 2022 season, Busch, then 37, and Gibbs couldn’t agree on a contract extension. Caught between a rock and a hard place, there were no openings on the other elite teams, Hendrick and Penske, Busch signed with Richard Childress Racing, which had become a second tier operation.
At the time, many thought Busch had been pushed out the door by Gibbs to make room for his grandson, Ty Gibbs, who was considered an emerging talent and was ready to race Cup.
The loss of his ride at Gibbs couldn’t have come at a worse time for Busch, who had to cope with NASCAR’s introduction of the Next Gen car while he was adjusting to a team which lacked the resources and quality personnel at JGR.
The Next Gen car was introduced in 2022, Busch’s last year with Gibbs, and he did okay with it, finishing ninth with 270 points in the Old Guy Sport competition index. The OGS competition index is used to measure competitiveness rather than the NASCAR point standings because NASCAR’s standings are based on finishing races, not competing in them.
In 2023, Busch’s first year with RCR, he improved to seventh in the OGS standings with three wins and 314 points. But that was an anomaly. When the Next Gen car hit the track, teams could do almost nothing to modify it.
And because the cars were virtually all the same, the best drivers got the best results, and Busch was one of the best drivers. But by 2024, the elite teams, JGR, Hendrick and Penske, with their superior analytics, engineering and technology, were figuring out ways to improve the car, and RCR fell behind.
In 2024, Busch dropped to 17th in the OGS competition index with just 99 points. Last year, the number fell to 48, good for the 22nd spot. And through the first nine races of this year, RCR hasn’t scored a single point (OGS does not count the superspeedway races, Atlanta, Daytona and Talladega, because luck is the primary factor in determining how well you run there.)
On top of that, Busch had trouble adapting to the Next Gen car. “It’s probably hurt me more than it’s helped me,” he admitted before his death. And the numbers back him up. He was going no place at RCR. There was going to be no return to greatness.
At the time of the tragic illness that ended his life, Busch had gone a staggering 141 races without a win. At one point this year, he ran five races in a row where he finished 20th or worse. In his entire career, Busch had never gone five races in a row finishing that low. And he had led just 19 laps this season.
In today’s world, a driver is only as good as his car, and Busch’s cars, in the last years of his life, were not very good, with little indication they were going to get any better.
But that does not take anything away from what he did in NASCAR. Kyle Busch was one of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport. He proved that.
Over the course of his career, he won 69 truck races, more than anybody. He also won 102 races in the O’Reilly series, a step below Cup and again, that’s more than anybody. And his 63 Cup wins are ninth all-time, although he will probably be overtaken by Hamlin, who currently has 61.
Still, his 234 wins across all NASCAR divisions is the best ever, and his records are always going to be there. Nothing that happened at RCR will ever change that.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Charlotte: 1-Denny Hamlin, 2-Tyler Reddick, 3-Chase Elliott. Last year’s winner in first race at Charlotte: Ross Chastain.
Top five in first race at Charlotte last year: 1-Chastain, 2-William Byron, 3-Chase Briscoe, 4-A.J. Almendinger, 5-Brad Keselowski.
Watkins Glen Old Guy Sport picks: 1-Shane van Gisbergen, 2-Christopher Bell, 3-Reddick. Watkins Glen winner: van Gisbergen. Season record, 5-4.
OGS competition index top 10: 1-Reddick 240 points, 2-Hamlin 236, 3-Elliott 166, 4-Ty Gibbs 162, 5-Kyle Larson 150, 6-Ryan Blaney 144, 7-Bell 128, 8-van Gisbergen 116, 9-Briscoe 66, 10-Keselowski.
OGS competition index top 10 on intermediate tracks (tracks most like Charlotte): 1-Hamlin 160 points, 2-Reddick 135, 3-Elliott 105, 4-Larson 67, 5-Keselowski 63, 6-Bell 37, 7-Byron 34, 8-Blaney 32, Briscoe 32, 10-Alex Bowman 30.