‘What made him special’: NASCAR drivers remember Kyle Busch

Activity at the Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday started with a profound silence as the NASCAR Cup Series car that was previously driven by Las Vegas native Kyle Busch was unloaded off its trailer and rolled through the garage with a sea of people observing.

As the day went on, many drivers and people involved with the sport shared their memories of the two-time Cup Series champion.

Busch died unexpectedly Thursday at 41. The family released a statement on Saturday morning saying that he died after “severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis, resulting in rapid and overwhelming associated complications.”

At Concord, N.C. on Saturday, drivers and people in the industry reflected on Busch’s impact on the sport.

“The one thing I always felt about Kyle, that guy had great courage,” said Joe Gibbs, the owner of Joe Gibbs Racing where Busch raced for 15 seasons, in a Saturday news conference.

”He was not afraid of almost anything, and he had a burning desire to race. It was just inside of him.”

Drivers wore Busch hats and T-shirts during media availability. Teams put decals remembering Busch on their cars and placed Busch’s name above the driver side door.

William Byron wore a Kyle Busch Motorsports shirt, the Truck Series team Busch owned. Chase Elliott wore a t-shirt for Brexton Busch, Kyle’s 11-year-old son that races on dirt and short tracks around the country.

“It’s sad. You never want to go through this, but it does make everybody feel good when you see the community come together like they have,” said two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Larson.

“I know that I respected (Busch) more than any other driver in the field.”

‘That passion came out’

Gibbs recalled seeing all sides of Busch. That included the fiery competitor that told Gibbs after a second-place run in New Hampshire that “Your cars suck.”

Then there was the 2015 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (then Xfinity Series) race at Daytona, where Busch wrecked and suffered a broken left foot and double compound fracture to his right leg.

“After the wreck, I went to the hospital,” Gibbs recalled. “He was on a gurney. Everyone was there and Kyle was raving at the doctor. He was going ‘Get me in there. Fix this. I want to get back racing.’”

Busch returned after missing the first 11 races of the Cup Series season, went on to win five races and claim the 2015 Cup Series title.

“Kyle was like a freight train,” Gibbs said. “If you get in the way, you’re going to get run over. There’ll be some good things in there, and then every now and then he’s going to run over a few things and cross a line. That passion came out in so many different ways.”

Busch won both of his championships with Joe Gibbs Racing and won 56 of his 63 Cup Series races with the organization.

“Pretty much everything good that’s happened to me in my racing career is because of him,” said Busch’s former crew chief Adam Stevens crying in an emotional interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Drivers share memories

The 10 Cup Series drivers racing in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 that raced for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Truck Series all took a group photo – Bubba Wallace, John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones, Bryon, Corey Heim, Daniel Suarez, Christopher Bell, Riley Herbst, Todd Gilliland and Noah Gragson.

“There is a lot of drivers that (Busch) had an impact on, and that’s what made him special,” said Suarez, who added he appreciated the calls and conversations with Busch as Suarez started his NASCAR journey coming from Mexico.

Ryan Blaney recalled a night in Las Vegas in 2017 where Busch and his wife, Samantha, asked to join Blaney and his friends on a night out.

“We had a late night,” Blaney said, his voice cracking and full of emotion. “The next day, it was the funniest part, we had media (obligations) and were asking ‘Where’s Kyle at?’

“And he’s laying under a table with the tablecloth draped over him with just his feet hanging out with that yellow M&M’s suit. It was just a funny memory. He was all-around a good person.”

Elliott has been voted the series’ most popular driver for the last eight years. Elliott’s father, Bill, won the award 11 times during a stretch of 12 years.

The lone year Bill Elliott didn’t win the award came in 2001 when he pulled his name out of consideration for the award and encouraged fans to vote for Dale Earnhardt, who died in the Daytona 500 at the start of the season.

Chase Elliott suggested after he’s been able to “process” everything that’s gone on, that he could do the same thing as his father and encouraged fans to vote for Busch.

“It has hit me pretty hard, truthfully. I think it’s hit all of us pretty hard,” Elliott said. “It’s hard to put into words. He’s a guy that really impacted my career more than I even realized. It’s not really going to feel right racing without him.”

Brad Keselowski suggested he or whoever would win Sunday’s race should do Busch’s signature bow to the crowd, a nod by Busch to his Las Vegas roots.

Keselowski, who had a well-documented on-track rivalry with Busch added the best way to honor Busch would be to put him into the Hall of Fame immediately.

“It’s clear that Kyle is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and I don’t know why that needs to wait another year,” Keselowski said.