NASCAR, friends, family remember Steve Byrnes

Carl Edwards: ‘All of us respected … Steve because he was fair and honest’

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Steve Byrnes was remembered not just for his work in front of the television camera on Tuesday, but more importantly for his life outside of NASCAR.

The longtime FOX broadcaster was celebrated as a family man and a Godly man, a husband and a son, a brother, father and friend.

Byrnes, 56, passed away April 21 following a lengthy battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Karen, son Bryson, parents Jerry and Claire, sister Betsy, brother Dan Byrnes, sister-in-law Tammy, nephews Tyler and Dylan and niece Samantha.

Scores of folks from all walks of life, inside NASCAR and out, paid their respects at Calvary Church to Byrnes, a testament not just to his on-air popularity but also to the personal life that he lived and how he lived it.

“Every single one of us is here because we loved Steve, and we want to express our respects to you and Bryson and the family for the man that he was and the impact he had on our lives,” Sprint Cup Series driver Carl Edwards said in addressing Karen Byrnes and members of the Byrnes family.

“I really struggled with what to say today … it’s not because we’re nervous talking in front of people, it’s because when you speak about such a great man, you want to do him justice.”

Just days before Byrnes’ passing, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams competed in the Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes and Stand Up to Cancer at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“In the garage area, all of us respected and liked working with Steve because he was so honest … he was fair and honest,” Edwards said. “He delivered our sport (to the viewers) for what it was; he didn’t come at it from the angle of what’s the … latest gossip. He came into every situation wanting to deliver what was going on in the sport. I think to him we owe a great debt of gratitude for presenting our sport that way.

“I never heard a bad word said about Steve, and in our garage there are a lot of bad words said about everyone.”

Tyler Byrnes said his uncle was “more like a father figure to each and every one of us in some way or another.

“Steve taught my family many valuable lessons,” he said. “He taught us that if it was worth doing, it was worth doing the right way and I think that’s something that I continue to carry with me.

“He taught us that if we were going to love, love wholeheartedly, and he taught us whatever we were going to do in life, to have fun doing it.”

As the group assembled in the church’s sanctuary Tuesday, photos of Byrnes on the job interspersed with family photos were shown on two large video screens. In nearly every photo, it was hard to miss his wide smile. Byrnes loved what he was doing, and he loved his family. And he was able to balance both career and family life as well as if not better than most.

Jeff Trotter, minister at Church of Christ at Gold Hill Road, opened Tuesday’s celebration of life by noting that to accurately measure one’s life, one has to measure the “context of the quality of the life itself.”

“Length of days has a tendency to be valued,” he said, “more than the width and breadth of the life itself.”

Byrnes’ life may have been “shorter than we would have liked”, but those days were “filled with memories and contributions and blessings of several lifetimes,” Trotter said.

When Byrnes expressed a lack of understanding about the outpouring of concern about his health, telling Trotter “I just don’t get it; all I do is talk for a living,” Trotter responded by telling him, “Steve, you may talk for a living, but there are so many people who live to hear you talk.

“And it’s not so much your words, but the man behind the words that connects with the people.”

MORE: