CONCORD, N.C. — A silent, somber Saturday morning at Charlotte Motor Speedway began with further disbelief that Kyle Busch is truly gone.
The Richard Childress Racing team, for which Busch drove, was first to unload its cars in the NASCAR Cup Series garage Saturday. What was previously the No. 8 Chevrolet is now the No. 33. That group of men and women entered the hauler containing what should still be Busch’s car and lowered it from its top storage in silence, with all teams watching in heartbreak as the finality of Busch’s sudden death began to sink in.
MORE: Kyle Busch dies at 41 due to severe pneumonia, sepsis
The backdrop to one of NASCAR’s darkest weekends was apt: overcast and gloomy under an eerie chill that left Busch’s former competitors in a daze, trying to process the news less than 48 hours after Busch’s passing was announced.
“It just doesn’t seem real,” Ryan Blaney said. “Like I just don’t… It feels like a dream that you’re waiting to wake up out of, you’re just not.”
“I’ve never really felt anything like this before at the race track,” said Joey Logano.
Busch’s presence throughout the sport since his booming arrival in 2001 at age 16 was unmistakable — brash, arrogant, thrilling, victorious. His absence on the Cup Series’ first day back without him was just as obvious, though, an emptiness occasionally interrupted by the laughter that comes naturally from the myriad stories that made Busch “Rowdy.”
“Our hearts are broken,” Logano said. “I think our community couldn’t be more surprised. Our eyes have been opened to a lot of different things here in the last couple days, and it’s affected everybody here, I think, in a very unique way and in a very heart-touching way as well throughout this week. And seeing how everybody comes together in moments like this is pretty impressive to see.”
Throughout his career, Busch seemed to have as many clashes as he did wins, even if he didn’t have the 234 trophies to show for those disagreements along the way.
“He was quite the highlight reel,” Logano said.
Among his most public were with Logano, a three-time champion, and 2012 title winner Brad Keselowski. Both came a long way in their relationships with Busch over the years. As Busch rounded into a two-time Cup champion himself — and more notably a doting husband to wife Samantha and father of Brexton, 11, and Lennix, 4 — Busch matured, mellowed and grew to become more calculated. That led to better encounters with those he raced against — still carrying a fire to beat them behind the wheel but separating that off the track.
“I feel like we probably had a roller coaster of a relationship,” said Logano, who served as teammates with Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing from 2008 through 2012. “Early in my career, he was my teammate, so obviously I watched and learned and created a good relationship there. We went on vacation together, I remember. And that relationship I still think was there deep down inside. Unfortunately, sometimes competition gets in the way of things and kind of was there for a little bit, but I do think over the last five or six years, that relationship was growing — maybe not at a very fast rate, but you know it was definitely mending.”
Keselowski made his opinions known with his famous 2010 introduction at Bristol Motor Speedway: “Kyle Busch is an ass!” But the once-frosty foes grew to respect one another in time, particularly as Busch gained perspective as his winning ways in the Cup Series slowed in recent years.
“I would say there was a small thaw over the last year, maybe two, that came from his circumstances being different with respect to race teams and positions on the grid, and it was interesting to see,” Keselowski said. “And it was thawing almost more by the weekend. I flew with Kyle Busch on the way to Dover last Friday, and those are things that I never thought I would say three, five, 10 years ago. So I think it was on that path.
“Selfishly, I was just hopeful for a long time that you know our racing career would continue on the journey that saw us in Hall of Fame and doing those types of things together, and who knows, maybe one day competing in the Truck Series against each other when we’re done with Cup. Obviously, that’s not going to be the case now.”
“Kyle’s loss is the whole industry’s loss,” Keselowski said.
Busch’s voice and driving style helped shape NASCAR’s on-track etiquette. Chase Elliott, named the sport’s most popular driver each year since 2018, said Saturday the best way to trudge forward is to lead by example.
“He was the guy that raced the right way, in my opinion,” Elliott said. “And when you have a guy that raced what I view to be the right way, that rubs off. You don’t have to be the biggest asshole on the race track to win, and I think that Kyle taught me that lesson early on.
“We have to press on. I don’t think anybody here really wants to press on right now, but that is an unfortunate part of what we do and just life in general when things happen. Just an unfortunate reality that we just have to keep our heads down and lend the support to the Busch family as much as we can — not just today, not just next week, not just next month, not just next year. This is not going away. When stuff like this happens, it’s a big topic right now, and it’s on every news outlet that you turn on TV, and next week it won’t, right? But that family is still going to have difficult times ahead, that they’re going to need support from this community that does mean a lot to them, and I certainly intend to do that if I’m ever called upon to be asked for help.”
Ty Gibbs grew up idolizing Kyle Busch. Driving the No. 54 Toyota that previously belonged to KB — back when it was the No. 18 car — Gibbs grew up going to race tracks with Busch, who drove for his grandfather’s company at JGR for 15 years, during Ty Gibbs’ most formative years. Busch’s passing was another significant blow to Gibbs, who lost his father and JGR co-owner Coy Gibbs in November 2022.
“I don’t really have any words right now, to be honest with you guys,” Gibbs said. “I’m just very upset. Obviously, feel for Samantha, Brexton and Lennix, and understand, obviously, somewhat how Brexton feels. It’s just, it’s very sad.”
Busch’s on-track life will live in lore. Busch’s life off the race track, Gibbs said, meant so much more.
“I saw a great role model, somebody I looked up to,” Gibbs said. “I saw a great father, and I saw somebody that was very driven and motivated. I think Kyle was probably one of the toughest dudes that I knew. My dad was a very tough dude and respected Kyle all the way.”
On Saturday, there was a return to action, but in no way was it normal. Zane Smith, a West Coast racer just like Busch, entered the weekend tied for 23rd in the Cup Series standings with Busch. That meant his hauler lined up directly next to Busch’s in the garage area Saturday morning, with his No. 38 Ford parked between the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolets.
“Just eerie. I don’t know if there’s a word for it,” Smith said. “Kyle and I are tied in points, and I went into today, I’m like, man, our haulers are gonna be right next to each other, and I’m right in between the 3 and the 8 in the garage. It doesn’t feel real. I don’t really know how else to describe it. He just impacted the sport massively, and yeah, just it doesn’t feel real.
“For me, I just always wanted to be like Kyle Busch. When I was growing up, he was winning on Friday, Saturday and dominating Sunday. He was Superman, and that’s all there really was to it.”
There was a sense that no one wanted to be at the race track on Saturday. Just 48 hours removed from receiving word one of the sport’s pillars passed, drivers, fans and officials alike rallied around one another through their own daze, checking in on one another to share stories, offer condolences or simply exist together doing what brought everyone together in the first place: racing.
As NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said Friday: “Kyle Busch would probably be pretty pissed off if we didn’t race, so we’re going to honor his memory.”
But it’s fair for the NASCAR community to be pissed off that Kyle Busch isn’t here to race one more time.