By Jerry Jordan, Editor
This is a tough one because I am still not used to writing about “the late Kyle Busch.”
Tonight at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the NASCAR world will gather to do what so many of us still can’t quite manage – say goodbye. When the Craftsman Truck Series race ends, fans will make their way to the start/finish line, and under the lights, with FS1 carrying it live, the sport will celebrate the life of the driver who earned the nickname Rowdy.
Thousands, if not tens of thousands, will be on hand. I wish I could have been there but it just wasn’t meant to be.
The NASCAR community has been mourning out loud for nearly five months now and it doesn’t feel performative. Someone asked me why Kyle matters so much in a sport that has seen its fair share of tragedies and the only thing I could think of at the time was that NASCAR is a family. Dysfunctional but a family nonetheless. As a media member, you see drivers nearly every week. They race, we cover them and along the way, we build relationships – some good, some bad. I see it the same way with some of my colleagues that I am trying to beat to the next story – some good, some bad.
We’re all racing in a sense but in Kyle’s case, I think it would have been less of a shock had there been a tragic accident on the track. But his death didn’t happen in a race on the track. If it had, maybe more people would have an easier time accepting the fact that a healthy 41-year-old athlete could be racing on a simulator one minute and die in a hospital a few hours later from an infection. It’s just hard to comprehend.
NASCAR, Speedway Motorsports Inc., and the Busch family have no doubt put together something fitting for a driver who never did anything small. Samantha Busch will take the stage to remember her husband. Kurt Busch will be there to remember his little brother. Joe Gibbs, the man who gave Kyle the No. 18 Toyota and watched him deliver two Cup Series championships and 56 Cup wins, will also share his memories.
Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Daniel Suárez, Noah Gragson and Austin Dillon will all speak. Mike Joy will guide it. Ten of Kyle’s most iconic race cars will sit on display. When the stories are told and the tears are shed, a drone show will light up the sky and Cole Swindell will close the night with a concert. The ceremony is set to begin around 8 p.m. EST but that depends on when the checkered flag falls on the truck race.
234 Wins and One Unmistakable Style
The numbers are almost unimaginable and I have no doubt they would have been even greater had we not lost Kyle back in May. Two hundred thirty-four wins across NASCAR’s top three national series – more than anyone in history. Two Cup Series championships – one earned after recovering from massive injuries in the Xfinity Series season opener. Over the next 35 weeks, Kyle was on a mission to not only show everyone the injuries wouldn’t stop him but that he could be a champion under almost any circumstance. Kyle said, you never know when the last win will come. At just 41 years old, his is final win came at Dover Motor Speedway on May 15, just six days before he died after an infection went septic.
Young fans who never saw him race in his prime will learn his name because their dads will talk about him the way baseball fans talk about the great Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron or Mickey Mantle.
Kyle didn’t just win races. He won them his way – elbows out, foot down to the floor and utterly unapologetic about it. He was the villain when the NASCAR needed one and somehow that same guy, who famously said, “everything’s great” and “I’m only here so I don’t get fined” became one of the sports greatest heroes. He told me once that his job was to win races and get M&Ms noticed, he didn’t really care what the media thought of him. He performed his task admirably – sometimes positively, other times not so much. Yes, there were times when he frustrated me or he would “Psssshhh” me after a question he didn’t like but he never took it personal and neither did I. The next week we were always good and I wish he were here to play that script out again, so he could give me another “Psssshhh” for one of my “dumb questions.”
Finally, there was the bow. His sarcastic, defiant, perfect bow on the frontstretch after his wins. It started as a taunt and became a tribute – his son Brexton did it after one of his own wins following Kyle’s death. And numerous drivers have performed it since, showing respect for one of the greatest racers in history; gone too soon.
My prayers go out to his wife Samantha and their children Brexton and Lennix; to his brother Kurt; to his parents Tom and Gaye and to all the other family, friends, teammates and colleagues whose lives lost a little bit of sparkle the day we lost Kyle Busch.