Can’t imagine the pain he’s dealing with.
It’s been 3 months today since we lost two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, who passed away on May 21 following a battle with pneumonia that eventually progressed into sepsis.
Busch’s #8 car for Richard Childress Racing was renumbered to the #33 and has been driven by Austin Hill since his death. And throughout the summer there have been plenty of tributes to the late NASCAR legend. From his #8 painted in the infield of each track, to fans holding up 8 fingers on lap 8, the winning driver doing Busch’s signature bow after taking the checkered flag, there have been tons of opportunities to honor the memory of the racing legend.
And while Busch’s death stunned and saddened the entire NASCAR community, there’s no doubt it’s been especially hard for his brother and retired NASCAR driver himself, Kurt Busch.
Kurt shared the track with his brother for two decades, and it’s hard to deny that the two had similar personalities both on and off the track: They were fiery, outspoken competitors who expected to win each and every time they got behind the wheel, and they weren’t afraid to let you know exactly how they were feeling.
The elder Busch opened up on losing his younger brother for the first time earlier this month, recalling just how much Kyle was looking forward to racing against his own son Brexton in the NASCAR Truck Series:
“As fatherhood came around for him, Kyle wanted to keep racing and stay active, that way, he could race against Brexton. The way that he races, it’s really a lot of what my dad taught Kyle and I.”
But in a new interview, Kurt is recalling his brother’s final moments – and the final words that he said to Kyle as he lay dying in the hospital.
Kyle Busch first became ill at the GM Technical Center in Charlotte, just days after winning what turned out to be his final race during a Truck Series event at Dover. And Kurt revealed new details about the moments before his brother was rushed to the hospital:
“The crew chief said that he went into the restroom and that he could hear him coughing very, very abruptly, and that he asked Kyle, like, ‘You all right?’
And Kyle says, ‘No.’
And he’s sitting there just on the floor, back up against the wall, and the crew chief said that he saw blood in the sink. And he goes, ‘You don’t look so good.’ And Kyle said, ‘No.’”
The next morning, Richard Childress Racing announced that Busch would miss the upcoming Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway due to what his family described as a “severe illness.” And Kurt went to the hospital too to be with his brother:
“I was there at the hospital, all day. Hoping. Praying. Hoping for a turnaround.
It’s just everything had plateaued so fast. It just escalated so fast. And so I don’t explain it to people, I don’t. What I saw, what I went through, nobody needs to go through that. Samantha’s right there all the way through. My mom. My dad. Team owners were starting to show up, and NASCAR.”
While the family was praying for a recovery, Kurt tearfully recalled what turned out to be the final words that he spoke to his brother:
“I said, ‘I got you man. Come on. I got you. I got you, come on. Be strong. It just wasn’t fair.”
As it turns out though, not everybody wanted to be by Busch’s side as he passed away. Kurt revealed that their father Tom didn’t want to see his son in that condition:
“My dad wanted to remember him in the way he wanted to remember him. So people could choose if they wanted to or not.”
Hard to blame him for that.
It’s great to see the NASCAR community continue to remember and honor Kyle Busch, who leaves behind a legacy as the winningest driver in NASCAR history among the top three series. But you’ve got to really feel for Busch’s family, including Kurt, their parents, and Kyle’s wife Samantha and their two children.
Still such a shocking and unimaginable tragedy.
