Retired NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace gives his thoughts on why the NASCAR community and the world at large is struggling so much with the loss of the late, great Kyle Busch.
It’s one of those losses that stops you right in your tracks. Kyle Busch was one of the icons of his sport, and one of the greatest racers to ever get behind the wheel. Seeing him do so many heroic things as he often took on a villainous role in NASCAR over the years made him feel like he was larger than life.
After all, the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion was a prolific winner. At the time the time of his death, Busch is the all-time winningest driver in NASCAR history, with a total of 234 wins, including 63 Cup Series wins, 102 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series wins, and 69 Truck Series victories. Those accolades are impressive, but the titles that Kyle Busch ended up being most proud of were husband and father.
It was through a joint statement released by his family, NASCAR, and his Richard Childress Racing team that the world found out Kyle Busch had passed away at the age of 41:
“Our entire NASCAR family is heartbroken by the loss of Kyle Busch. A future Hall of Famer, Kyle was a rare talent, one who comes along once in a generation. He was fierce, he was passionate, he was immensely skilled and he cared deeply about the sport and fans.
Throughout a career that spanned more than two decades, Kyle set records in national series wins, won championships at NASCAR’s highest level and fostered the next generation of drivers as an owner in the Truck Series. His sharp wit and competitive spirit sparked a deep emotional connection with race fans of every age, creating the proud and loyal ‘Rowdy Nation.’
Our thoughts are with Samantha, Brexton and Lennix, Kyle and Samantha’s parents, Kurt and all of Kyle’s family, Richard and Judy Childress, everyone at Richard Childress Racing, his teammates, friends and fans. NASCAR lost a giant of the sport today, far too soon.”
The official cause of death has been revealed and according to a statement from the Busch family, Kyle passed away after a severe case of pneumonia progressed into sepsis.
It’s incredibly sad, and it’s one of those situations where it’s hard to accept that a racing giant like Kyle Busch could be taken away from us in that way. Kenny Wallace took to his YouTube channel earlier today to give his thoughts on the matter in a video titled “How Long Do We Grieve Kyle Busch?”
He was very careful and respectful talking about the death of the NASCAR great. He made sure to tiptoe around the massive loss, and spoke about grief and how each and every one of us deals with it in a different way. Then later in the video, Wallace made an interesting point. In his mind, Busch’s death is making the grieving process harder for fans because… his cause of death is something that could really happen to anyone. Obviously if Kyle had realized how sick he truly was, he would’ve gotten some medical attention.
He compared the recent loss of Kyle to other losses that NASCAR has experienced over the years:
“Everybody’s death matters. When we lost the great Greg Biffle, it was devastating. But we knew what happened. When we lost Davey Allison, we knew what happened. When we lost Kyle Petty’s beautiful son, we knew what happened. All the other deaths, we knew what happened. We said, ‘Well that can’t happen to us because we don’t do that.’
So many people have been killed in airplane accidents and helicopter crashes and race car accidents. Kyle Busch died the way all of us can die. All of us can get pneumonia. All of us can get sepsis. And for that, (it makes you say), ‘Woah.’ It hits hard. It hits me right between my eyes. We can all die the way Kyle Busch died. That’s why people are still struggling.”
Wallace might have a point there. Many of the other high-profile losses that the NASCAR community has gone through were a result of horrific, tragic accidents. Though Busch’s death is undoubtedly tragic, the health complications that he went through – and ultimately succumbed to – are not reserved just to race car drivers like himself. That is why Kenny Wallace believes his loss is even harder to shake. Of course, it’s also hard for us because Kyle was young, he was a father to two young kids, and his death was ultimately preventable had he known he was that sick. It just hurts to lose such a legend of the sport that way… it’s truly heartbreaking.
You can hear Wallace talk more about the tragic passing of Kyle Busch in his monologue below:
RIP Kyle Busch.
