NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell met with the media on Friday and said that NASCAR was planning a special tribute to Kyle Busch prior to the start of the Coca-Cola 600.
And it was something no one could have fully prepared for.
There, at the end of pit road in front of the entire field, stood O’Donnell alongside Samantha Busch, suddenly and heartbreakingly a widow. Beside her was 11-year-old Brexton, trying to be brave in the way only children can, and 4-year-old Lennix, far too young to understand why all of this was happening. Nearby stood Kyle’s parents, Tom and Gaye, and his older brother Kurt Busch, himself a NASCAR Hall of Famer now carrying a grief that seemed almost too heavy to wear.
Then came the silence.
More than 100,000 people packed into Charlotte Motor Speedway stopped moving, stopped talking, stopped being NASCAR fans for a moment and simply became witnesses to loss. The usual noise of the place — the generators, the conversations, the endless roar that hangs over a speedway — disappeared. In its place came the mournful cry of bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace,” drifting across the frontstretch like smoke after a battle.
It was chilling. And for those standing there watching the Busch family endure the unimaginable in public view, it was impossible not to feel the weight of it.
Busch died Thursday after a bout with severe pneumonia and complications from sepsis, which stopped the sport cold hours before one of its biggest weekends.
In the pre-race drivers meeting, O’Donnell addressed the field with a front-row seat intentionally left empty in Busch’s honor. Richard Childress Racing teammates Austin Dillon and Austin Hill sat just behind it, Hill driving the No. 33 Chevrolet that carried echoes of Busch’s familiar No. 8.
“It’s not lost on me, and I think everyone here, the loss of Kyle looms heavy, I think, on our entire industry,” O’Donnell said. “And like me, I’m sure you’ve read many of the tributes, heartfelt, from competitors, how Kyle maybe shared a bit of wisdom about how to go about a certain turn, or how to maybe make a tweak to the race car.
“I think we’ve all long known Kyle as a giant in our sport, but the outpouring of support outside what it is to be in the NASCAR garage has truly proven just how deeply he impacted so many.”
Later, with the field assembled behind them and a black No. 8 painted into the infield grass, O’Donnell stood with the Busch family once more.
“What I think we’ll miss most isn’t the wins,” O’Donnell said. “It’s the guy who quietly wanted to help a teammate or give some advice. It was the husband, the father or the guy who quietly did things for others when no one was watching.”
Then he turned toward Samantha and the children.
“Samantha, I want you to know that this sport stands with you, and that you and your children are NASCAR family forever,” O’Donnell said as cheers rose from the grandstands and chants of “Rowdy” rolled through the speedway. “Brexton and Lennix, your dad loved you with all his heart. Everyone gathered here, everyone behind you, everyone watching on TV, and all those people up in that grandstand are your family. And we’ve got you.”
Moments later, as engines fired, polesitter Tyler Reddick led the field away with an empty space beside him on the front row — a missing-man formation for a driver who, somehow, still felt like he should have been there.
And when the green flag finally waved on the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR took its first Cup Series green without Kyle Busch in more than a decade.
The cars thundered into Turn 1 as they always do. But Sunday, for once, the noise somehow felt quieter.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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