It’d been over 25 years since the NASCAR world was dealt the most severe of blows.
And from the time man first stretched the limits of dangerous speed through that Dale Earnhardt tragedy of February, 2001, shock and sorrow came in less-than-surprising ways. Race cars and airplanes were the usual suspects.
This, however — the sudden death of Kyle Busch, a seemingly healthy 41-year-old father, husband and racing legend — is something we can’t comprehend, even though we know 41-year-old men sometimes die without warning.
In short order we’ll likely learn what happened and how it all went south so quickly. But it won’t matter much, if at all.
With the breakneck speed of today’s world, the tributes, accolades and (of course) shock were pouring in literally within a minute of the announcement. You might say we’ve come to process these things in quicker fashion than ever before, but frankly we’ve been done processing things for a while now.
Many instead jump beyond the natural progression in order to suggest they’re ahead of the game: What’s Kyle’s racing legacy? Where does he rank all-time? What happens now with a race team and a team owner, Richard Childress, who’s no stranger to grief and, given his 55 years around the game, probably thought he’d seen the worst his way of life can deliver.
As for that legacy question, it’s slightly complicated. Hard fact: Kyle won more NASCAR races than anyone ever, 234 across NASCAR’s top three divisions — Cup Series (63), O’Reilly (102) and Trucks (69), with the 69th coming just last weekend at Dover.
It’s impossible to imagine anyone else ever matching that, and as impressive as it is, there were detractors who’d discount it the way you might detract from a big-league ballplayer who padded his home-run stats against Double A pitching.
Also, there was Kyle Busch’s manner. Young Kyle didn’t seem to understand why others didn’t see the world the way he did and appreciate his candor and skills. Older Kyle began to relish his role as a bit of a lightning rod among the grandstand regulars.
Marriage and fatherhood softened him but not entirely, as some of the in-car radio chatter indicated over these past few seasons of struggles inside the No. 8 Chevy.
Just a day ago, questions surrounding Kyle Busch involved his near-term future and whether he’d find a way to start winning the big races again.
We probably didn’t need the jolt from one of life’s hardest lessons to remind us just how trivial such things are in the grand scheme of things.
But we sure got one.
— Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Kyle Busch death shocks and delivers harsh reality to NASCAR
Reporting by Ken Willis, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
