WELCOME, NC — When Matthew Winters woke up Friday morning, he was thinking about a song that was released in 1995 by country music star Travis Tritt: “Tell Me I Was Dreaming.”
He was hoping that Thursday, the day his favorite race car driver died, was just a nightmare.
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When reality set in, he pulled on a pair of blue jeans, buttoned up an M&M’s racing shirt and put on a blue hat with the No. 8 on the side of it. The 37-year-old from Wilkesboro, North Carolina, hopped in his car and drove to the tiny town of Welcome, where Richard Childress Racing is based.
“Where else would I be? I need to be around racing family, because we’re a community,” Winters said. “We’re all family, we all need to mourn, we all need to grieve — and what better place to do it? It’s still kind of unreal.”
Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch died on Thursday, shocking and stunning the motorsports world. The 41-year-old was rushed to a Charlotte hospital on Wednesday after coughing up blood. Just last Friday, Busch won the 69th Truck Series race of his career in Dover.
During a long career in NASCAR that began more than 20 years ago, Busch made a lot of enemies on and off the racetrack as he piled up more than 234 victories — more than any other driver ever — across the sport’s top three touring series. Busch embraced a villain persona and didn’t mind wrecking other drivers on his way to victory lane or fighting them on pit road afterwards. He did it all with an unabashed style and taunted his haters whenever he got the chance.
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And there were a lot of fans of NASCAR who loved that about him. They cherished Busch’s style and adored his win-at-all-costs determination. Those supporters were a part of what Busch called “Rowdy Nation.”
Winters is a proud member of that group.
“It was his attitude,” Winters said. “Kyle raced like how the old race car drivers raced. Kyle was one of the last ones like that. I would have loved to see him and David Pearson go toe-to-toe, or him and Dale Earnhardt.”
Welcome is the place that Winters and countless other fans of Rowdy Nation came to on Friday to remember Busch. The accomplished driver bounced around racing teams throughout his career, beginning it with Hendrick Motorsports and then winning two championships with Joe Gibbs Racing. In 2023, he joined Richard Childress Racing and brought his exceptional driving, fearless style and polarizing persona with him.
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And so, this is where they came. The fans who watched him dominate in trucks on Friday nights, race away from competition in the second-tier O’Reilly Auto Parts Series on Saturdays, and win championships in the Cup Series on Sundays came to RCR’s headquarters and museum to mourn one of the best drivers to ever get behind the wheel of a race car.
The museum was closed, so the front concrete slabs outside of its front doors collected all that fans brought in tribute to Busch. There were many bouquets of flowers, handwritten letters and balloons in the shape of his No. 8. They left hats, trading cards and miniature diecast cars. There were countless yellow bags of peanut M&M’s — the sponsor that Busch had plastered on the hood of his car for much of his prime years in the 2010s. There were cans of Zone, the nicotine punch brand that served as the primary sponsor for Busch’s Cup car with RCR.
And there were a few tall-boy cans of Busch Light beer.
“Thank you for all the memories, champ,” one note said.
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“8 forever — RIP Rowdy,” read another.
Karen Englebert made the drive over to RCR on Friday afternoon from Kernersville, North Carolina, with her 89-year-old father, Wayne Carlson.
“He was the best of the best. I think he could’ve outrun Dale Earnhardt. I loved me some Rowdy. If you didn’t love him, it was…” Engelbert said, flipping her hand as she trailed off. “It was his attitude. He was like, ‘Y’all can hate me if you want to.’ Rowdy was Rowdy.”
“I’m a Ford guy, but I liked the way he raced,” Carlson said.
Matthew Winters, 37, of Wilkesboro, North Carolina, visits the Richard Childress Racing museum in Welcome, North Carolina, on Friday, May 22, 2026. Following the sudden death of Kyle Busch, fans left flowers and mementos of the driver at RCR HQ.
Some fans came from even further.
For his 50th birthday, Brian Giles’ wife Jill planned a full NASCAR experience weekend for him. The couple from Lincoln, Nebraska, spent all day Thursday at fan festival activities hosted by other racing teams, like Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing and Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports.
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They were at a live taping of Earnhardt’s podcast when they heard the news that Busch had been hospitalized.
“This was like my dream — Coca-Cola 600, fan week. And then this happened. It was so surreal,” Giles said. “That was just as perfect of a birthday present that I could ask for, it was awesome, and then now this. It’s so sad.”
Giles and his wife had planned on attending more activities for fans around Charlotte on Friday, but much of those were canceled or postponed following the death of Busch. Like many other racing fans, they decided to drive to Welcome.
“This is as big as losing Dale Sr., in my mind,” Giles said. “We lost a good one. We lost a major person in this sport.”
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Busch and his wife started the Bundle of Joy Foundation years ago to help families grappling with infertility. Giles and his wife were one of those couples who connected with the Busches over that struggle. They met Samantha Busch once and shared a cry together over this shared experience and long admired Kyle Busch for his charitable efforts.
To many NASCAR fans, Busch was a villain. To Rowdy Nation and people like Brian and Jill Giles, he was a hero.
“It may seem dumb, but I feel as sad as if I knew him when he died, you know? I never met him,” Jill Giles said. “So, you have that. They’re not your family or anything, but you feel that sadness.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kyle Busch fans honor their hero at RCR headquarters
