Kyle Busch will go down in racing history as one of the best ever to buckle up behind the wheel.
He was expected to be at Nashville Superspeedway this weekend for the NASCAR triple header before what his family said was pneumonia that progressed into sepsis forced him to be hospitalized last week. He died last Thursday at the age of 41.
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But he had a a memorable history at Nashville Superspeedway beginning in 2003. NASCAR had implemented a minimum age rule prohibiting drivers under 18 from driving, even though he had already been competing in the Truck Series since he was 16.
Car owner Rick Hendrick put him in an ARCA car and Busch posted his first win in the PFG Lester 150 at Nashville Superspeedway when he was 18.
He became a regular at NSS, appearing just about every time the gates were opened (minus Indy Car events). His five wins across three different series trail only Carl Edwards’ six at the track.
But before returning to Victory Lane to collect another guitar, he was involved in a last-lap four-car smashup on the back stretch which took out the leaders in a 2004 Busch Series (later becoming Xfinity Series and now the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series) race and handing the victory to Michael Waltrip.
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When he did return to the winner’s circle, in 2009, he made news for reasons he admitted regretting when he smashed the Sam Bass-designed guitar with the the late Sam Bass looking on.
He followed with Truck Series checkered flags in 2010 and ’11.
After the track’s decade-long shutdown, Busch was one of the few veterans from its first incarnation when NASCAR returned to Gladeville in 2021.
His win in the first Xfinity Series race following the re-opening marked the 100th of his career in that series. That was remarkable because in the mid-2000s, he and Edwards routinely double-dipped in both Cup and Busch/Xfinity races, even when they were held at separate venues on a given weekend, causing consternation among the Busch-only drivers and prompting them and others to be known as Buschwackers. NASCAR implemented a rule forcing drivers to declare a primary series to compete in and restrict them to five events (since raised to 10 O’Reilly and eight Truck) and making them ineligible for points in other series.
Despite the limitations, Busch won the last Truck Series race in which he drove, the May 15 event at Dover. He died six days later.
