CONCORD, NC — Professional athletes often like to say that when they step onto the field or court — or in the case of NASCAR drivers, strap on their helmet and slide into their seat — they can block out the noise and forget all the problems in the world.
On Sunday, May 24 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Craftsman Truck Series race, that wasn’t possible for Travis Pastrana as he piloted the No. 25 Kaulig RAM in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200. He kept thinking about Kyle Busch and also the upcoming holiday, Memorial Day.
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Busch’s No. 7 truck was even on the track, driven by Corey Day until he crashed out.
“It never goes away,” Pastrana said. “Every time coming around the back stretch and seeing the American flag at half-mast, and also just thinking about Memorial Day, it’s a heavy weekend. It makes you want to go out there and live every day, live the American dream as much as I can.”
Busch’s shocking death has made this NASCAR weekend in Charlotte an emotional one. A somber mood has hung over the track and garage, and bad weather postponed the Truck Series race three times — pushing it from Friday night to Sunday morning.
A week ago, Frankie Muniz remembers seeing Busch zoom by him at Dover International Speedway. Busch went on to win that race, capturing his record 69th victory in NASCAR’s Truck Series.
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Days later, the driver who won 234 races across NASCAR’s top three national touring competitions — more than any other driver ever — was dead at the age of 41. Busch’s family said the cause of death was from complications with severe pneumonia that progressed into sepsis.
“Obviously, it’s a massive shock. We were all with him just a few days ago,” Muniz told USA TODAY Sports. “You forget how fragile life is, and then you have something like that where it’s completely unexpected. Mix that in with the rain — it just kind of kept kind of a tough weekend lingering.”
Pastrana and Muniz are two people who achieved stardom in other walks of life before breaking into NASCAR and meeting Busch, but he left a big impact on them.
Before putting on a firesuit and getting behind the wheel of a NASCAR truck, Muniz was a young star in Hollywood and an Emmy-nominated actor for his work on “Malcolm in the Middle.” Pastrana rose to fame in the 2000s when extreme sports were taking off, and the Maryland native won 17 medals at the X-Games in motocross and other sports.
Travis Pastrana and Frankie Muniz after racing in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series on Sunday, May 24, 2026 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.
Muniz began stockcar racing in 2023 at the lower-level ARCA Series. Last year, he began driving in the Truck Series for Team Reaume in the No. 33 Ford, notching seven top 20 finishes over the past two seasons. As Muniz worked to improve his race-craft, Busch was a driver he looked up to.
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“My experience with racing with Kyle Busch was him lapping me,” Muniz said with a laugh. “He was on another level. I didn’t have too many side by side battles with him, but we spent a lot of time together. We had some of the same sponsors, went to dinner with him years ago before I even started in NASCAR, and our kids would play in the driver’s lot. It’s just wild.”
Pastrana has competed off-and-on across NASCAR’s top three touring series since 2012. He finished 11th in the Cup Series at the 2023 Daytona 500, had four top 10 finishes in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for Roush Fenway Racing in 2013, and has four top 20 finishes in the truck series. He placed 21st on Sunday while Muniz was 24th.
A few years ago, Pastrana invited Busch to come run in Nitrocross, a rallycross series founded by Pastrana. In a November 2021 race, Busch placed fourth while Pastrana won.
It was one of the rare times where Pastrana could see Busch in his rearview — something that rarely happened on a NASCAR track.
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“The only time I got to race alongside him was in rallycross on the dirt with all-wheel drive,” Pastrana said with a laugh. “What I loved about Kyle was that he was competitive. And the word competitive, is an understatement. Passionate is probably even an understatement. Obsessed might even still be an understatement. And when you’re around someone like that, it inspires you to want to be better every second of every day.
“I think Kyle — love him or hate him — the people that were close to him were really close, because he pushed them to be their best selves.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kyle Busch’s influence on NASCAR remembered by Travis Pastrana, Frankie Muniz
