Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch died at 41 on Thursday afternoon after being hospitalized with a sudden and severe illness, according to a statement from his family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Connecticut natives Joey Logano and Ryan Preece competed alongside Busch for a combined 23 full seasons in the\u00a0NASCAR Cup Series, and both issued statements on their respective Instagram accounts Thursday evening to commemorate the legendary stock car racer, who is ninth all-time in wins with 63.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“My heart goes out to Kyle\u2019s family, his Team and everyone that knew and supported him,” Logano wrote on Instagram. “Kyle was a Champion, a feared competitor, a loving husband, a great dad and he\u2019ll truly be missed, as he made a forever impact on and off the race track. Let us pray for Samantha, Brexton, Lennix and the entire Busch family during this incredibly difficult time.”<\/p>\n
Logano hails from Middletown and quickly became a prodigious driver in regional youth competitions, winning the Eastern Grand National Championship in the Junior Stock Car Division at 7 years old before scooping up three New England Regional Championships. His first full season in NASCAR’s top flight came in 2009, and he became the youngest ever driver to earn a Cup Series victory when he returned to New England for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Busch and Logano rose to dominate NASCAR over the past 15 years, combining for four Cup Series championships between 2015 and 2024, the only two-time title winners during that stretch. The two legendary drivers spent five seasons as teammates with Joe Gibbs Racing before famously getting into a brawl at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Preece, meanwhile, was raised in Berlin\u00a0and spent several seasons in\u00a0NASCAR’s Xfinity Series before making a full-time jump to the top division in 2019. The 35-year-old is currently on pace for his best season in the Cup Series this year through a dozen races, currently sitting in 13th place with a pair of top-10 finishes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Godspeed KB. Gone too soon,” Preece wrote on Instagram. “My family\u2019s thoughts & prayers are with the Busch family.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch died at 41 on Thursday afternoon after being hospitalized with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[222054,49,48,222053,634,82],"class_list":["post-687092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-all-daily-sites","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ct-insider","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}