{"id":694072,"date":"2026-05-26T04:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T04:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/694072\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T04:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T04:18:15","slug":"nascar-honors-kyle-busch-with-emotional-charlotte-tributes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/694072\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Honors Kyle Busch with Emotional Charlotte Tributes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"0\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">Daniel Suarez, Ross Chastain, and Layne Riggs all honored Kyle Busch by executing his signature bow after winning their respective races at Charlotte Motor Speedway during Memorial Day weekend, but the tributes that were held at the 1.5-mile track didn\u2019t erase the pain.<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"1\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">         \u201cThis weekend is not about us, it\u2019s about Kyle and his family, and I\u2019m super proud to be able to get it done for him,\u201d Suarez said after winning the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600.<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"2\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">\u201cThis has been a difficult week and weekend for all of us\u2014drivers, team owners, media, fans, most important, his family. A few days ago, I was still hoping that somebody was going to say that it wasn\u2019t real.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Related Story<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"6\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">Busch died unexpectedly Thursday within 24 hours after his severe pneumonia went into sepsis.<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"7\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">\u201cSeeing Samantha (Busch\u2019s wife) today (Sunday) for the first time totally broke my heart,\u201d Suarez continued. \u201cI saw Brexton (the couple\u2019s 11-year-old son) as well. For a split second, I grabbed him and gave him a kiss on his head. There were so many emotions, so many emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"8\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">         In addition to Busch\u2019s wife and two children, his parents and brother attended pre-race ceremonies in which the two-time NASCAR Cup champion was honored. Drivers, as well as other members of the NASCAR community, gathered around the Busch family while NASCAR CEO Steve O\u2019Donnell addressed the crowd. Busch\u2019s mother Gaye carried eight white roses that her elder son Kurt laid in a row on his younger brother\u2019s large No. 8 that was painted on the track\u2019s front stretch apron. Family members, the NASCAR industry, and fans wept as bagpipes played the song \u201cAmazing Grace.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><img draggable=\"true\" alt=\"auto: may 24 nascar cup series coca cola 600\" title=\"AUTO: MAY 24 NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"3600\" height=\"2400\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent;width:100%;height:auto;\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e928a2ed-c466-403e-8898-d8b6ab130945.jpeg\" class=\"css-0 e1g79fud0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Icon Sportswire\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"11\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">         The Coca-Cola 600 39-car field used the missing man formation while executing its pace laps prior to the race\u2019s start. Tyler Reddick, who had the No. 1 starting position, dropped back and left that spot open. On lap 8, the race telecast on Prime went silent as fans held up eight fingers and Kyle Busch banners in the grandstands. <\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"12\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">         \u201cIt was difficult,\u201d Suarez said about the start of the race. \u201cI feel like when I jumped in the car, I wasn\u2019t ready to drive. Many of us were crying. It was tough. We lost a legend, and most importantly, we lost a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Related Story<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"15\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">Saturday night, inclement weather that included heavy fog and mist shortened the Charbroil 300 O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series race won by Chastain. The Charbroil 300 was called official after Stage 2 was completed, meaning 91 of the 200 laps were in the books. <\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"16\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">         The North Carolina Education Lottery 200 Craftsman Truck Series race won by Riggs was run Sunday morning under NASCAR\u2019s adverse conditions time rule. When that rule is used, NASCAR designates a time when the race will end. Once the race leader crosses the start\/finish line after the time has expired, the next lap will be the white flag, followed by the checkered flag. There is no overtime under this rule. The time for Sunday\u2019s truck race, which was rescheduled four times during a three-day period due to weather, was noon. In that event, 110 of the scheduled 134 laps were completed.   <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-dynamic-svg=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/www.autoweek.com\/_assets\/design-tokens\/autoweek\/static\/images\/logos\/lettermark.de67f45.svg?primary=%2523000\" loading=\"lazy\" data-testid=\"dynamic-svg-base\" height=\"100\" width=\"100\" alt=\"Lettermark\" class=\"css-7mevzh ev8dhu50\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including <a href=\"http:\/\/espnw.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">espnW.com<\/a>, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association\u2019s sports feature category.\u00a0 During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication\u2019s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Suarez, Ross Chastain, and Layne Riggs all honored Kyle Busch by executing his signature bow after winning&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,253367,784,237154,1642,634,253366,82,183339],"class_list":["post-694072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-99c8646c-e04f-4b8e-9d26-a54678e8c301","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-nascar","tag-shorttitle-nascar-honors-kyle-busch-with-charlotte-tributes","tag-sports","tag-subsection-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694072","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=694072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}