NEW YORK \u2014 NASCAR Hall of Famer Kurt Busch wiped tears while recalling the final day he spent at his younger brother\u2019s hospital bedside, in his first public comments about Kyle Busch\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018I got you, man. Come on, I got you. I got you. Come on, be strong,\u2019\u201d an emotional Busch added, before a brief pause. \u201cIt just wasn\u2019t fair.\u201d<\/p>\n
The interview marked Busch\u2019s first comments since\u00a0Kyle Busch died on May 21\u00a0after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis,\u00a0resulting in rapid and overwhelming complications. Busch\u2019s death at the age of 41 devastated the racing community and one of NASCAR\u2019s most accomplished families. The brothers were born in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Kyle Busch won Cup Series championships in 2015 and 2019 for Joe Gibbs Racing, and holds the record in winning 234 combined races across NASCAR\u2019s top three national series. His older brother was a Cup champion in 2004 and inducted this year into the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
In the interview, Busch outlined how his brother became increasingly ill while\u00a0practicing in a simulator\u00a0on May 20. Asked by his crew chief whether he was OK, Busch responded no and he was taken to a hospital by ambulance.<\/p>\n
Kyle Busch initially believed he was dealing with a sinus cold while racing at Watkins Glen, New York, on May 10. He continued competing, including winning a Truck Series race at Dover, Delaware, less than a week before he died. Kurt Busch said their father, Tom Busch, chose not to be at the hospital in order to \u201cremember him the way he wanted to remember him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no book, there is no outline on what we\u2019re supposed to do right now,\u201d Kurt Busch said, before recalling the on-track chemistry he had with his brother.<\/p>\n
\u201cHim and I were carbon copies of each other. We could speak on-track without saying a word,\u201d he said. \u201cI miss the words we never spoke to each other, and the vibe that we had on track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Busch said he\u2019s now mentoring his nephew, Kyle\u2019s 11-year-old son Brexton, who has taken up racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a prodigy,\u201d Busch said. \u201cHe can be a big start in the world of motorsports. He\u2019s 11, but he\u2019s already racing like an 18-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for his brother\u2019s legacy, Busch said the achievements speak for themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s already there. Winningest driver in NASCAR history in all the series,\u201d Busch said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tenacity that he had. It was every day, 24-7, to help people in the latter part of his career, to be a great father like he was,\u201d he added. \u201cIt will all shine as time puts different things in spotlights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 NASCAR Hall of Famer Kurt Busch wiped tears while recalling the final day he spent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-866570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866570","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=866570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}