{"id":439129,"date":"2026-05-21T23:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/439129\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T23:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:45:08","slug":"nascar-star-kyle-busch-dead-at-41-after-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/439129\/","title":{"rendered":"Nascar star Kyle Busch dead at 41 after illness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"nAzlsRkyMsZOvyL\" style=\"display:none\">Busch won Nascar Cup Series titles in 2015 and 2019 and amassed 63 victories in his career &#8211; a figure that leaves him in ninth on the circuit\u2019s all-time list.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nAzlsRkyMsZOvyL\" style=\"display:none\">He was also dominant in Nascar\u2019s other two national series, with 102 wins in the O\u2019Reilly Auto Part Series and 69 victories in the Craftsman Truck Series.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We are saddened and heartbroken to share the news of the passing of Kyle Busch, a two-time Cup champion and one of our sport&#8217;s greatest and fiercest drivers. He was 41 years old.<\/p>\n<p>We extend our deepest condolences to the Busch family, Richard Childress Racing and the entire\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FARIF6OKrw\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/FARIF6OKrw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NASCAR (@NASCAR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NASCAR\/status\/2057577365543301405?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"nAzlsRkyMsZOvyL\" style=\"display:none\">Nascar is one of the most popular motorsports in the United States, primarily featuring high-speed oval track racing where drivers pilot purpose-built stock cars at speeds often in excess of 200mph (321 km\/h) at venues such as Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nAzlsRkyMsZOvyL\" style=\"display:none\">The sport\u2019s roots date back to the Prohibition era, when producers of illegal moonshine souped up their cars in order to evade law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nAzlsRkyMsZOvyL\" style=\"display:none\">Busch began his career in Nascar Cup racing with Hendrick Motorsports before joining Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008, where he spent the bulk of his career before switching to Richard Childress Racing in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nAzlsRkyMsZOvyL\" style=\"display:none\">Known for his fearless, aggressive racing style, Busch earned the nickname \u201cRowdy\u201d &#8211; a reference to a character in the 1990 Tom Cruise movie \u201cDays of Thunder\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nAzlsRkyMsZOvyL\" style=\"display:none\">Busch\u2019s fellow Nascar drivers led the tributes to the late star.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nAzlsRkyMsZOvyL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThere aren\u2019t really words for today,\u201d Hyak Motorsports driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wrote on X.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nAzlsRkyMsZOvyL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019ve raced against Kyle for a long time, and anyone who\u2019s lined up next to him knows exactly what made him special, he gave you everything he had, every single lap, and he made all of us better for it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nAzlsRkyMsZOvyL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cRest easy, Rowdy. The sport won\u2019t be the same without you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"nAzlsRkyMsZOvyL\" style=\"display:none\">Stenhouse was involved in one of the most infamous incidents of Busch\u2019s career during the 2024 All-Star Race, punching Busch to the ground after accusing him of causing a high-speed crash during the event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nAzlsRkyMsZOvyL\" style=\"display:none\">Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin added: \u201cAbsolutely cannot comprehend this news. We just need to think of his family during this time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Busch won Nascar Cup Series titles in 2015 and 2019 and amassed 63 victories in his career &#8211;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[35025,74,18919,1975,224433,6028,2223,690,6179,15211,6440,2109,15312,3192,13728,44012,20825,111,139,69,117625,1963,213,2737,9343,1865,47496],"class_list":["post-439129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-35025","tag-after","tag-aged","tag-at","tag-busch","tag-champion","tag-confirmed","tag-dead","tag-died","tag-drivers","tag-ever","tag-family","tag-greatest","tag-illness","tag-joint","tag-kyle","tag-nascar","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-regarded","tag-series","tag-sports","tag-star","tag-statement","tag-today","tag-twotime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}