{"id":660969,"date":"2026-05-23T19:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T19:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/660969\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T19:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T19:23:12","slug":"kyle-busch-died-of-severe-pneumonia-family-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/660969\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Busch died of severe pneumonia, family says"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASCAR legend Kyle Busch<\/a> died of severe pneumonia, his family said Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"NBC<\/p>\n

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The 41-year-old driver died Thursday after he was hospitalized with a \u201csevere illness,\u201d his family said. In a new statement, they said Busch died of pneumonia that progressed \u201cinto sepsis, resulting in rapid and overwhelming associated complications.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, he was coughing up blood and lying on a bathroom floor at a General Motors training facility in North Carolina, according to a 911 call obtained by NBC News.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got an individual that\u2019s, uh, shortness of breath, very hot, thinks he\u2019s going to pass out and is producing a little bit of blood \u2014 coughing up some blood,\u201d the caller could be heard saying around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Busch was on a simulator at a training facility that day, NASCAR CEO Steve O\u2019Donnell said.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Busch radioed his crew near the end of a NASCAR Cup Series race in Watkins Glen, New York, and asked a doctor to give him a \u201cshot\u201d after he finished, The Associated Press reported. Busch had been struggling with a sinus cold that was worsened by the intense G-forces and elevation changes at the road course on May 10, according to the TV broadcast of the race.<\/p>\n

Five days later, he won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race <\/a>in Dover.<\/p>\n

Busch, who was known as \u201cRowdy\u201d and \u201cWild Thing\u201d for postrace fights, leaves an indelible legacy as a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and the winner of 234 races across the sport\u2019s three national series \u2014 the most in racing history.<\/p>\n

\"KyleKyle Busch embraces his wife, Samantha, and son, Brexton, prior to a race in 2022.Jared C. Tilton \/ Getty Images Sport file<\/p>\n

His death led to a wave of tributes from the racing community, celebrities and fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cA future Hall of Famer, Kyle was a rare talent, one who comes along once in a generation. He was fierce, he was passionate, he was immensely skilled and he cared deeply about the sport and fans,\u201d the Busch family, Richard Childress Racing and NASCAR said in a joint statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNASCAR lost a giant of the sport today, far too soon,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll be honored at Sunday\u2019s Indianapolis 500 race, with the pylon lit in his honor for Lap 18, the number of his car.<\/p>\n

Busch is survived by his parents; his wife, Samantha; son, Brexton, 11; and daughter, Lennix, 4.<\/p>\n

In their brief statement on Saturday, Busch\u2019s family asked for privacy in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR legend Kyle Busch died of severe pneumonia, his family said Saturday. Subscribe to read this story ad-free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-660969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}