Kyle Busch died after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis, leading to rapid, overwhelming complications, his family said. Dakota Hunter, vice president of Kyle Busch Companies, said in a news release that the family received a medical evaluation on Saturday confirming the cause.
Busch, a two-time NASCAR champion, was 41 when he died on Thursday. The death came a day after he became unresponsive while testing in a Chevrolet racing simulator in Concord. He was taken to a hospital in Charlotte, people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.
Sepsis is a life-threatening medical emergency caused by the body’s extreme response to an infection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Instead of containing an infection, the immune response can go into overdrive, damaging tissues and organs, causing widespread inflammation, microscopic blood clots and leaky blood vessels.
Team members had noted Busch seemed to be battling illness earlier in May. He was believed to have had a sinus cold while racing at Watkins Glen on May 10 and radioed his team after the race asking for a “shot” from a doctor. He nevertheless returned to competition, winning a Truck Series race at Dover the following weekend and finishing 17th in the NASCAR All-Star race on Sunday.
Busch was preparing to race in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. During an emergency call placed late Wednesday afternoon, an unidentified caller told dispatchers calmly, “I’ve got an individual that’s (got) shortness of breath, very hot, thinks he’s going to pass out, and is producing a little bit of blood, coughing up some blood.” The caller said Busch was lying on a bathroom floor inside the complex and that “he is awake,” gave directions to responders and asked that sirens be turned off upon arrival, according to audio released by the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office.
Fellow driver Brad Keselowski, who said he was aware Busch had not been feeling well recently, declined to offer specifics. “Yes, but I won’t go into any specifics,” Keselowski said. He noted the pressure drivers feel to keep racing even when ill: “There’s no shortage of drivers that would love to take my seat or anybody else’s seat if we weren’t feeling well, and I think every driver feels that pressure… So you try to power through it the best you can.”
Over a two-decade career, Busch won 234 races across NASCAR’s top three national series — more than any driver in history. To honor him, all 39 drivers in the field for Sunday’s race will carry a black No. 8 decal on their cars.