The results of Kyle Busch's cause of death were released. He started with a sinus infection a couple of weeks ago, he had a cough. He kept racing, because that's what drivers do. It turned into pneumonia. Pneumonia is treatable, 450 million people get it a year. So he kept racing.
But then it turned into sepsis. Sepsis can be fatal in a matter of hours.
He was in the racing sim when things went badly, they took him from there directly to the hospital. Within 24 hours one of the biggest racing legends was dead at just 41 years old. From something that was treatable, something he raced through.
Losing Kyle has been a hard hit to the racing community, reminding everyone how real these drivers are.
But now all I keep thinking is how our guys in F1 do the same thing. Motorsport puts tremendous pressure on drivers to compete and show up every week.
In the 2022 Monza race weekend, Alex Albon drove through 2 practices Friday, felt terrible, was diagnosed with appendicitis, went into surgery Saturday, something went wrong and caused respiratory failure, then put on a ventilator and into a medically induced coma. ....And 2 weeks later was back racing in Singapore.
In 2023, Max Verstappen was sick and missed media day in Saudi Arabia, but came back to drive through all sessions in the race weekend, revealing later he was so sick it felt like he "was missing a lung."
Lando in 2024 was so sick in a way that wouldn't go away, he coughed and hacked his way through every single lap on the track for nearly 2 months.
This video from Singapore last year, moments before getting in the car for one of the most physically exhausting races of the season he had to sit down on the grid, his team saying he was so sick he looked green. But Lando was fighting for a championship. If he hadn't driven through it, he wouldn't be the 2025 World Champion.
And now we've lost the most winningest driver in NASCAR history, holding an all-time record of 234 career victories across the sport's top three national series, because he kept driving. He won a race less than a week before he died. He drove through it.
I don't know what we do about that. I don't know what could ever change to make that any less horrifying.
But I think its worth talking about. If nothing else, Kyle Busch's legacy deserves it.