At Charlotte, through smiles and tears, Kyle Busch fans grieve their NASCAR hero

Alex Zietlow, The Charlotte Observer on May 22, 2026

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Part of her wondered if she’d ever come back.

This had always been Panda Young’s plan: to retire and travel the country with her husband, Toby, and their trailer and their ear muffs, from racetrack to racetrack. But on Friday afternoon, in the campgrounds just outside Charlotte Motor Speedway, underneath an overcast sky, Young questioned all of it.

Her voice cracked as she pondered the possibilities.

“I haven’t said it out loud, but I’m like, ‘Do I want to come back?’” she said in front of a large No. 8 flag flying outside the tent. She said she might just be Busch’s No. 1 fan. “Do I want to continue? NASCAR, you know, we planned on retiring and traveling all around the country.”

She looked away.

“Obviously Kyle wouldn’t be around then — you know he’d be retired,” she said, gathering herself. “Hopefully a driver grabs my heart like Kyle did.”

The Young family — which included the two parents and their two daughters — lugged their trailer all the way from Pennsylvania to be here. They came to last year’s Coca-Cola 600 and had “just the best time” and have turned going to races into a biannual or triannual tradition. But as they were on the road on Thursday, Panda got a call from a neighbor. Then came the news that Busch, somehow, had died in a hospital from an undisclosed “severe illness.” She had questions. She had tears. She had stories and examples of ethereal connections, like how her and her husband, Toby, were married a day later than Kyle and Samantha.

“I brought my Bristol shirt because we got to go to the Bristol Dirt race that he won,” she said. “And I brought that and my M&M shirt, and I was going to have him sign it this weekend.”

Overcast skies, grieving Busch fans

Such was the feeling on this sad, gray day. The week after Dale Earnhardt Sr. died, in February 2001, the air was heavy. Rain scattered through the weekend. The race went on — that’s what racers do — but Mother Nature intervened and kindly pushed us to slow down. It’s tough not to draw the parallels to this day, in Concord, N.C., a few hours before the NASCAR Truck Series race Busch was supposed to run in and a few days before the Sunday Cup race a rejuvenated Busch might’ve just won.

But as much as it was sad, it was replete with stories. People had memories to share, emotions on their sternum. Some were about how they met Busch themselves, and how he was so kind to them, shattering his brash and callow veneer. Jason Stikeleather of Fort Mill, S.C., could only muster emotions about Busch being “gone too soon.” Some were about how he bowed after his wins, embracing the vitriol of the fans booing him.

One fan, Jessica Fortin, shared the reason why she was a Busch fan while she held her daughter, Harper. It was a way to tease her future husband, Richard, who was a Carl Edwards fan.

“So I asked him, ‘Who’s Carl’s rival?’” Fortin said. “’Who does he hate the most?’ And he said Kyle Busch. I said, ‘That’s who I’m going to like.’”

Fortin loved that KFB “didn’t care what anybody thought.” She loved his famous — notorious? — celebration, when he’d bow after completing a burnout on the front-stretch after winning the race. He’d bow and smile as fans booed him into oblivion. He’d bow multiple times if he was feeling it.

“That was a staple in NASCAR, and it just fueled him more,” Fortin said. “The more people that hated him, the more he loved it.”

Fans young and old in disbelief

Busch connected with the younger generation, too. Josh Privette, an 18-year-old from Charleston wearing a Busch backpack and T-shirt, stood in disbelief. Like everyone else, he couldn’t believe that Busch wasn’t here — he couldn’t believe he didn’t know Busch’s cause of death, either. He spoke in the present tense because “Rowdy” is still here, he said.

“My room is decked out and all that,” he said. “I have a lot of memorabilia from him.” Privette has even got to meet Busch several times, thanks to some professional connections. “I still don’t believe it. I checked my phone every five seconds last night. ... I called my mom immediately. It was something I’ve never imagined before.”

Young said she had some of her favorite drivers lined up once Busch retired. Drivers like 19-year-old Connor Zilisch, and grassroots racing star Butterbean Queen. Brexton, eventually. Busch wouldn’t race forever, after all.

But first, she spoke as herself but also as an ambassador for the sport:

“I gotta heal for a while.”

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