Watch: Emotional Kurt Busch Reveals His Final Words with His Brother Kyle
Losing a close family member is going to be a difficult time for most people.
Losing a close family member that’s also a household name in motor sports and the world of competitive racing? That’s got to be surreal.
And for Kurt Busch, surreal may be an apt term. The grieving brother made clear that life has seemed like a surreal alternative reality since his brother, legendary racer Kyle Busch, tragically passed away in May.
Reports have since surfaced that Kyle Busch died from complications with pneumonia.
“The medical evaluation provided to the Busch Family concluded that severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis, resulting in rapid and overwhelming associated complications,” the family said in a statement following Busch’s death, according to a report from CBS News.
But while the family may have spoken, Kyle’s big brother, Kurt — a NASCAR Hall of Famer — has been a bit more mum privately.
And when Kurt Busch broke that silence in an interview with Today this week, you could see that the NASCAR legend was still visibly shaken by the abrupt loss of his brother.
One of the more poignant moments came when the interviewer asked Busch when he knew that his brother had passed.
“How’d you find out that [Kyle] had slipped away from us?” asked the interviewer.
“I was there at the hospital,” a visibly emotional Busch answered. “I was there all day, hoping, praying, hoping for a turnaround.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Kurt Busch also opened up about how their father couldn’t bring himself to see Kyle while his health was declining at the hospital.
“Did you go in?” the interviewer asked.
“Yes,” Busch said.
“What did you say?”
“I said ‘I got you man, come on. I got you,’” Busch said, getting choked up as he reminisced on his final words to his brother. “‘I got you. Come on. Be strong.’”
Wiping away a tear, Busch could only add, “It just wasn’t fair.”
You can watch some of these emotional interview highlights for yourself below:
Kyle Busch, a NASCAR champion, is survived by his wife and two children, as well as his brother and parents.
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