Someone who had won a race just a week earlier… how could their health deteriorate so suddenly? After all, he looked hell-bent on winning that Truck Race in Dover. However, once the cause of his death finally came to light, fans may have gotten some answers, some form of closure that they desperately wanted. But now, to make matters better (or worse) a sports doctor revealed a rather grim reality.

“This was a totally preventable situation,” Dr. Jesse Morse wrote on X shortly after Busch’s cause of death was revealed to be a pneumonia that progressed into sepsis and resulted in severe complications.

“Ideally, when he was calling for help and a “shot” from his doctor two weeks ago, the proper protocol would’ve been to have him admitted to the hospital and get IV antibiotics with proper monitoring,” he added, before revealing, “based on what we have heard, this was not the case.”

Morse was referring to Watkins Glen, where Busch was feeling under the weather during the race. As reported by Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, Busch had radioed during the race asking for team physician assistant Bill Heisel, saying, “I’m gonna need a shot.” It was reported that he was dealing with a sinus cold, and Morse believes that was the point where he should have stopped. But Rowdy wanted to push on.

Cruelly, it was Busch’s best race of the season, a P8 in the Go Bowling at Watkins Glen. Coming from that to displaying absolute domination at Dover during the Truck Series race, leading 147 of the 200 laps, revealed that he had continued with his high-performance activities instead of getting proper treatment.

That Dover win also became the final victory of his career, taking him to 234 wins across NASCAR’s three national series, the most by any driver. Asked afterward why winning never gets old, Busch had said, “You never know when the last one is.”

“Unfortunately, his powerful mind ended up being a double-edged sword, preventing him from getting the proper care he deserved, which unfortunately led to his shocking passing,” Morse further wrote.

Pneumonia does share a few common symptoms with a sinus cold, and the two can sometimes be confused. Cough, fever, fatigue, congestion, and even a sore throat are all common signs.

Once pneumonia spreads to both lungs, it can restrict the body’s oxygen supply, potentially leading to sudden organ failure and sepsis. The affected person may also experience shortness of breath, something Busch reportedly showed while testing at the GM Technical Center in Concord, North Carolina, according to the 911 call made shortly before he was hospitalized.

In audio obtained by The Associated Press, the caller told dispatch, “I’ve got an individual that’s shortness of breath, very hot, thinks he’s going to pass out, and is producing a little bit of blood, coughing up some blood.” Busch was reportedly awake but lying on the bathroom floor when help was called.

Busch passed away just hours after being hospitalized on May 21, and it shook the racing world to its core. Tributes poured in from every corner of the country, and also from Europe, where F1 teams and stars like Lewis Hamilton also shared condolences with the family and the NASCAR community.

Kyle Busch could get a massive, unprecedented tribute from NASCAR

The NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes also held a moment of silence, while U.S. Vice-President JD Vance wrote that he and his wife were praying for Busch and his family.

For those closest to the garage, the shock was even harder to process because Busch had still seemed like himself only days earlier. Christopher Bell, who was set to run the Truck Series race Busch had been scheduled to compete in, said, “It’s going to be very strange to be out there without Kyle in the field.” He also called Busch’s death a “gutwrenching feeling” and said Busch had seemed “normal, like completely normal” when they spoke before the previous Truck race. “I guess it is a very stark reminder of how fragile life can be,” Bell added.

“I know that we’d put that on the list of ideas that we want to look at,” NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell told the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway when questioned about inducting Busch into the Class of 2027 NASCAR Hall of Fame.

While this shouldn’t be difficult, the only issue is that the panel had already voted and disclosed the inductees. This included Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, and Larry Philips.

This voting tradition has remained part of the sport for years, and there has never been an instance where another driver was given a sort of ‘wild card’ entry. However, considering how ‘Rowdy’ carried himself over two decades in the sport, it wouldn’t be surprising if NASCAR pulled off such a move, allowing him to earn his place in the deserved cabinet of immortality.

“There’s things we want to do this weekend, and then we have a little bit more time to think about what we could do as well in the future, and who knows, that could be something we look at,” O’Donnell added.

In the midst of this, drivers and teams from other series have also been paying Busch tributes. Former Haas F1 driver Romain Grosjean, who moved to IndyCar in 2021, will be running the Indianapolis 500 with the #18, the number that Busch used with Joe Gibbs Racing between 2008 and 2022.

Meanwhile, Richard Childress Racing recently announced that they would retire and preserve the #8 in respect for Busch, and only allot the number to his son, Brexton Busch, whenever he was to make his NASCAR debut in the future.