After NASCAR’s Kyle Busch died suddenly due to a severe illness, his longtime colleague and friend Dale Earnhardt Jr. reflected on their final text conversation and coping with the loss.
ByMay 27, 2026 3:14 PM
| Updated May 27, 2026 6:26 PM
TagsDale Earnhardt Jr. Details Final Conversation With Kyle Busch Before NASCAR Driver's Death
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch were planning for the future.
One week after Busch unexpectedly died at age 41 following a battle with severe pneumonia, his NASCAR colleague shared insight into their final conversation.
“I was texting with him the day before he passed away about getting together this Thursday to bring his seat for his late model over to my shop,” Earnhardt admitted during a May 26 episode of his The Dale Jr. Download podcast. “We had agreed that he was going to race our car in the CARS Tour.”
Despite Busch being hospitalized in the hours before his death for his illness, Earnhardt said his colleague was focused on planning ahead for the May 30 race.
“He’s texting me, and he’s like, ‘What scheme we going to run?’ And I was like, ‘You can run any scheme you want,’” Earnhardt recalled. “I was like, ‘What number do you want to run?’ He goes…he said it, literally, ‘The Dale Jr. 8.’ I was like, ‘You got it.’”
And because their last conversation was so unremarkable, and because Busch’s death was so unexpected, Earnhardt confessed it was “extremely” difficult to learn his fellow athlete had died. Nevertheless, he’s found some comfort in the week since.
“What I’ve enjoyed, I guess, is learning more about Kyle the person,” Earnhardt explained. “We know who he is on the race track, we know how he is on the race track and in the media, and so forth. What he was like at the track with the suit on and in that environment. I knew him on a personal level."
Jerry Markland/Getty Images
Now, the 51-year-old said he’s gotten to know more about how Busch was with the other people in his life.
“Hearing how he interacted and how he was to others, the joke they may have shared in a text,” Earnhardt considered, “I’ve really enjoyed learning who he was away from the track and how he interacted and engaged, or treated, or talked to other people, and it’s been good.”
Busch’s family confirmed he had died just hours after being hospitalized for a severe illness May 21, which was later confirmed to be pneumonia that evolved into sepsis.
“Our entire NASCAR family is heartbroken by the loss of Kyle Busch,” the organization wrote in a post on X. “A future Hall of Famer, Kyle was a rare talent, one who comes along once in a generation. He was fierce, he was passionate, he was immensely skilled and he cared deeply about the sport and fans.”
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