Brad Keselowski: NASCAR 'won't be the same' without Kyle Busch

It's somewhat fitting that in the wake of the death of NASCAR legend Kyle Busch on Thursday, NASCAR's race weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway has been plagued by rain. 

It's almost as if Mother Nature knows that even once cars are on track and racing resumes, the garage won't feel the same. 

That's the way it felt at Rockingham in February 2001 days after the death of Dale Earnhardt — because everyone, from team members, to drivers, to fans knew NASCAR would never be the same. 

That's exactly how it feels as NASCAR navigates a rainy, somber weekend at its home base of Charlotte. 

NASCAR won't be the same without Kyle Busch

"It is a significant moment in the sport," said 2012 Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski, a long-time rival of Busch on the racetrack. "Much like when Dale died, the sport won't be the same without Kyle. How that is, I'm not entirely sure. I'll understand a lot more in the next 3-5 years, as you will too. But it is a certainty that it will be different."

The solemnity in the garage area Saturday morning was proof enough of that. What would've been the car Busch raced in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 — re-numbered from Busch's 8 to No. 33 and to be driven by Austin Hill — was the first Cup Series car to be unloaded from its hauler on a dreary North Carolina morning as a tearful crowd watched on. 

NASCAR will race this weekend and on for the rest of 2026 and beyond, but Keselowski is right: the sport was never the same after Earnhardt's death, nor will it be after Busch's.

Such is the gaping hole that the death of legends leaves behind. 

Quotes provided by NASCAR Media.