By Mark Osborne / Updated May 23, 2026 / CBS/AP
Kyle Busch died after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis, his family said in a statement released Saturday. “The medical evaluation provided to the Busch Family concluded that severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis, resulting in rapid and overwhelming associated complications,” the statement said.
The 41-year-old NASCAR star collapsed suddenly Thursday after passing out a day earlier while using a driving simulator at a General Motors facility in Concord, North Carolina. His family had first announced Thursday that he “experienced a severe illness resulting in hospitalization” and would miss the Coca-Cola 600.
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition in which the body has an extreme response to an infection, causing widespread inflammation and potential organ damage, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A 911 call obtained by CBS News described Busch the day before his death as short of breath, feeling overheated and coughing up blood. During the call, an unidentified caller told dispatchers, “I’ve got an individual that’s shortness of breath, very hot, thinks he’s going to pass out, and he’s producing a little bit of blood, coughing up some blood.” The caller said Busch was lying on a bathroom floor inside the complex and that “he is awake.”
Two weeks earlier, while racing at Watkins Glen, Busch was heard on team radio saying he wanted a doctor waiting for him after the race; broadcasters reported he had been fighting a sinus cold. Despite recent health problems, Busch raced and won the Craftsman Truck Series event at Dover Motor Speedway on May 15, less than a week before his death.
Busch was one of NASCAR’s most accomplished drivers. He won Cup Series championships in 2015 and 2019 and holds the record for the most combined wins across NASCAR’s top three national divisions: 63 Cup Series victories, 102 wins in the series often referred to as the O’Reilly Auto Parts/Xfinity level, and 69 Craftsman Truck Series wins, for a total of 234 career victories.
The family’s statement is their first detailed explanation of the cause of death since the initial announcement of his hospitalization. NASCAR and the motorsports community have been paying tribute to Busch as more details about his illness are released.