Pomerenke: From Bemidji to Charlotte, response to Kyle Busch's death shows why race fans are different
· Yahoo Sports
May 29—INDIANAPOLIS — On Sunday, May 24, Bemidji Speedway held a pre-race prayer in memory of a driver who had never stepped foot at its racetrack.
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Around 800 miles away in Indianapolis, the NTT Indycar Series honored the same driver during the Indianapolis 500, despite the driver never racing in the series.
From the outside, it seems puzzling. Why would these two tracks — and countless others across the country — honor a driver who had almost nothing to do with them?
There's a simple answer: motorsports is different. So was Kyle Busch.
The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion suddenly passed away from complications of pneumonia and sepsis on May 21 at the age of 41. It's the most shocking death in NASCAR since Dale Earnhardt died on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.
A driver who was impossible not to have an opinion on, "Rowdy" became one of the most talented drivers to sit behind the wheel of a stock car.
He was in the twilight of his career, but he still had some competitive fuel left in his tank. Heck, he had just won a race at Dover in the Craftsman Truck Series six days prior to his death. It was there when he said he enjoys every win "because you never know when the last one is."
And all of a sudden, he's gone.
The news sent ripples across the motorsports community. Formula 1, Indycar, IMSA and other racing series sent statements to social media mourning the loss of the firebrand driver.
NASCAR didn't cancel its next race, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Busch wouldn't have wanted that.
Scenes from the track were similar to Rockingham in 2001, the race after Earnhardt's death. Busch's No. 8 car was renumbered to No. 33, and a pre-race ceremony was held in honor of him, with his wife, Samantha, 11-year-old son Brexton and 4-year-old daughter Lennix bravely in attendance.
All the tributes, from the roses placed on the black No. 8 painted on the infield grass to the missing man formation during the pace laps, were expected from NASCAR at Charlotte. What some didn't expect were the tributes to Busch at racetracks all across the country.
At Indy, Busch was mentioned in a pre-race prayer, and during lap 18 — honoring his number from 2008-2022 — the track announcers fell silent as a tribute was shown on the scoring pylon.
Even in our own backyard at Bemidji Speedway, there were multiple tributes to Rowdy. Along with drivers doing his signature bow in victory lane, two Busch jackets, representing his two Cup Series championships, were hung along the front stretch fence during the Chicken Shack Nationals. The tribute came along with tributes to local racer Allen Foster, who tragically passed away in the offseason.
The dirt track scene is vastly different from racing on pavement like NASCAR. Still, Bemidji Speedway found it important to pay tribute to one of the greats.
"And you know, Busch was not one of the most well-liked individuals," track veteran Dennis Peterson said. "But yeah, they (wanted to) support the family and his legacy."
Since I've become a race fan, I've learned that whether it's on pavement, dirt or ice, racing is a brotherhood and sisterhood. That's the reason why these tracks, along with others, paid tribute to a driver from a completely different series.
Race fans like myself tried to do the same. I attended the Indy 500 last weekend wearing a Busch M&M's pit crew shirt as a tribute. I got a number of comments on it from passersby, many of whom were wearing Busch apparel themselves. "Do it for Kyle," one of them said.
Race fans are different. I learned that at my first NASCAR race at Road America in 2022.
The best example of that was small, but surprising to a then-outsider. I vaguely commented to my friends that I needed water, only for three fans surrounding us to offer me a bottle of water from their coolers. Welcoming gestures like that are common at other races I've attended, from Indy to dirt tracks.
Peterson has seen thousands of those gestures first-hand in his 40 years at Bemidji Speedway. If a driver, fan, or anyone with a connection to the track needs help, they get it tenfold.
Peterson got that himself a few years ago after he developed skin cancer on his face. After years of writing recaps of the races for the Pioneer, Peterson felt like his diagnosis forced him into retirement. But the track owner made accommodations for him to still attend the races in the shade, and he still writes recaps for the Pioneer to this day.
When discussing the motorsports community, Peterson and I came across one perfect word to describe it: family. It's an overused word — just ask anyone who's worked for a corporation. But there isn't more of an apt word to describe race fans, and ever since I got into racing, I've felt like I've been welcomed into one.
And Busch is one of our own. He was a racer, a wheelman, one of the best to ever do it in stock car racing. No matter how one feels about NASCAR, Busch's death is a death in the racing family, and motorsports across the country have treated it like so.
"Most dirt track guys don't necessarily get into the NASCAR scene," Peterson said. "But when a member of the family like that, something happens, they band together. ... It's all one family."
I'm a proud fan of other stick-and-ball sports, but racing is different, it always has been. Whether it be stock cars, open wheel, modifieds, go-karts — drivers and fans can always bond with their love of racing, no matter what it looks like.
Racing is different from any other sport in a lot of ways, but the one that separates it the most is its fandom, and the reaction to Busch's death proved that.