Tony Stewart Puts NASCAR Community On Blast After Kyle Busch's Death

Tony Stewart is well aware of what's being said about the late NASCAR star Kyle Busch.

The NASCAR community lost Busch on May 21 due to severe pneumonia that progressed into sepsis. His death came less than a week after he won the Ecosave 200 at Dover Motor Speedway. He was only 41 years old.

When Busch passed away, Stewart posted a heartfelt statement online. You could tell just how much this tragedy hurt him.

"Kyle Busch was a fierce competitor. He was strong-willed, confident not only in his ability behind the wheel, but in his opinions. He held his own and didn't mince words. Early on, we didn't always see eye to eye, but in 2008, he became my teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing… and he was a great teammate. He pushed me to be better, and we always had respect for one another. It was easy to see that Kyle was going to be a future champion," Stewart wrote.

"What a loss for the NASCAR community and the motorsports community as a whole. Kyle was one of a kind. Whether it was to see him win or to see someone beat him, you watched. Even the haters will miss Kyle. They'll learn in the coming weeks who he was as a person, a husband and a father. My heart goes out to his wife, Samantha, his kids Brexton and Lennix, his parents Tom and Gaye, and to his brother Kurt."

A few weeks later, Stewart spoke about Busch's legacy while at Bristol Dragway.

Should've shown more appreciation.

Stewart made it clear that he's not happy with the way people have covered Busch's death. He believes they failed to take the time to know who Busch was outside of his career as a Cup Series driver.

"I guess the biggest thing in this tragedy that's happened that [expletives] me off the most is that now everybody wants to talk about how he was as a person. Outside of that, all they wanted to do is judge what they saw on TV," Stewart said. "It's frustrating. That's the way every one of us are judged by what they see on TV and then once you die, they want to talk about how good a person you were. That's the part that [expletives] me off the most about it right now.

"Should've given him a chance to learn him as a person before they judged him in the first place. So, right now, I don't care about educating everybody about how Kyle Busch was. I know how Kyle Busch was," Stewart continued. "The fact that they all want to learn now, they're the [expletives] for not taking the time to learn him and accept him for who he was back then. You want to wait until a guy dies and then care about who he was as a person is the part that pisses me off about everybody."

As you'd imagine, Busch's fans adored this statement from Stewart. If we had to guess, this won't be the last time he addresses this sensitive subject.

Copyright The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This story was originally published June 13, 2026 at 7:00 AM.