Kyle Busch, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion driver, has died at 41 after an illness.That’s the alert from The Athletic that appeared on my phone early Thursday night. It was the second time in six hours I found myself putting aside what I was doing to do some thinking about somebody who had died far too soon.Earlier in the day, a text arrived from a friend with the news that Howard Fendrich, a longtime sportswriter with the Associated Press, had passed away at age 55. And then, at a little after 6 p.m., came the news that Busch had died after being hospitalized with a “severe illness.”To read the news about Busch’s death was to be directed to a post on X that included video of Busch being interviewed on May 15 at Dover Motor Speedway after he captured his 69th NASCAR Truck Series victory. The post, which has been widely shared on social media, shows Busch being asked why these moments never get old for him. His response: “Because you never know when the last one is.”I’m not going to appropriate the deaths of Howard Fendrich and Kyle Busch for use as a jumping-off point to make grand speeches about living life to the fullest. You don’t need me for that. The messaging is best delivered by the men themselves, with their words and with their actions.I met Howard on Jan. 2 in Milwaukee. We were both there to write about the United States Olympic Speed Skating Trials, a sport we’d both be covering a month later at the Winter Games in Milan. I don’t remember exactly when or how we met. It was more a case of us just sitting near each other and talking, with the talk advancing from where-are-you-from to the kind of back-and-forth stuff you might hear from two old golf buddies.