CONCORD, N.C. — Two hundred thirty-four wins across NASCAR’s three national series, a record. Sixty-three wins in NASCAR’s premier Cup Series, ninth-best all-time. Nineteen consecutive seasons with a win, also a NASCAR record. The only driver to complete a sweep of all three national series races across a weekend, and he happened to do it twice. Plus, two Cup championships.Gaudy statistics that firmly cement Kyle Busch’s place as one of NASCAR’s all-time greats, his name forever cemented in the record book.“My kids asked, ‘How good was Kyle Busch?’ I was like, ‘You don’t understand,’” said Kyle Larson, 2021 and 2025 Cup champion. “He dominated for almost two decades. Two hundred thirty-four national series wins, and that doesn’t even count all the short track wins and stuff he had throughout that time frame — it’s unbelievable. But if you go back and think about those numbers, that’s a crazy, crazy amount in a short, very short period of time.”Busch, 41, died unexpectedly Thursday after suffering from severe pneumonia that progressed into sepsis, “resulting in rapid and overwhelming associated complications,” his family said Saturday in a statement.What Busch accomplished on the racetrack goes beyond the numbers. To watch him drive was to watch someone do something at the very highest level. If he was on the track, it was hard not to watch him, as he produced innumerable eye-popping moments that left spectators wondering how he did that.“This sport is a badass sport. Kyle Busch is an American badass,” NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said. “Behind the wheel, who you want to be, and when you look back at all those things, that’s part of being a race car driver.”What exactly, though, made Busch such an extraordinary driver? What made him someone his peers revered or, as three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin said, NASCAR’s version of Kobe Bryant?First, there is no denying that Busch had an inordinate amount of talent. Whether it was a natural gift or it was honed at the foot of his father, a former championship-winning driver at the grassroots level whose hard-nosed approach turned Kyle and his older brother Kurt into NASCAR champions, is a question with no definitive answer.“(Busch) was just far more skilled than 99.9 percent of the people that did it, and I don’t know how he did some of the stuff that he did behind the wheel, said Hamlin, a teammate of Busch’s for 15 years at Joe Gibbs Racing. “(I) got beat by him more times than I beat him.“I don’t know. He was exceptional in what he did. I don’t know what that is. I think he had a really good upbringing and had his brother to kind of push off of. That probably was super helpful. He got to race all kinds of different cars when he was younger, starting at a very young age, but there’s still that ‘it’ factor that can’t be learned, and that’s what set (the Busch brothers) apart from everyone else.”JGR signed Busch in 2008, joining Hamlin and Tony Stewart to comprise JGR’s three-car team. Back then, it was common practice for organizations to have their drivers swap cars during testing and share feedback about the vehicles’ performance. (After Busch drove for JGR from 2008 to 2022, he moved to Richard Childress Racing in 2023.)It wasn’t long before Hamlin recognized Busch was a class above. Adding to the sting was that Busch was driving the same equipment. Busch won eight races in his first season with JGR; Hamlin and Stewart each had a single win.“When he came over and obviously set the world on fire, it certainly was eye-opening to me,” Hamlin said. “To see kind of how in-depth he was with the race cars — quite a bit different style than myself, personally. But that was just kind of how he grew up, being super hands-on with the cars, and he was very in tune with wanting to be involved with setups and things like that — strategy. I was just a feedback kind of person.“It just was such an important part of my development process to have a teammate like him, that was good at stuff like this, that I could learn from.”While there is no denying Busch’s raw talent — he possessed more than just about anyone — there is more to his greatness. Having talent means nothing without a work ethic. And Busch checked this box, as both Larson and Ryan Blaney, the 2023 Cup champion, quickly noted when asked what made Busch exceptional.This work ethic manifested itself in Busch pushing himself, his car and his team as hard as possible all the time, sometimes to a fault, but also setting a high standard of excellence he also held himself to. JGR driver Ty Gibbs remembers his dad pointing at Busch as an example of a driver who never quits.“(Busch) would just hammer down every lap, fight all the way every lap,” Gibbs said. “I remember in 2019 Erik Jones won the Southern 500 and (Busch) was behind him, and I remember how he fought to the end and then stuffed it in the fence (on the last lap) going for it. My dad would talk about how much he appreciated that. He would just hammer down to the end, and that’s what shows a lot of his character.”As Gibbs lauded his former teammate, he began rattling off moments that showcased Busch’s renowned tenacity. Like when, despite having a broken shifter and his car being stuck in fourth gear, Busch still won a race at Pocono in 2021. Or how, still recovering from career-threatening leg injuries in 2015, Busch effectively willed himself to a win on the demanding Sonoma road course.His ability to push aside setbacks that would’ve hindered most other drivers left even his rivals impressed.“Obviously, he had a ridiculous amount of God-given talent,” said Joey Logano, a three-time Cup champion. “… He was the youngest coming in right before me, so I watched everything he did and tried to learn from it, so he had a ton of talent. But he had a ridiculous amount of grit, which was probably what made him one of the greatest, is that he was fiery. He had the will to win and he was going to push and do whatever he could do to make that happen. You saw plenty of moves on the racetrack. He was very intelligent and very smart about the race car.”Another trait commonly associated with Busch was a keen understanding of all that goes into building a team, from the car to the people working on it to anything and everything that can be the difference between winning and losing.When William Byron drove for the truck team Busch owned, Kyle Busch Motorsports, he saw firsthand what separated Busch from other drivers. What Byron, who went on to win two Daytona 500s, took away was how much attention Busch devoted to even the smallest details. He continually refined his craft, finding little ways to gain the slightest advantage.“His feedback was incredible,” said Byron, who drove just a single season for KBM. “He felt every little detail; nothing was going to get past him. He just recorded all that up here (pointing toward his head), and he just had an encyclopedia of knowledge.”Then there was Busch’s feel for the car, what it needed to go fast and just how far he could push it. And it was this ability that often manifested in the kind of on-track moments that left people gobsmacked.“He was one of the smartest racers I think I’ve ever seen, like not only how he drove and driving style, but like understanding what he needed to go faster in the car, and communication with his crew chief and stuff like that,” Blaney said. “(He) just could do things that made you feel inadequate and make you feel talentless because you see him do these things, and it’s like, ‘I don’t know how he does it. I really don’t understand it.’ And it was just normal to him that he could do it.“Pretty fortunate to just be a part of his time in the sport. Like, you want to compete against the people who you think are the greatest ever, and he is one of the greatest ever, and (I) think we’re all pretty lucky to be able to witness Kyle Busch, like talent that he had behind the wheel.”Well before the events of the past week, Busch’s legacy was secure. His resume is such that he’ll surely be a first-ballot inductee into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He was someone even his rivals respected for what he could do behind the wheel.The standard everyone measured themselves against.“O’Donnell probably said it the best: He was an American badass,” Logano said. “When you think race car driver and what that person would be like, Kyle Busch is probably one of the first that comes to your mind on the type of racer he was.”