Brad Keselowski had no idea that a plane ride to Dover would be the last time he ever talked to Kyle Busch off a racetrack. And when he thinks back on it now, a detail that barely registered at the time refuses to leave him alone.

“I was flying to Dover last week with Kyle,” Keselowski told PEOPLE on May 25, four days after Busch’s death. “It was probably more by chance than anything else. Kyle is normally a fairly gregarious person, very outgoing. And he wasn’t. He sat down one row behind me and next to me and fell asleep right away. And I could tell he wasn’t feeling well.”

He admitted he didn’t think much of it at the time – a part that stings. Moreover, what makes that moment harder to sit with is where Keselowski thought their relationship was ultimately going.

He was candid about a vision he’d carried privately for years. “I guess I had visions before his death of — actually, I thought about this multiple times: What’s it going to be like when we’re both in the Hall of Fame and we’re doing some kind of ceremony together, whatever that might be? Will the hatchet be buried? I think so. And will we actually be able to share a laugh about it? I guess in my mind, I hope so, and now obviously not.”

“The hard part is the closure was supposed to be when we were retired and when we were done racing together,” he added. “And I don’t think that’s just for me, by the way. I think that’s for a lot of people. And to not get that is tough.”

To understand why that closure mattered so much to Keselowski, you have to understand what Kyle Busch actually was to him. The two had a feud that had roots that went back to 2010 at Bristol, when Busch wrecked Keselowski in the Xfinity Series race.

The very next day, during Cup Series driver introductions, Keselowski grabbed the mic and said plainly, in front of over 150,000 fans: “Brad Keselowski, driver of the Penske Racing Dodge. Kyle Busch is an a–.” The crowd registered 104.2 decibels on the roar meter. Busch, for his part, played it cool — “Who? I don’t know who you’re talking about” — and then went out and won the race.

Things escalated from there, as they traded shots in the media across an entire decade. Busch’s most concise summation of it was simply: “Sometimes you just don’t like a guy.”

But what Keselowski described to PEOPLE was something far more layered, more like a measuring stick that ran in both directions.

“For whatever reason, Kyle and I had built into a relationship where although there’s 30-some other drivers on the racetrack, I valued meeting him more than anyone else,” he said. “A fifth-place day where Kyle Busch finished fourth didn’t feel like a good day. And conversely, a 10th-place day where I beat Kyle Busch felt like a better day. That’s what a rivalry is at its core and that’s how I felt about it.”

Over time, as both men moved into their 40s, the sharp edges did start to soften. They both became veteran champions, both became team owners, and the garage’s pecking order shifted around them. The tension, as Keselowski noted, had been thawing. They were still on opposite sides, but no longer rivals.

That said, Keselowski did see Busch again, just two days later at the All-Star event in Dover. Busch finished 17th, Keselowski 10th. This came after Busch won the pole at Atlanta in Truck, then won both stages, and led a total of 147 laps to stamp his 69th Truck Series win. Nobody watching the race, including Keselowski, knew that this was the final time they would see Kyle Busch win.

Then, on May 20, Busch collapsed during a Chevrolet simulator session in North Carolina. He was suffering from shortness of breath, high fever, and coughing up blood. He died on May 21 at the age of 41, after severe pneumonia rapidly turned to sepsis. There had been signs for this. Earlier in May at Watkins Glen, Busch reportedly radioed his team asking for a doctor.

Busch’s death was announced at a Charlotte-area hospital. Now Keselowski is left going back to that plane ride.

“And that was pretty much the last time I saw him,” he admitted.

NASCAR Now Has to Rebuild Around Kyle Busch’s Absence

Kyle Busch was not just a driver. He was the center of Kyle Busch Companies, which controls his sponsorships, merchandise, licensing, and branding. His untimely death throws over active business agreements during NASCAR’s biggest Memorial Day sales weekend.

The impact can be seen mostly at Spire Motorsports. Back in 2023, Spire bought the physical assets of Kyle Busch Motorsports for an estimated value of $15 to $25 million.

A part of that investment also depended on Busch continuing to race some Truck Series events in their No. 7 Chevrolet truck with a HendrickCars.com sponsorship attached in his name.

Now the team is left grabbing replacement drivers. Corey Day filled in at Charlotte after Busch was hospitalized. He then crashed on lap 47 and finished 35th. Raja Caruth has now been assigned that truck for future races.

These may just be results, but they also happen to have financial consequences. Owner points decide the year-end payout in NASCAR, and Busch’s Dover win had Spire in position for a strong one. Now one bad finish can be very costly for the team.