The entire NASCAR garage is grieving following the sudden loss of Kyle Busch, with tributes continuing to pour in from every corner of the sport. “Every race that he was in was more exciting to watch than the ones that he wasn’t,” Denny Hamlin admitted this weekend, perfectly capturing the void Busch leaves behind. Chase Elliott is now confronted with a poignant query that is closely related to NASCAR history. He might emulate his father, Bill Elliott, by paying tribute to Busch’s legacy in a profoundly symbolic manner.

Chase Elliott ready to follow father’s footsteps

“I really haven’t processed all of that, I guess, to get to that point. But I would certainly be in favor of him winning and whatever it took. Yeah, I think it would be really deserving for him to have that honor.”

That was Chase Elliott responding to a deeply emotional question from NASCAR journalist Steve Taranto this weekend: whether he had considered stepping aside from the Most Popular Driver Award voting so that Kyle Busch could receive the honor posthumously.

The question itself has a great deal of historical significance. Bill Elliott willingly withdrew his name from the Most Popular Driver ballot after Dale Earnhardt passed away during the 2001 Daytona 500. Bill had already won the prize several times and was the sport’s dominant fan favorite at the time. His decision inspired NASCAR fans to support Earnhardt, who later that season was given the accolade posthumously.

Twenty-five years later, Chase Elliott is in a startlingly identical situation. After winning the 2025 fan poll, the younger Elliott continued his eight-year run as the NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver. He has become the modern face of NASCAR fandom due to his popularity, and the Elliott family is now practically associated with the honor. With 16 career Most Popular Driver honors, Bill Elliott continues to retain the record.

But Kyle Busch’s passing has clearly shifted the emotional landscape surrounding this year’s voting. Busch had one of the biggest and most devoted fan groups in the sport, while frequently being one of the most divisive personalities in the garage. This week, drivers frequently admitted that Busch was received with both applause and jeers because spectators always felt something when he raced.

And now, Chase Elliott is prepared to maybe make the same sacrifice his father did in order to guarantee that Kyle Busch gets one last accolade from the NASCAR world.

NASCAR world remembers Kyle Busch

This weekend, the sorrow surrounding Kyle Busch has extended well beyond the NASCAR garage. Deeply personal memories of the two-time Cup Series winner are being shared by drivers from many disciplines and eras. For Kyle Kirkwood, the connection goes all the way back to childhood.

Kirkwood recalled attending one of his first professional racing events as a seven-year-old kid, where he asked Busch for an autograph on a hat that he still keeps today among his racing memorabilia.

“That was like one of the first moments that I got around professional cars,” Kirkwood said Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “In a way, he turned me on to motor racing and wanting to move forward from karting.”

Meanwhile, seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson praised Busch’s unmatched technical understanding of race cars.

“The bravery, just natural skill, and then being able to tie that all back to the engineering process and communicating what he’s feeling, and expanding on that, and understanding cars, and the build [of the cars],” Johnson said. “Technically, in [knowing] the build of a car, he’s one of the best.”

Even longtime rival Brad Keselowski admitted Busch’s loss had shaken the entire garage.

“Kyle and I were not friends, we were rivals, but the NASCAR racing community is still a brotherhood,” Keselowski said before adding, “The race is going to go on this weekend but the sport is never going to be the same without Kyle.”

Carson Hocevar echoed similar emotions while reflecting on their brief time together at Spire Motorsports.

“Whether he disliked me or not on Sundays, when it came to … at Spire, we were teammates,” Hocevar said. “That said a lot about him.”

And perhaps one of the most emotional tributes came from Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“Kyle and I had a really challenging existence for many years. But we luckily took the time to figure out our differences and that was something he instigated with a conversation in his bus around how we each managed our racing teams. I was super eager for us to get on better terms. But it was he who made the effort for that to be possible. I will never be able to make sense of this loss but I am thankful that we had found a way to become friends,” Earnhardt Jr. said.

In many ways, that sentiment perfectly captures Kyle Busch’s legacy. He was fiercely competitive, deeply respected, and just impossible to ignore.