Back in 2001, Tony Stewart became the first driver (and still the only one) to complete all 1,100 miles of both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, delivering one of the toughest performances motorsports has ever seen. Naturally, people pay attention whenever Stewart discusses who might successfully follow in his footsteps. And this week, his response carried an emotional weight that no one could have anticipated.

Kyle Busch was Tony Stewart’s pick

“Unfortunately, it’s the guy that we lost three days ago,” Stewart admitted on a Fox Sports broadcast.

“That was the number one guy on my list. I knew that Kyle Busch would one day want to have that opportunity to do both, and he had the talent to be competitive and put good efforts in both cars,” he added.

It was a gut-wrenching admission considering how cruelly Rowdy was taken away earlier this week. The sadder part is that Kyle Busch would almost certainly have taken on this challenge at some point in his career. Tony Stewart believes Busch not only could have attempted it, but actually succeeded at it.

Busch never competed in IndyCar or open-wheel racing during his career, but in NASCAR, he remains one of the most successful drivers in the sport’s history, with 234 wins across the Cup, Xfinity, and Truck Series to his name.

And the Coca-Cola 600 was already a part of Busch’s legacy. In 2018, while driving the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he won the longest and most physically demanding race in NASCAR. Busch also enjoyed plenty of success at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during his NASCAR career, winning the Brickyard 400 twice and even admitting that he came close to competing in the Indy 500 in 2017.

Cruelly, the motorsports community was robbed of the chance to ever see one of the GOATs attempt such a rare feat. But Stewart does believe Busch’s Truck Series teammate from this year, Carson Hocevar, could someday take a shot at it himself.

“I would love to do it,” Hocevar told Frontstretch recently about potentially attempting double duty in the future.

In recent years, it was Kyle Larson who attempted the Double, not just once, but twice, in 2024 and 2025. Sadly, he couldn’t complete it either time. Rain chaos in 2024 and crashes at both venues in 2025 saw to that. After two painful attempts, Larson admitted that he’ll likely never attempt a Double again.

This year, British driver Katherine Legge became the first female driver to ever attempt the Double. However, she crashed out of the Indy 500 on lap 18, during a tribute to Busch. And in the Coca-Cola 600, she finished 31st.

Daniel Suárez delivers emotional tribute after Charlotte victory

Sunday was a day filled with tributes to Rowdy. But perhaps the best of them all was seeing his close friend and protégé, Daniel Suárez, standing tall at the end of the Coca-Cola 600.

After rain cut the race short by 27 laps, the Spire Motorsports driver climbed out of his car, looked up at the sky, and dedicated the win to the man who welcomed him with open arms when he first arrived in the United States from Mexico and could barely understand English.

“Kyle, he was special. We won it for Kyle, for Samantha, for Brexton, for Lennix, for his family,” an emotional Suárez said after the race.

Suárez’s early NASCAR progress was greatly aided by Busch. He consistently helped Suarez behind the scenes, getting him familiar with the cars, tracks, and the overall culture.

During Suárez’s rise through the Xfinity Series, the two grew close, with Busch frequently providing advice on setups, racecraft, and specific tracks. He eventually went on to win the 2016 Xfinity Series Championship with the help of that guidance.