The racing community is continuing to come up with innovative ways to honor the late two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch.
On Aug. 21, the historic Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina will host the first Kyle Busch Invitational – a night featuring races with Legends cars and Bandoleros. All proceeds from the event will benefit The Samantha and Kyle Busch Bundle of Joy Fund, a non-profit started by the family to help couples struggling with infertility.
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In a post on Instagram, Samantha Busch explained what an event like this means to her family.
“Some of Kyle’s happiest moments weren’t just on Sundays. They were spent at local tracks with Brexton, helping young drivers, talking racing with fans and investing in the next generation of our sport,” Samantha wrote. “Kyle truly believed grassroots racing was the heart of NASCAR and bringing a Legend car race to Bowman Gray was something we talked about often because he knew how special that place is to drivers and fans alike.”
She continued: “Seeing one of Kyle’s dreams live on through this event means so much to our family. I’m so incredibly grateful to Ben Kennedy and everyone who helped make this dream a reality. I know this night will celebrate everything Kyle loved … I can’t think of a more fitting way to honor him.”
Kyle Busch died on May 21 at the age of 41 due to hemorrhagic shock and disseminated intravascular coagulation, complications arising from sepsis caused by presumed bacterial pneumonia, which he had been dealing with for “days to weeks,” according to his death certificate. Drivers have continued to honor and pay homage to him throughout this season.
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Undoubtedly a future first-ballot NASCAR Hall of Famer, Busch is the sport’s all-time winningest driver with 234 combined victories across its top three national touring series. He also owns the Cup Series record for most consecutive seasons with at least one win, taking checkered flags at the top level from 2005 through 2023.
NASCAR announced last week that it will host a Celebration of Life for Busch on Oct. 9 at Charlotte Motor Speedway after the Truck Series race. The service will be free to the public.
Busch’s 11-year-old son Brexton is following in his tracks and is racing Legend cars this summer at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Legend cars are designed to replicate old-style cars from the 1930s on a five-eighths scale, running on Yamaha motorcycle engines. Their speeds top out between 115 and 140 miles per hour. Legend cars are one of the many series that winds up producing drivers who go on to NASCAR. Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace and Dale Earnhardt Jr. all started out in Legends. And so did Busch, out in Las Vegas.
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Bandoleros are miniature stockcars with go-kart-like mechanics. They can reach up 70 miles per hour, but they don’t accelerate quickly and do not feature manual gear shifting. NASCAR drivers such as Logano, Blaney, Wallace and Chris Buescher raced in them at younger ages.
Feb 1, 2025; WInston-Salem, North Carolina, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Noah Gragson (4) and NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Busch (8) wreck during the heat races for the Clash at Bowman Gray at Bowman Gray Stadium.
Nearly 90 years old, Bowman Gray Stadium first opened in 1938 and hosted a college football game between Wake Forest and Duke that year. To this day, it’s still the home for Division II Winston-Salem State’s football team. Around the football field is a bullring asphalt track that hosted its first NASCAR race in 1958.
Beginning in 2019, the stadium underwent renovations totaling about $9 million. Upgrades included updating bathrooms, resurfacing the track, and installing a new lighting system, catch fences and a SAFER barrier. In March of 2024, NASCAR acquired the lease to the track and began managing racing at the stadium – a deal that runs through 2050.
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In 2025, NASCAR brought its preseason Clash event there, bringing the top-level Cup Series back to Bowman Gray for the first time since 1971. The Clash was also held at Bowman Gray this season. Elliott and Ryan Preece have won those races.
The quarter-mile track sits about 17,000 people and is nicknamed “the Madhouse” for its close-quarters, scramble-style of racing where collisions are unavoidable.
The Kyle Busch Invitational will feature up to 51 Legend cars and 18 additional Bandoleros.
“The Legend Car played an important role in Kyle’s development on his path to becoming one of the greatest race car drivers of his generation,” said G.E. Chapman, vice president of U.S. Legend Cars International and the INEX Racing Series. “To celebrate Kyle’s life and legacy … is a tremendous honor. We’re proud to be part of an event that celebrates both his accomplishments in motorsports and the lasting difference he continues to make off the race track.”
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Races at the Kyle Busch Invitational will be broadcast live on FloSports and the NASCAR Channel.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kyle Busch Invitational at Bowman Gray Stadium will ‘celebrate everything Kyle loved’
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