LEBANON, Tenn. — Richard Childress Racing went through one of the toughest weeks in its history after Kyle Busch suddenly passed away at the age of 41, but the organization continues to move forward while taking lessons learned from the past.
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Tragedy occurs in life, far more than anyone would prefer. It's important how you respond and move forward to honor the lives of those who passed away.
"I go back to what my grandfather and Dale (Earnhardt) talked about before — the Great Horse Wreck is what my grandfather calls it — on their hunting trip," Austin Dillon said in his first public comments to media members.
"That they would go on, whether one of them passed away or not, that they would be there racing and putting their heart and soul into it. And I think Kyle Busch, his character would have wanted all of us to do what we could to get back to Victory Lane, and to work as hard as possible.
"And I mean, I knew what he cared about, and that was being here on Sunday, racing as hard as he could for his guys, and for himself, and for his family, and to try and create history in this sport."
Tragedy is nothing new for Richard Childress Racing. The team previously had to move forward in the wake of Dale Earnhardt's death in 2001. Yet, that situation was markedly different than the one in which the organization finds itself now.
Earnhardt had passed away after a crash in the Daytona 500. The team then had nearly a full week before heading to Rockingham for the first race without the seven-time champion. The team had some time to mourn.
Busch passed away at the hospital due to a severe medical issue mere hours after the team announced he had been hospitalized. It was also one day from the start of the race weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Instead of taking time to mourn, the team and its employees had to immediately head to NASCAR's home track for the longest and most grueling race on the schedule.
This created a truly difficult situation for everyone inside the organization, yet they pushed through.
"I'm really proud to be a part of RCR and proud of our employees, for doing what they can," Dillon said. "And it was obviously one of the toughest weeks of RCR's history, and being a part of it from my side for the first time and really being able to understand what everybody's going through, it was hard, and it's going to be hard, but the people that we have at RCR are the ones that I would want to go through this with."
Dillon did not make public comments in the days following Busch's sudden passing, but he wrote a letter to his late teammate saying that he would always be there for his wife and children.
He also took part in a company-wide meeting in Welcome, North Carolina. He joined team president Mike Verlander as they spoke to hundreds of employees, some of whom Dillon said had worked there when Earnhardt passed away.
His message was straightforward. The team needed to go out and take care of business for Busch.
"We have a great opportunity to do that here at RCR, is to go back out there and make him proud," Dillon added. "And so that was the big speech this week for me, is just ride for the brand, man. Like, I think Kyle rode for the brand, and my grandfather made a shirt about that for RCR.
"It's a Red Steagall song — or poem — that he talks about riding for the brand, and I played that for our whole entire company, and said, 'Kyle, he rode for the brand, and now it's our time to go do that.' So I think we all really want to go out there and run well for him, and for my grandfather, and for all the RCR fans out there."
