Naz Idoura, self-described racing enthusiast, was standing in line at Tuesday's opening of Andretti Karting in Durham. Idoura saw a familiar face zipping around on the track below him.
"And then I realized, oh wow, Kyle Busch. Oh, that's his son!" Idoura told WRAL.
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He approached the racing legend for a quick chat and a selfie.
"He looked well, everything seemed fine," Idoura said.
The next evening, 911 calls obtained by the Associated Press show Busch went to the hospital after coughing up blood. On Thursday, Busch died suddenly at the age of 41. No cause of death has been given. He was days away from competing in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
"I pull out my phone and look at my phone, and I see that Kyle Busch has passed, and I was just shocked," Idoura said. "It was just so much sadness and devastation, like I almost cried right in the store."
From fans to the front office, NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell said that empty feeling was everywhere in the sport at a press conference on Friday.
"I would say to the fans that I'm one of them, and I feel the exact same way that they probably do. Shock, sad, wondering what you can do to help out, but I think the best thing that I personally can do is talk to you all, talk to people who maybe didn't know about him, about his legacy," O'Donnell said.
O'Donnell said any conversations about postponing the Coca-Cola 600 were "minimal."
"Kyle Busch would probably be pretty pissed off if we didn't race, so we're going to honor his memory and make sure people know what he was all about."
Meanwhile, Richard Childress Racing will retire Busch's No. 8 car until his son, 11-year-old Brexton, is ready to take the wheel. Brexton has been racing in various forms since he was 5 years old.
It was that father-son relationship that stood out the most to Idoura in Durham on that Tuesday.
"I pointed to his son and said, 'Hey man, this kid is going to be a problem one day, he's good!'"
