CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR driver Kyle Busch experienced shortness of breath, felt he was overheating and was coughing up blood the day before his death, according to a 911 call obtained Friday by The Associated Press.
Busch died Thursday at age 41. No cause of death has been given, though his family said earlier he had been hospitalized with a “severe illness” three days before he was to compete in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
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FILE - Kyle Busch is introduced during the NASCAR All-Star auto race at Dover Motor Speedway, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Dover, Del. (AP Photo/Derik Hamilton, File, File)
The number '8' is displayed at the top of the scoring tower inside Charlotte Motor Speedway in honor of the late driver Kyle Busch, Friday, May 22, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
An in memoriam photo of former driver Kyle Busch is displayed on the video board of the backstretch at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Friday, May 22, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
A flag is raised in honor of the late driver Kyle Busch outside of Charlotte Motor Speedway, Friday, May 22, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
Busch was testing in the Chevrolet racing simulator in Concord on Wednesday when he became unresponsive and was transported to a hospital in Charlotte, several people familiar with the situation told the AP.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity because details have not been disclosed by Busch’s team or family.
During the emergency call placed late that afternoon from the General Motors training facility, an unidentified caller calmly told the dispatch: “I’ve got an individual that’s (got) shortness of breath, very hot, thinks he’s going to pass out, and is producing a little bit of blood, coughing up some blood.”
Busch was lying on the bathroom floor inside the complex and the caller told dispatch “He is awake," according to audio provided by the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office.
The man then gave directions on where emergency responders should go and asked that they turn off any sirens upon arrival.
NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell is scheduled to speak at a news conference later Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The news of Busch's death sent shockwaves across the motorsports world on one of racing's biggest weekends, which also features the Indianapolis 500.
The NHL's Carolina Hurricanes honored Busch with a moment of silence on Thursday night prior to their conference final game against the Montreal Canadiens.
Even Vice President JD Vance took to social media, saying “I had the opportunity to meet Kyle, one of NASCAR’s greatest racers, on the campaign trail in 2024. Usha and I are praying for him and his family. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.”
Richard Childress Racing, who Busch has raced for the last four seasons, announced it plans to suspend use of Busch's No. 8 Cup Series car and will run the No. 33 instead beginning on Sunday at the Coca-Cola 600 and moving forward.
RCR said the No. 8 will now be reserved for Busch's son, Brexton, to use when is he ready begin NASCAR racing.
Brexton Busch is 11 years old, but is already known for his racing exploits.
“Kyle Busch was instrumental in the design of RCR's stylized No. 8 and it has become synonymous with Kyle and an important symbol for fans and the NASCAR community,” RCR said on X. “No one can carry it forward to the level that he did.”
Meanwhile, gloomy, gray skies hung over the track on an unseasonably cool day in Concord, which seemed a fitting background for the in memoriam photo of Busch on the videoboard.
Christopher Bell is among the drivers planning to run in the NASCAR Trucks Series race on Friday night, one that Busch had been scheduled to compete in.
Busch won last week's Trucks race at Dover — the final win of his career — giving him 234 victories across NASCAR's three national series, the most of any driver.
He finished 17th in the All-Star race on Sunday.
“It's going to be very strange to be out there without Kyle in the field,” Bell said. “It's going to take a long time before things feel back to normal.”
Bell called Busch's death a “gutwrenching feeling."
He said he spoke to Busch prior to the last Trucks Series race and said he seemed “normal, like completely normal.”
On Monday, Busch posted a happy birthday message to his son Brexton on Instagram saying “Your mom & I are so proud who you’re turning out to be!”
The father and son spent Tuesday night in Durham, North Carolina, with the Andretti family at the opening of a go-kart facility.
“I guess it is a very stark reminder of how fragile life can be,” Bell said.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
FILE - Kyle Busch is introduced during the NASCAR All-Star auto race at Dover Motor Speedway, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Dover, Del. (AP Photo/Derik Hamilton, File, File)
The number '8' is displayed at the top of the scoring tower inside Charlotte Motor Speedway in honor of the late driver Kyle Busch, Friday, May 22, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
An in memoriam photo of former driver Kyle Busch is displayed on the video board of the backstretch at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Friday, May 22, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
A flag is raised in honor of the late driver Kyle Busch outside of Charlotte Motor Speedway, Friday, May 22, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
BUNIA, Congo (AP) — Authorities in northeastern Congo banned funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people Friday in an effort to curb a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak in a region where medical workers have struggled with a lack of resources and pushback from angry residents.
The World Health Organization said that the outbreak now poses a “very high" risk for Congo — up from a previous categorization of “high” — but that the risk of the disease spreading globally remains low.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 82 cases and seven deaths have been confirmed in Congo, but that the outbreak is believed to be “much larger."
There is no available vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus, which spread undetected for weeks in Congo's Ituri Province following the first known death while authorities tested for another, more common, Ebola virus and came up negative. There are now 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths, though more are expected as surveillance expands.
“We are trying to catch up,” Congo Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner told the AP. “It is a race against the clock."
Supplies were being rushed to Ituri in the northeastern corner of the country, where nearly a million people have been displaced by armed conflicts over mineral resources. Ramping up contact tracing is a priority, Kayikwamba Wagner said.
In the provincial capital of Bunia, AP reporters saw empty emergency treatment centers, and doctors in the nearby town of Bambu using expired medical masks while tending to suspected Ebola patients.
The provincial government said Friday it was temporarily banning wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people. It said funerals must be conducted in strict compliance with health protocols. The authorities also required journalists to obtain a permit to report on the outbreak, impeding their work.
The illness also has been reported in two Congolese provinces to the south of Ituri — North Kivu and South Kivu, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu, where the rebels reported two cases.
The group said Friday it was creating a crisis team to fight the outbreak.
Kayikwamba Wagner said having the illness in rebel-held areas was alarming because “M23 is, despite whatever ambitions they may have, thoroughly ill equipped" to fight the disease.
She said the Congo government and rebels were not communicating on the outbreak.
The efforts of health officials and aid groups have met with pushback from communities due to misinformation or situations where medical policy has clashed with local customs such as burial rites.
On Thursday, an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara was set on fire by youths who were angered when they were blocked from retrieving the body of a friend who apparently had died of Ebola, according to witnesses and police.
The dangerous work of burying suspected victims is being managed wherever possible by authorities, because the bodies can be highly contagious and lead to further spread when they are prepared for burial or when people gather for funerals.
Julienne Lusenge, president of Women’s Solidarity for Inclusive Peace and Development, a local aid group, said the population’s anger is mostly due to misinformation. “We have lived through years and years of conflict and hardship so rumors spread easily,” she said.
She said some churches have told their congregations the outbreak is fake and that divine protection makes medical care unnecessary.
In the Ituri province mining town of Mongbwalu where the outbreak is believed to have originated, Lokana Moro Faustin lost his 16-year-old daughter to the disease and bemoaned the fact that he was not able to give her a proper goodbye because of Ebola restrictions.
“At first, we thought it was malaria. But then came vomiting, a high fever, nosebleeds, and bloody diarrhea,” he said, grief-stricken.
The teenager died on May 15 and her body was taken from the hospital by specialized teams and taken directly to the cemetery for a secure burial. Faustin was not able to say goodbye because he was in self-isolation, and it pained him to have his daughter buried by people who were not family.
In Bunia, coffin workshop manager Christian Djakisa said demand has soared since the outbreak began. “We're here every hour making coffins,” he said.
The United Nations said Friday it released $60 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to accelerate the response in Congo and in the region.
The U.S. has pledged $23 million in funding to bolster the response in Congo and Uganda, and said it would also fund the establishment of up to 50 Ebola treatment clinics in the affected regions.
Lusenge said her group’s small hospital near in Bunia lacks basic protective equipment, exposing nurses and doctors to possible infection, she said. “We only have hand sanitizer and a few masks for the nurses, but we need much more than that," Lusenge said.
Both the WHO and Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believe the outbreak is larger than the cases reported so far.
The region’s already-weak health infrastructure and surveillance capacity has been further weakened by international aid cuts, experts say. The International Rescue Committee said it had to stop its surveillance activities in three out of five areas in Ituri over the last year because of funding cuts.
Armed conflict in the region further complicates efforts to handle the crisis. To get from Bunia to Mongbwalu, aid groups have to brace for potential attacks from armed groups.
“The outbreak can still be contained but the window for action is narrow,” Gabriela Arenas from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Friday.
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Pronczuk reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Constant Same Bagalwa in Bunia, Congo; Jean Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo; Mark Banchereau and Wilson McMakin in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
David Zaki, 19, makes a coffin at a carpentry shop in Bunia, Congo, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Djakisa Christian, 18, a funeral home manager, sits in front of coffins for sale at his shop in Bunia, Congo, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Charred hospital beds stand in smoldering Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday, May 21, 2026, after it was set fire by people angry at being stopped from retrieving a body, according to a witness and police. (AP Photo/Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne)
Flames and smoke rise from an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne)
Medical staff carry an Ebola patient to a treatment center in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
A person is wearing a protective face mask in front of the WHO logo, during the media regarding the epidemic of Ebola disease, during a press conference at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, May 22, 2026. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)
