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Donovan Strauss Unveils Kyle Busch Tribute Scheme For CARS Tour Race At Langley Speedway

May 28, 2026  ·
  John Trent

CARS Tour competitor Donovan Strauss unveiled a Kyle Busch tribute scheme for the upcoming CARS Tour race at Langley Speedway on Saturday, May 30th.

Strauss initially teased the scheme writing, “Really thrilled and privileged to share something super special with everyone later today. Something I’ll never forget.”

He then shared the scheme writing, “Honoring KB. Proud to bring the 51 back this weekend with the CARS Tour at Langley Speedway, with this iconic blue and orange.”

“This means everything,” he added. “Kyle’s had a major impact on my childhood and my life in general and I plan on honoring his legacy going forward in my career.”

In a post to Facebook, Strauss added, “Thank you everyone for letting me do this, specifically the CARS Tour and FloRacing. I want to honor Kyle’s legacy the rest of my career whether that’s 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years. Without him when I was a little kid, I don’t know if I’d love what I do as much as I do.”

The scheme is an homage to Busch’s 2009 Snowball Derby winning car.

He would also use the scheme on a dirt late model at the Battle at the Grove in 2009 at Williams Grove Speedway. Busch finished second behind Jason Covert after he was passed a little over halfway in the 25-lap charity race.

After Busch’s death, Strauss shared on Facebook how much he meant to him, “Kyle was my childhood hero. I fell in love with this sport and on a week to week basis he was the guy little 7 year old me would spending Friday nights, Saturday and Sunday afternoons cheering for, instead of playing outside with the other kids.”

“Sometimes I’d even fake being sick if there was a Monday race so I didn’t have to go to school,” he added. “I believe it was because he didn’t care that he was liked, he was always raw and himself and that’s why I had a passion for him. His determination to win is what inspired me.”

“Today our community lost a legacy, and I definitely lost a big piece of my childhood. It will never be the same, prayers go to the Busch family,” he concluded.

Following Busch’s death, Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared that Busch was going to compete in a JR. Motorsports prepared car with the series at North Wilkesboro on July 17th. He wrote in a post to social media, “Most recently we had even been discussing him running my Late Model at Wilkesboro this summer. He seemed extremely happy and we had planned to meet up next Thursday to get his seat to the shop. He laughed over the idea of his fans and JRM fans having to cheer in unison during that race.”

Junior concluded, “Kyle was one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. No one can deny that. But he was also a father, a husband, brother, son, and a friend to many. My heart is broken for the Busch family. I will never be able to make sense of this loss but I am thankful that we had found a way to become friends.”

Junior shared more details in this week’s episode of the Dale Jr. Download, “I was texting with him the day before he passed about getting together this Thursday to bring his seat for his late model over to my shop because we had agreed he was going to race our car in the CARS Tour. He was going to race my late model in the CARS Tour. He’s texting me and he’s like, ‘What scheme we going to run?’ I was like, ‘You can run any scheme you want.’ I was like, ‘What number do you want to run?’ I was like, ‘We can run 51. Whatever you want to run.’ And he goes, ‘I want to run the-‘ And he said it literally, ‘The Dale Jr. 8.’ And I was like, ‘You got it. That’s what’s on it right now. We’ll run the Dale Jr. 8.’ And he give me a head explosion emoji and he said, ‘Race fans.'”

NEXT: Connor Hall Returns To CARS Tour As Series Makes Stop At His Home Track Of Langley

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Author: John Trent