- Comcast has named Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle the first co-winners of its Community Champion of the Year Award, per Motorsport.com.
- The company will give $120,000 in total, split between the Bundle of Joy Fund that Kyle and Samantha Busch founded and the Biffle Family Legacy Impact Fund.
- Busch died this year at age 41 and Biffle died in a plane crash in December 2025, and Comcast honors both men for service away from the race track.
Two Losses, One Shared Honor for Work Beyond the Racetrack
Samantha Busch has spent the months after her husband’s death hearing stories about him that she never knew. NASCAR held Kyle Busch’s Celebration of Life at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 9, a free event open to the public, and Samantha gave the closing speech after remarks from Kurt Busch, Joe Gibbs and Austin Dillon. She told the crowd she had heard “so many stories I never knew of.” They were “Not about racing, but about the people he quietly helped, made laugh, or took time for.”
Less than three weeks later, a national award has recognized that side of Busch. Comcast has named him and Greg Biffle the first co-winners of its Community Champion of the Year Award, an honor that had never before gone to two people.
Busch died this year at age 41, from pneumonia that progressed into sepsis. Biffle was one of seven people killed in a plane crash in December. The two losses came less than six months apart, and the award now ties the two men together through what they did away from the race track.
Two Funds, One Award
Comcast created the award in 2015, its first season as title sponsor of what was then the Xfinity Series, and it goes to an individual in NASCAR for community service work. Daniel Dye, Erik Jones, Ryan Vargas and Bubba Wallace are among the recent winners. This year, for the first time, the honor has two recipients.
Comcast will give $120,000 in total. Half of that, $60,000, benefits the Bundle of Joy Fund, which Kyle and Samantha Busch founded. The other $60,000 benefits the Biffle Family Legacy Impact Fund, which honors the commitment Greg and Cristina Biffle made to helping others.
Matt Lederer, Comcast’s vice president of brand partnerships and engagement, said “Kyle and Greg represented what this award stands for, using their platforms to make a difference well beyond the sport.” Both gifts go to a cause that began inside a family. One grew out of a couple’s own struggle and the other carries a couple’s name.
The Fund Built From Heartbreak
Kyle and Samantha Busch created the Bundle of Joy Fund after their own struggles with infertility. The fund supports families facing similar challenges and raises awareness around infertility. Its totals: more than $2.5 million in fertility grants to nearly 200 families, helping welcome 114 babies.
The couple’s story started long before the fund. In her speech, Samantha described Kyle as the young racer who took her around Indianapolis Motor Speedway when she was just 21 years old, and “little did we know, it’d be the ride of our lifetime.” She said she fell in love with him 20 years ago. For two decades, racing was their home. “It’s where Kyle and I fell in love, where we raised our kids, and where we made some of our favorite memories.” Those kids are Brexton, 11, and Lennix, four.
Samantha listed the versions of Kyle she had known: the fierce competitor who threw the children high in the air, Rowdy, who loved his fans, and the dad who found joy in his children. She also named “The team owner who gave others a chance.” That line fits a theme of her speech. Kyle believed in earning opportunities through hard work, she said, and “if you can help someone else achieve their dream, then that’s what you did.” No task was beneath him either, she said, and the people at KBM could tell you how often they reminded him that even he cleans the bathrooms.
The Racer Who Flew Supplies Into Western North Carolina
Greg Biffle’s community work took a different shape. After Hurricane Helene struck in 2024, he spent two straight weeks using his personal helicopter to reach stranded residents and support rescue efforts, work that brought him national attention. Biffle was a registered pilot, and he used that helicopter to carry supplies to Western North Carolina.
NASCAR spoke about that work in its statement after his death. It said Biffle spent “countless hours of his time helping the citizens of North Carolina” after the hurricane. Then came a short sentence: “His tireless work saved lives.” His philanthropy also centered on animal welfare through the Greg Biffle Foundation.
In the five years before his death, Biffle had become close friends with Garrett Mitchell, the YouTuber known as Cleetus McFarland. They bonded over natural disaster relief efforts.
Biffle died on December 18, 2025, in a plane crash at Statesville Regional Airport, north of Charlotte, North Carolina. His wife Cristina, his daughter Emma and his son Ryder died with him, along with three others: Craig Wadsworth and Dennis and Jack Dutton. In a joint statement, the Biffle, Grossu, Dutton and Lunders families described Greg and Cristina as “devoted parents and active philanthropists.” They called Ryder “an active, curious and infinitely joyful child.”
His dedication to service continues through the Biffle Family Legacy Impact Fund, which works in partnership with Foundation For The Carolinas to support communities and causes in need.
Two Careers, One Measure Beyond the Win Column
The racing records are long. Busch is a two-time Cup Series champion who won a record 234 races across the three national series. No driver has won more in the history of the O’Reilly and Truck series. Biffle won the 2002 Busch Series championship and the 2000 Craftsman Truck Series title, and he collected 19 victories at the Cup level. NASCAR named him one of its 75 greatest drivers in 2023, and he spent his entire full-time career with Roush Racing, now known as RFK Racing.
NASCAR’s statement on Biffle went past the numbers. “Greg was more than a champion driver, he was a beloved member of the NASCAR community, a fierce competitor, and a friend to so many.”
Samantha Busch made a similar case for her husband, and she started with the hard years. The last few years on the track were not easy for Kyle, she said, and “the wins weren’t coming like they used to.” For a man who had spent his life chasing victories, that was difficult. At home, she saw something else. “Kyle was happy, really happy.”
She described what she sees when she thinks of the family at its happiest. It is late, and everyone is exhausted. Lennix is covered in dirt and running around the trailer, toys are scattered everywhere, the dogs are barking, and Brexton and his friends are strewn about. The family eats dinner at an hour when no four-year-old should be awake. Kyle sits in the middle of it with a pencil in one hand and his phone in the other, watching footage from the last race and talking with his team about what to change. In her words, “he’s completely and utterly happy.”
Some of her favorite memories of Kyle, she said, come from “the little grassroot tracks.” He loved coaching Brexton, dissecting every lap and teaching him to work on his car, and “I know I have never seen him more proud than when Brexton won the Tulsa Shootout.” Her message to the crowd was direct: “Don’t mistake the last chapter of Kyle’s racing career for an unhappy chapter of his life. It wasn’t. In so many ways, it was his happiest.”
After the speech, Brexton drove his father’s Cup car out from behind the stage, did burnouts on the track and climbed on top of the car to copy his father’s signature race-winning bow.
What Outlasts the Record Book
Samantha Busch told the crowd at Charlotte that she wants to honor more than the numbers in a record book. She hopes Lennix one day hears stories about how her daddy made someone laugh, and that Brexton hears about a driver his dad helped, who then went on to help another driver. “That’s a legacy that no checkered flag can contain.”
The Comcast money adds to work that began before either man died. The Bundle of Joy Fund has helped welcome 114 babies, and Biffle spent two straight weeks using his own helicopter to reach stranded residents after Helene. Samantha promised to spend the rest of her life “carrying forward everything Kyle built and believed in” through her children and the opportunities the family gives others. Her speech closed with a line to her husband: “We love you, Kyle, so much, and we will race on.”
