Kyle Busch rebounds - twice - from adversity for strong Charlotte finish

Unlike the others, however, Busch was able to successfully rebound from them – twice.

Busch was running fourth on Lap 89 of 334 when his right-front began go do down and he was forced to make a green-flag pit stop for a replacement and repairs.

As I was going down the front straightaway, I just heard tire chunks being thrown off the tire, and it was hitting the inner fender wall, so instantly I just checked up because you don't normally ever hear those sorts of things,” Busch said.

“I just checked up and tried to ease it back and get to pit road as best I could … and just be on the safe side of it instead of continuing on and blowing a tire or something.”

Damage in restart pileup

Busch fell a lap down in the process but ultimately was able to earn a free pass and returned to the lead lap.

Late in the race, on a restart on Lap 259, Martin Truex Jr. ran into the back of Austin Dillon, an incident that triggered a 12-car pileup. In the process, Busch slammed into the back of Chase Elliott’s No. 24 Chevrolet.

Again, Busch took his No. 18 Toyota to pit road for repairs and the quick work by his Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew allowed him to remain on the lead lap and competitive.

He still managed to finish sixth – third-highest among the 12 drivers vying for the championship, which puts him in a strong position to advance with races at Kansas and Talladega, Ala., remaining in this round.

Taking it slow 

After the restart incident, Busch said he didn’t think he still had a chance to lead the race but needed to test the limits of what was still possible.

“You don't just want to go barreling off in (the corners) and not know exactly what it's going to feel like and crash it,” he said. “So I took about five, 10, 15 laps, whatever it was, to feel it out, see what everything was feeling like, making sure it was kind of normal, and then just go back at it and work hard to try to pass those guys that were in front of me.

“If something happened to give me the opportunity to get the lead, then certainly we’d have it, but I didn’t think there was going to be anything that was going to play that way.”

Busch said the points margin over his competition he was able to build up Sunday was important but he was keeping a cautious outlook.

“That margin can go away in a hurry. We can have a flat tire next week and not catch it and put ourselves in the wall and not be able to come back out,” he said. “There’s definitely things that we’re fortunate of right now.

“We’ve just got to keep playing the game and see how it flies.”