JOLIET, Ill. -- Nothing seemed to be working right for Kurt Busch and his No. 2 Dodge as the weekend progressed at Chicagoland Speedway.

He struggled to get up to a competitive speed during practice sessions and qualified poorly. And then, after qualifying in the 35th position, which would have put him on the inside of Row 18 at the start of Sunday's USG Sheetrock 400, he learned that he needed to have the engine changed in his machine.

That meant he was booted to the very back of the 43-car field -- not that far from where he would have started, but worse nonetheless. It did not seem to bode well for him heading into the race.

But with the new engine in place and the collective jaw of his team set with a steely determination to march toward the front, Busch eventually scratched out a sixth-place finish Sunday. Coming on the heels of a third-place finish one week earlier in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway, it helped move Busch up one spot to 14th in the driver standings.

"We had a really good run [Sunday]," Busch said. "We just kept creeping up on 'em. Starting 43rd, we just had to take our time and really put a maneuverable setup in the car where I could go low and I could go high.

"It turned out really positive. The team had solid pit stops. We thought we had a top-five, but ended up sixth."

The top 12 drivers after 26 races qualify for the Chase for the Nextel Cup, NASCAR's version of the postseason playoffs that cover the final 10 races of the season. Had Busch not been docked 100 points earlier this season for driving onto pit road and initiating an incident with Tony Stewart (and endangering one of Stewart's crew members by nearly running him over), he would be 12th in the standings.

He said the key Sunday was not panicking when his team learned the engine change had to be made.

"We had something internally," Busch said. "I think it was the plug out of the back of the cam shaft. See, you've got to have oil pressure when you run. That's what took us out of it. It was unfortunate. We didn't even make a lap with it.

"We had to start in the back and work our way forward. Those are the rules and that's what we did."

Busch said he had to stay patient and pick off the cars in front of him one at a time. (Continued)