CONCORD, N.C. -- He was sore, and he was working with Cully Barraclough for the first time, but Ricky Rudd came home with a solid finish in his return from a separated shoulder that happened over the Labor Day weekend at California.

Rudd earned an 11th-place finish in the Bank of America 500 on Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway, and it might have been even better had it not been for the red flag on Lap 324.

"We ran out of gas when we got the green flag," Rudd said after the race. "I stood in the gas and it was buh-buh-buh-buh-buh. I pulled over to the inside and then it took off again."

Like many other drivers, including winner Jeff Gordon, Rudd's car acted as if it was out of gas after sitting in Turn 3 for more than 12 minutes during cleanup from Jeff Green's blown engine. The car's engine "heat-soaks" the components under the hood, and the fuel system is vulnerable to vapor lock.

"They were saying, 'There's no problem on fuel; you don't need to worry about running on the flat like everybody else.' They said we were good on fuel, but we weren't, so that's really frustrating," Rudd said.

"We were seventh and we would have at least been seventh or moved to fifth."

Still, Rudd's 11th-place showing was a good one for Robert Yates Racing, which now has five races left before it becomes Yates Racing, under the guidance of Robert's son Doug.

It is the second-best result Rudd has had this year; he was seventh in the Coca-Cola 600 here in May, and 11th at Infineon Raceway in June.

Rudd, who will retire at the end of the season, also has five races left in his career, if he is able to race at Martinsville next weekend.

"As far as my shoulder, it's a little sore," Rudd said. "I knew it was hurting, but on a scale of 1 to 10 it wasn't like something that you couldn't bear it. It was just like a bad headache."

Rudd said he needed some time to figure out if Martinsville was a go or not.

"I'll know more about it when I wake up [Sunday] and go back to rehab therapy [on Monday]," he said. "Right now, this [Lowe's] is different than Martinsville. I'll have to work it a whole lot more. It's gonna have to get in a little better shape. I don't want to start Martinsville and get out at halfway because you just lose too much time.

"Right now, I'm probably a little better than 50-50 for Martinsville."