CONCORD, N.C. -- For Kyle Busch, the entire night had been a battle. There was the crash on pit road, the front-end damage, and the fortunate caution that gave the No. 18 team time to fix it. There was the unspooling of strategy, of two-tire calls and big-swing adjustments that helped the blue car regain much of its lost track position. And in the end there was a bumper-cars restart, a swarming mass of contenders and pretenders, which Busch was able to slice though and record a third-place finish that in many ways felt like a victory.

On pit road, he parked a vehicle whose front-right corner had been beaten up and bandaged with black tape. He unzipped a firesuit soaked through with sweat. Finally, the fight was over.

And there came Jeff Burton, spoiling for more.

The Coca-Cola 600 ended with an altercation that was every bit as furious as the action on the race track, one in which Burton blamed Busch for a move in the final laps that cut the tire on the No. 31 car and left the Richard Childress Racing driver pedaling backward to a 25th-place finish. And he let Busch know it, too, yelling and pointing at his younger adversary as crewmen and a NASCAR official stood between the two combatants. When it was over, Busch seemed almost bewildered by why it had occurred.

"He says I don't race him with respect," the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said. "I went down the front straightaway and got made three-wide by his teammate Clint Bowyer, and was as tight as I could be on the 33, trying to hold it low, to hold position and not hit anybody. Unfortunately, I guess, I don't know for sure, I made contact with his left-rear [tire] or something. I'm not going to let that diminish our day here."

And with good reason, given what Busch had overcome to achieve it. The No. 18 car had the lead when it came to pit road following a lap 167 crash by Jimmie Johnson. The two-tire stop went fine; the attempt at exiting pit road did not.

Busch almost hit the incoming vehicle of A.J. Allmendinger, and while all eyes were on the near miss with the No. 43, Brad Keselowski swept into to enter his stall -- and instead collided with Busch. The ensuing front-end damage was serious, enough to force Busch back to 27th place on the restart, and put him in danger of falling a lap down. (Continued)