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.

Busch, livid in the immediate aftermath, said he never even saw the No. 12 car. Later he blamed the accident on pit-road congestion. Keselowski called the incident "one of those racing deals. It's nobody's fault, really." Tell that to Dave Rogers, the crew chief on the No. 18 car, who spent the next few minutes mentally beating himself up.

"I made a mistake. I blew it," Rogers said. "We were coming out of the pit stall, and I don't even know what car was there. Before the 12 we got clear of the [No. 43], and then the 12 came around. It's my fault. I can't blame anybody else. I knew this race meant everything to Kyle, and I just blew it for him. I thought, 'OK, get over it. Let's get the most out of this we possibly can.'"

First, though, they needed some good fortune. The No. 18 had fallen to the next-to-last car on the lead lap, and was in jeopardy of being gobbled up by eventual winner Kurt Busch before a debris caution on Lap 214 gave Rogers the time he needed to fix the car. The patchwork complete, Kyle Busch moved up to 16th, providing him with the little bit of breathing room he needed to stay in contention.

• Press Pass: Kyle Busch
• Post-race reactions

"If the cautions hadn't fallen the way they did, we'd have been in trouble," Rogers said. "You take those breaks happily, but if the caution hadn't come out when it did when we hit pit road, we wouldn't have had the damage. You just have to take the good with the bad and realize it's all part of the race. Obviously, when the breaks fall your way, you're happier. But they go both ways."

Adjustment by adjustment, Rogers worked to improve the car's handling, and with 100 laps to go Busch was running 13th. A late two-tire pit stop was fast enough for Busch to pick up six positions, vaulting him back into the top 10. He never had enough to challenge his older brother or runner-up Jamie McMurray, not with a crippled front end. But had enough to post his fifth top-10 finish in his past six starts, and pull to within 29 points of Cup Series leader Kevin Harvick.

"I can't say we could have asked for a better finish," Busch said. "The 2 and the 1 [cars] were so stout. They were unbelievable. ... I don't know where we should have finished, probably 10th or 12th was what we had. But we made some bold moves on restarts and got up there, and the guys did an awesome job on pit road picking up some spots for me that got me track position."

Of course, there were hurdles that had nothing to do with the car. After his final pit stop, Busch tore out of his stall -- with front tire changer Nick Odell, who hadn't gotten back to the wall before the jack dropped, splayed across the hood. Fortunately, Odell slid off without incident. "Appreciate the dedication, dude!" Busch said over the radio. Spotter Jeff Dickerson pointed out that leaving a pit stall with any equipment still attached to the car merits a penalty. "As long as I didn't drag him out of the box, I think we're OK," Busch said, playing along.

"He'll be coming over to the house anyway [Sunday]," Busch added later, "so I'm sure he'll knock me over."

The incident with Burton, though, was no laughing matter. The usual even-keeled driver of the No. 31 car was uncharacteristically incensed over what he deemed a rash move by Busch that ruined his chances of a high finish. "He's real aggressive. That's cool. But when he starts affecting me with his aggressiveness, I just will not put up with it. I've been around here long enough. I just will not tolerate it," Burton said.

"I can't blame him for that, but the least he can do is stay off of me. He cut the left-rear tire. I like racing with Kyle, I really do. I enjoy it, but when he gets over-aggressive and I pay the price for it, I won't tolerate it. I'm just not going to put up with it. I don't mind racing with him. I don't mind him being aggressive, but I'm not going to be the victim of his aggressiveness. I'm just not going to put with it."

Busch -- who last weekend got into a brouhaha with Denny Hamlin over how much space teammates should give one another on the race track -- reiterated that it was Bowyer who forced it three-wide during the final restart. If Burton wanted to meet and go over the replay, he added, he'd be happy to oblige. Even the television announcers calling the race admitted that the situation was a difficult one in which to assign blame.

"I don't know if I touched him or got into him or cut his left-rear tire, but after the race he was just real mad at me, and after the race he said if I don't show him respect, he's not going to show me any," Busch said.

"I said, 'Look, man. It's the last restart of the race, you've got to make some bold moves. It wasn't me that made it three-wide, it was your teammate, so why don't you go have a chat with him?' If I did anything wrong, I'd be more than happy to sit with Jeff Burton and talk with him about it and for him to point it out on a replay to me."

But that would have to wait until later. Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Busch had done more than enough battling for one day.