BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Jamie McMurray took a night that could have literally been the pits and turned it into a third-place finish in the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

McMurray slid through his pit stall on his first stop and was penalized for missing lugnuts on his second, but made up for it with one of the fastest cars in the field. He worked his way to the front on Lap 389, only to get beat off pit road by eventual winner Kyle Busch as the two stopped for service under green.

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The lugnut cost us quite a bit. But you know, when you have a fast car, this race track is very raceable. If you have a good car, you can pass on it. And it really wasn't that big a deal. We went to the back and passed about 10 cars the first set of tires, then passed 10 cars the next set of tires.

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-- JAMIE MCMURRAY

Instead of getting frustrated and wrecking any chances of a decent finish, McMurray remained patient, knowing he had a lot of race remaining.

"Fortunately it happened early enough in the race that we were able to recover from that," McMurray said. "We had that long 130-lap run and I just had a really fast car throughout that. I was able to drive up to the lead.

"Then we put our last set of tires on and the tires just felt flat in front and I couldn't get my car to roll through the center as quick as it had earlier in the night. It wasn't way off but it was off just enough that I couldn't keep up with [Busch] there."

Starting seventh, McMurray was looking to gain any advantage possible when the first caution flew on Lap 56 for an incident involving David Gilliland. But when he went to apply the brakes when entering his pit stall, he rolled through "about four boxes."

"This is a pit road that you can gain a lot of spots by pushing the limits," McMurray said. "We were fortunate the way the timing lines were, that you could cheat it. My pit stall was just a lot slicker than what I expected. It only cost us like three or four spots."

Despite that, McMurray worked his way back into the top 10, only to suffer yet more problems on pit road when the leaders headed for service under yellow on Lap 127. This time, NASCAR officials spotted a missing lugnut and McMurray was forced to return one lap later, putting him at the tail end of the lead-lap cars.

"The lugnut cost us quite a bit," McMurray said. "But you know, when you have a fast car, this race track is very raceable. If you have a good car, you can pass on it. And it really wasn't that big a deal. We went to the back and passed about 10 cars the first set of tires, then passed 10 cars the next set of tires.

"And we had that long run and drove to the lead. So I think when you know you have a good car -- what you worry about, for me -- is just getting caught up in someone else's mess there. Someone blowing a tire when you're on the outside of them or something."

Pit road would play a part in McMurray's night once more. After chasing down Busch and taking the lead on Lap 388, McMurray headed for his final stop 11 laps later, with Busch following in his tire tracks.

"We came in and I was very self-conscious not to get caught speeding entering pit road," McMurray said. "A pass-through [penalty] here would just end your night. So I was a little bit cautious coming in and Kyle was able to get beside me.

"And he just had a half-second or second quicker pit stop and was able to beat me out. It was amazing because he beat me out of the pits, and just that little bit, there were like five cars that got stuck in between us."

One reason for that might have been Kevin Harvick, who was attempting to enter his pit stall about the same time McMurray was leaving.

"It certainly probably cost us a couple of car-lengths," McMurray said. "But what are you going to do there? [Crew chief Kevin Manion] did a really good job of screaming that [Harvick] was on the outside. You just got to let that guy get in his stall."

Unfortunately, McMurray's car wasn't as good on the final set of tires and he faded to third behind Busch and David Reutimann in the final 75 laps.

"I was having a hard time even passing the lapped cars, so that let [Busch] spread it out," McMurray said. "And I think David actually short-pitted. I didn't even know he was leading the race. I thought I was in second, actually."

Still, McMurray was philosophical about his pit road adventures.

"It's frustrating, but it's part of it. It's a team sport," McMurray said. "Me sliding through the pit box, they didn't get mad at me, so you can't get mad at them for anything like that."