Busch on running the Coca-Cola 600: 'The plan is to go the full distance'
RELATED: Full All-Star Race results
CONCORD, N.C. -- Kyle Busch finished sixth in Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, his first race since being sidelined for injuries sustained in a hard crash at Daytona International Speedway.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver broke his right leg and left foot in the season-opening XFINITY Series race and missed the first 11 races of the Sprint Cup season.
"I'll be sore for a couple of days, just muscles that haven't been woken up like this for a little while," Busch, 30, said in the media center afterward. "It's nothing new. Typically I get that in the beginning of the year anyway. It takes a few weeks to kind of get warmed up to things, (for) your body to kind of settle in.
"Being out of the race car the longest I've ever been in my career, it's a wake‑up call for myself to get back rolling. Other than that, just feel fine. I never was out of breath at all during the race or through the runs or anything like that. That was a good thing."
Teammate Denny Hamlin won the 31st running of the annual non-points event, and a $1 million share of the purse, with defending series champion Kevin Harvick finishing second.
Busch qualified 19th in the No. 18 Toyota and made his way to 14th by the end of the first of four 25-lap segments. By the end of segment two, he had climbed as high a seventh.
A pit road penalty for speeding sent him to the rear of the field, however, and by Lap 60 a vibration caused by a loose left-rear wheel forced him back to pit road under green.
Fortunately for the team, Busch was the only car one lap down at the end of the third segment, allowing him to get back on the lead lap after the break.
"Getting busted in segment one when you're in pit stall 41, that's hard to do, but I accomplished that. So check that one off," he said.
"In that same run, I did get that loose wheel that we had to come back down pit road and pit for. … When that happened, I was hoping we would be the first car one lap down, get that back, have a chance to pass some cars in the fourth segment, which we did. Get ourselves a better finishing average to get that readjustment, that lineup set for us to come down pit road."
Teams entered pit road for a final 10-lap shootout based on their average finishing position in the first four segments. Busch was 13th. Flawless work by his pit crew, led by crew chief Adam Stevens, got him out 10th for the final push.
Pit road speeding penalties moved two drivers -- Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards -- to the rear for the final segment.
"So we started eighth on that last run and passed a couple guys more to finished sixth," Busch said. "Real proud of the efforts; it was good."
Now it's on to next week's Coca-Cola 600, the longest race on the series' schedule. The race can be grueling even for those in the best of shape.
Busch, clearly pleased to finally be back behind the wheel, didn't seem concerned. A winner of 29 career Sprint Cup races, he has never won at the 1.5-mile Charlotte track.
"As far as endurance goes for next week, I felt like I got out of the car after a hundred laps and I'm fine," he said. "Am I going to die out after 200 or 300? I don't know. The plan is to go the full distance.
"We'll just hope that the rest of these guys run about 50 percent for the first 200 (and) I can keep up. Maybe at the end we'll all go after it. But I doubt that will happen."