RELATED: Race results | Playoff standings | 2017 stage points

CONCORD, N.C. – Kyle Busch came into Sunday’s Bank of America 500 with a comfortable points cushion, having won two of the three races in the just-completed Round of 16 and owning a sizable share of playoff points.

But a disastrous day on the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway layout left Busch gassed and his position in the standings suddenly tenuous.

A crash on Lap 135 heavily damaged the right-rear of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and while Busch managed to finish the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, he spun on three more occasions, finished 29th and had to be treated by medical personnel immediately following the race.

“I’m alright, I’m better now,” Busch said after receiving treatment. “I … felt like I had heat stroke just from being inside the race car for 200 laps with the crush panels knocked out of it.”

WATCH: Busch receives medical attention

Busch, the 2015 series champion, has never won a points paying event at Charlotte. While he also scrubbed the wall during practice on Friday, his car was competitive in the early portion of Sunday’s event. After qualifying fourth, he took the lead for the first time when he passed Jamie McMurray (Chip Ganassi Racing) following a restart on Lap 98. He lost the lead to Kevin Harvick on a Lap 121 restart. A short time later, he found himself up in the wall.

“Obviously, it was my bad, just trying to get a little too much too early in the race and got too high out of the groove and got myself into the fence and tore the right side off of it,” Busch said. “My guys did a great job trying to rebound and get it back together as much as we could throughout the day. It was just evil out there the rest of the day trying to stay with a relative pace with the rest of the field. We were just kind of hanging on.”

Busch said he could tell the heat inside the car was going to be an issue as a result of the initial damage. 

“After I first tore it up, it was just a handful from there. Literally as soon as I did it, just coasting around under caution I could feel it being about 50 degrees hotter inside the car. It just got so hot that you literally felt like you were going to puke.”

MORE: Wrecks, more photos | Newman’s car catches fire

Sunday’s race was the first of three in the Round of 12. Next up is Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday., Oct. 15 (2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), then Kansas Speedway the following week (Sun., Oct. 22, 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Eight of the 12 drivers will advance to the next round after Kansas. 

Before Sunday’s race at CMS, Busch was second and trailed points leader Martin Truex Jr. by 18 points. After the poor finish, he sits sixth, 12 points ahead of ninth-place Matt Kenseth (JGR).

RELATED: Busch’s season stats to date  | Analyzing Busch’s recent surge

“It stinks to give up points; we came in here and thought we had a good shot to run in the top 10 and we did and I threw it away,” Busch said. “We’re still above the cut line, but we don’t have that cushion that we’d like to have going to Talladega.”

A potential crash there, he said, and suddenly you’re “back in the pack and coming from behind in Kansas.

“That’s what you try to not have happen, but anything can happen in racing so we just have to go out and race, race hard and do a good job at Talladega to get through there with still a cushion and then we can go race them and be fine hopefully through Kansas.”

Busch won at Pocono and Bristol during the 26-race regular season, then picked up victories at Loudon and Dover, in the opening round of the playoffs.

He has one career victory at Talladega (2008), and finishes of third or better in two of his last three starts there.

RELATED: Playoff standings | Charlotte race lineup | Busch prominent in title picture

CONCORD, N.C. – Kyle Busch hasn’t lost a race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series since mid-September, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has never won a points-paying race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, so one of those two noteworthy items will no longer be true after this weekend.

Busch is scheduled to start fourth, outside Row 2, when Sunday’s Bank of America 500 takes the green flag at Charlotte (1 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It’s the opening race of the Round of 12 in NASCAR’s 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Busch, the 2015 series champion, swept the final two races of the Round of 16, winning at Loudon, New Hampshire and Dover, Delaware. Making it three straight, he said, isn’t out of the question.

RELATED: All of Kyle Busch’s wins in the Monster Energy Series

“I think we can definitely make it three in a row,” Busch told NASCAR.com on Saturday. “I think the biggest thing for us is just trying to make sure that the car is good for the long run here at Charlotte. You’re really fighting the bumps here that are starting to show back up again … it’s really starting to get pretty choppy out there and bounces you around an awful lot. Your head’s moving all over the headrest.”

There was no track time for teams Saturday as rain washed out two practice sessions.

Busch has won on the 1.5-mile Charlotte track — earlier this season he picked up his first win in the series’ annual All-Star race. He also has an eye-popping eight victories here in NASCAR’s XFINITY Series and seven in the Camping World Truck Series. The way to Victory Lane isn’t unknown to the 32-year-old.

But points-paying Monster Energy Series races? There have been three runners-up and 11 top fives. No wins — the only track on the circuit that he has yet to win a points event at in the sport’s top series.

RELATED: Kyle Busch’s Charlotte results | Track stats for Busch

“It’s definitely a motivation tool,” he said of the Monster Energy Series shutout. “We go out and try to win every single week but being at a track that we’ve been so successful … and haven’t scored a victory, it just kind of lends itself to be a little bit more intriguing to try and go get that checkered flag.”

Along with fellow Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing) and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson, Busch is among the favored few when considering this season’s title contenders.

It’s been a nice change of pace for the No. 18 driver, who for years seemed to find new ways to unexpectedly exit the playoffs.

“I have no clue,” he said when asked about the turnaround. “Even the year before ’15 I thought we were pretty good and sitting pretty good in the playoff standings. We got KO’d at Talladega and that’s what eliminated us. That was a frustrating one there, being an elimination race and all.

“Since ’15 and ’16 and this year, having some good cars all year long and being up front, Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and myself working on our game plan, sticking to that strategy and doing the things we can do it kind of lends itself to some pretty painless days let’s call it.”

Those early disappointments were harsh lessons, but lessons just the same.

“Any time you go through things, it’s always supposed to be a character building moment and trying to help you become stronger, better and more ready for what can come at you in the future,” he said.

“There still could be some events or some things that could kind of pop up. I remember Watkins Glen earlier this year when we got wrecked … and we had to come from the back. Adam was trying to console me, if you will, over the radio about what our plan was and I was like ‘Just admit it man, we don’t have a plan.’ There are those moments that may still pop up but we hope they don’t.”

JGR teammate Denny Hamlin will start on the pole in Sunday’s race, with Matt Kenseth, also of JGR, starting second. Truex Jr., the points leader and a winner of the Playoff opener in Chicago, will start 17th.