Kyle Busch's radio lights up after collision with Brad Keselowski

Busch knock the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford out of the way for seventh-place entering the outer loop on the Lap 45 restart of the third stage. Both cars went off of the course.

“Coming to you, four tires,” Busch said over the radio as he headed to the pits. “You better keep me away from that (expletive) after the race. I will kill that (expletive).”

Keselowski fell to 33rd after the incident. At the time, he wasn’t sure what occurred with Busch.

“I was going into the corner and I had the 47 (AJ Allmendinger) behind me and when I got into the corner the 18 next to me,” Keselowski said. My spotter (Joey Meier) called it but we were already in the corner. It was too much for me to avoid. We got into each other and that hurt everybody.”

Traditionally, road courses set up for side-by-side racing and The Glen is no exception.

“This is a track where you fight for inches and we both are probably not willing to give in on it,” Keselowski said.

Four laps later, Keselowski pitted for tires — just to be on the safe side. When the third caution was called after Landon Cassill cut a tire, the leaders came in for service but Keselowski stayed on the race track at took the lead on Lap 54.

Race winner Martin Truex Jr. passed Keselowski on Lap 63 then returned to point as he rolled into fuel conservation mode. With four laps remaining, Keselowski pitted for a splash of fuel but ran through too many pit boxes exiting his stall and was issued a pass-thru penalty with two circuits remaining.

“Tough break,” Keselowski said. “I guess I drove through too many pit stalls leaving. Gosh, it’s a bummer. We weren’t the fastest car today but we raced real hard and with a lot of heart. That put us in position. I hate that I cost us a top-five to a 15th. Good effort all around.”

Busch not really the "listening type"

Busch soldiered on to finish seventh. He left without comment following the race. Under the circumstances, Keselowski would not have been surprised had there been a confrontation.

“Nobody is happy when you have contact,” Keselowski said. “It didn’t help my day at all either, I can tell you that. I wasn’t looking to get into him and I don’t think he was looking to get into me.

“He probably had the dominant car. He didn’t need any trouble. Neither did I.”

And although the two champions have had run-ins in the past, Keselowski wasn’t going to approach Busch either.

“Nah,” Keselowski said. “I don’t think he is really the listening type, so that is pretty doubtful.”