SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

Jimmie Johnson climbs into his car prior to the start of the TUMS Fast Relief 500 on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. The Chase points leader finished second.

MARTINSVILLE -- Mired in a funk since missing the Chase, Kyle Busch's fourth-place finish was his best result in two months.

He has struggled with his cars and also was sick one weekend. He had only one top-10 in the last four races and hadn't led in the last six entering Sunday's TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. He started Sunday 41st.

The top-five finish could help boost Busch heading into the season's final four races.

"I think, as a whole, for Kyle just right now, a lot of it is just the confidence," said J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing about what the result meant for his driver. "The reality is he's really gifted."

Gibbs also addressed a question of if he was re-evaluating having Steve Addington as Busch's crew chief.

"We just want to make sure we have the right tools, the right people in the right place," Gibbs said. "We think we do. We think we have a great group of crew chiefs to engineers to guys on the shop floor. Our goal is to make sure we have those right pieces in the right parts. That's kind of what we're looking at as far as in the future, but we do that every year with every team."

Tough day

Tony Stewart finished ninth but it wasn't easy for the former series champion.

"It was definitely a survival day for us," said Stewart's crew chief, Darian Grubb, a Virginia Tech grad. "We made the car better all day. About the middle of the race, we had the car really good, had a bad pit stop and fell back in traffic. Late cautions didn't play out in the end. We struggled to hang on to a top-10 in the end."

That's nothing

For as tough as it was on Stewart and his team, consider Kasey Kahne, who was 32nd.

It marked the third time in six Chase races he's finished 30th or worse. The other three times he's scored top-10 results.

He also was involved in three incidents Sunday and penalized for three violations.

"It definitely wasn't our day," Kahne said. "This has been a great track for us, so we need to work on that. It was a pretty frustrating day."

Track announcements

Track officials had two announcements before the race.

They announced they have signed a three-year renewal to keep Pepsi as the official soft drink of Martinsville Speedway.

Track officials also announced that the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center will design and build the grandfather clocks that are given to the winner of the Cup races at Martinsville.

Upcoming test

Goodyear is set to test the larger tire it is developing on Dec. 8-9 at Phoenix International Raceway. Roush Fenway Racing, which did the test at Richmond earlier this month, will again do the test since it has a car to accommodate the larger dimensions.

Last go-around

Jeff Burton finished 15th and teammate Casey Mears placed 18th in their last races with their crew chiefs. Burton's crew chief, Scott Miller, is moving to a management role. Mears' crew chief, Todd Berrier, becomes Burton's crew chief. Mears' new crew chief is Doug Randolph.

Pit stops

Jamie McMurray's sixth-place finish was his best of the season. ... Pole-sitter Ryan Newman finished seventh, marking the 11th time in the last 12 Martinsville races that the pole-sitter has not won. ... Kevin Harvick on his 10th-place finish: "This is the closest we have been in a long time."