TALLADEGA, Ala. — The question caught a lot of those in attendance by surprise. More specifically, it was the subject of the question that turned a few heads.

Kyle Busch. Patience.

What?

While some at Busch’s winning postrace media session Sunday at the Talladega Superspeedway chuckled at the thought of the driver nicknamed “Rowdy” ever showing patience, Busch thought the question was very relevant.

“I want to thank Robin Pemberton for that,” Busch began, referring to the Sprint Cup director of competition. “We had a conversation after Martinsville, where instead of finishing third and bringing home the car in one piece, I tried for second. That was a bad idea, so we had a little talk and things have been better ever since.

“Now I’m just trying to finish these races. I learned years ago that first you must finish to finish first. I let that slip my mind for a while. I became an idiot for a little bit. I remembered that saying and it’s sort of worked for me the last few weeks.”

After jumping out of the gate in his initial season with Joe Gibbs Racing with three top-five finishes in his first four races, including a win at Atlanta, Busch followed a 17th-place finish at Bristol with a 38th at Martinsville, when he wrecked late. Since then, he’s finished third, 10th and now first again to inch closer to Jeff Burton in the points standings.

If there was a time for Busch’s newly found patience to take over, it was during Sunday’s Aaron’s 499. On lap 62 (of 188), Busch missed his pit box while stopping under green-flag conditions, meaning he had to come back around on the next lap. He eventually went a lap down after losing the draft and stayed off the lead lap until lap 117, when a caution perod came out. His was the first car a lap down, so he was put back on the lead lap and soon began charging back to the front.

Busch acknowledged that had he grown impatient or frustrated, he might have made a careless error that could have ended his day early.

“I just missed my pit box, and then I got a lap down, but I looked up and saw there were over 100 laps to go, so I didn’t panic,” said Busch, who had never finished in the top 10 at Talladega. “I just made it my goal to be the first car a lap down, and when the leaders started lapping cars again, I was up there close enough to where I could pass them also. So when the caution did come out, I was in position to get the lap back.”

Busch also showed rare patience with 15 laps to go when, while trying to get to the lead, he was nearly put into the wall by Juan Pablo Montoya. A hard bump-draft by Montoya sent Busch’s car almost sideways heading into a turn, but Busch was able to straighten the car without losing much momentum. A lap later he was in the lead.

“The save — I mean, I didn’t know what was happening,” Busch recalled. “All I remember was I got knocked out of line first to begin with and then looked up in my mirror to see who I had behind me then. And I think it was Juan, and we made contact and I thought I was going out of the park.

“I thought I was getting hooked right rear and going up on the fence, and luckily somehow we got off each other and we kept it straight and we were able to continue on. And Montoya got behind me and forced up the lead, so that was cool.”

Even owner Joe Gibbs was impressed by the continued transformation of his young driver.

“At midrace, you thought Kyle had no chance to win it,” Gibbs said. “He stayed calm and cool and found his way back to the lead lap, then to the front. It was a total team effort, but the key was Kyle staying patient.”

Patience and Kyle Busch. Maybe they do go together.