Another gas mileage finish? Tony Stewart wins the gamble, but what the heck is going on this season with all these feather-foot NASCAR races?

  Races can be won or lost on pit road...in a lot of different ways. Monday, it was gas mileage (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

    By Mike Mulhern
    mikemulhern.net

   However for Stewart this win was sweet revenge, for last year's chase lead-off at Loudon, N.H., where he ran out of gas while leading in the closing miles – a faux pas that all but ended his title chances.
   If Monday's 400 is any indication of what to expect during the chase, well, this could be a very unpredictable few weeks ahead. The finishing miles of this race were topsy turvy.

   Both Stewart and crew chief Darian Grubb insisted they weren't thinking about last fall's gamble in New Hampshire when they made their winning call Monday.
   And Grubb insisted "It wasn't a gamble.  It's the way the race laid out and the cautions fell. 
   "That was the lap we had to pit on. 
   "It was not a gamble; it's a call that had to be made, considering the laps that were run."
   In fact Stewart and Grubb both made their winning tactics seem downright logical. And then Stewart made the odd comment that he felt his team had to make something happen here, to get back in the title game.
  
  

    Tony Stewart: first tour win in nearly a year. And maybe now he'll stop haranguing the press (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

  Yes, this is only the first race of the 10-race chase, but Stewart and Grubb haven't been contenders to win many races this season, and only a few weeks ago Stewart insisted he wasn't even a legitimate title contender, as erratic as things were going for his team.
   This time, well, all Stewart's rivals seemed to give the race away.
  
   This 400 itself was pretty straightforward, and uneventful. The drama at the end was waiting to see who would run out of fuel and who could make it.
   The day's big loser was probably Matt Kenseth, who started from the pole, had a winning car, tried saving gas the final run, but still ran out. He wound up a disappointed 21st.
   Kenseth was leading with 40 miles to go when his crew told him he had to back off to save gas and he had to give Stewart the lead.
    "I don't know what to do about the fuel mileage," Kenseth said. "It is really frustrating to be a race car driver and they drop the green on the last run of the day, when you are supposed to put on a show for the fans…and you have to run half-throttle and can't floor it or you will run out of gas.
    "It is pretty aggravating to do all the work, and qualifying and pit stops, and adjustments -- but none of it makes a difference."
  
  

    Matt Kenseth: he had the best car down the stretch, but he ran out of gas and wound up 21st (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   In the final miles Kenseth suffered the indignity of, while leading, being told to back off and give Stewart the lead, while trying to save enough fuel to finish.   
   "Yeah, and we still ran out with a half a lap or lap to go," Kenseth griped.
    "It is not a great definition of racing.
    "But how are you going to fix it? I don't know how to fix it.
    "It is frustrating. You do all that work and for nothing.
     "There were so many races this year that have been like that -- where the guy running half-throttle, or pitting off sequence or whatever, has won.
     "I wish they could figure out how to fix it, because it is not a lot of fun."
    Kenseth, after running out, got a last lap push from a fellow driver to make it to the finish line eighth, but NASCAR ruled that push illegal and dropped him back to 21st.

   Jimmie Johnson was in command much of the second half of the race, but he ran out of gas with about two miles to go, while running third. He finished 10th: 
   "I can’t complain too much, because the car in victory lane has same power, same everything.
    "My driving style, I've never been all that good with fuel mileage. You've certainly seen me run out at other times.
    "We certainly had a great race car, and it's just too bad we ran out coming to the white flag.
   "We had great speed, just one lap short on fuel."
    Teammate Jeff Gordon, who has been strong the last few weeks, didn't have much to show Monday. And then he too ran out of gas, finishing 24th.
    "We were just off….and we didn't qualify good, that got us behind," Gordon said. "Then we had a right-front (tire) tear apart.
    "We actually got the car halfway decent at the end. Then it came down to saving fuel, and we obviously didn't save enough fuel."
    However teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. played the end-game just right and finished third.
    And Kevin Harvick too played things right and finished second, to take the championship points lead heading this week to Loudon, N.H.

    A number of Sprint Cup races this season have come down to fuel mileage rather than door-to-door racing.
   And that hasn't set well with many in the sport.
   Kyle Busch, for example, ran out of gas with four laps to go and dropped from seventh to 22nd, and that cost him the Sprint Cup tour points lead.
 
    Stewart agreed: "You hate to have to play the fuel mileage game.  But that's just the way the caution came out. 
   "We came in and got fuel, and Darian told me we had to save a lap's worth of fuel.
   "We had a whole run to do it.  But we kept a lot of pressure on Matt, and finally got by him. And once we got out to a second and a half to two second lead we could start backing off to their pace and start saving fuel.
    "I felt I'd saved enough to get us to the end.  But we came off turn two after we got the checkered, the fuel pressure was down to two pounds, and it stayed there until just shortly after we picked up the checkered flag (to celebrate) at the flag stand.
   "We didn't do any wild burnout…and we ran out before we ever got on pit road.
    "So we were closer than I wanted to be. 
     "But we didn't have anything to lose -- where we're at in the chase right now, we had to press."
 
     Kenseth's team owner Jack Roush was among many not pleased to see the lead-off chase race come down to gas mileage: "It is a shame when these races come down to fuel mileage.
    "It is a shame when you get rained out.
    "(But) those things are realities."
    While Kenseth had to potentially winning car only to run out, teammate Carl Edwards managed to come home fourth.
    How close was Stewart? Well teammate Ryan Newman ran out the final lap: "We got a top-10 out of it…ran out coming off turn two.
    "Got past Jimmie, when I think he ran out coming to the white.
     "It was kind of a crazy deal, but we were still able to capitalize."

   
Jimmie Johnson, with wife and daughter. Not a great day for Johnson and the rest of the guys trying to stretch gas mileage (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)