From MRN:
Kevin Harvick raced by leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. as he ran out of gas heading to the checkered flag to win Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Earnhardt Jr. jumped into the top spot when leader Kasey Kahne’s tank ran dry on a green-white-checkered overtime finish and looked like he was going to end his nearly three year winless drought.
But as he came out of Turn 4, Earnhardt’s fuel supply ran out and Harvick sped by to claim his third win of the season.
“We weren’t supposed to make it,” said Earnhardt Jr., who tried to stretch his fuel load to the end. “I tried to save a ton of gas, as much as I could. I’m disappointed we didn’t win. To come so close. But if we had won that race, it would have been a gift.”
The gift turned out to be handed to Harvick, who in his three victories of the season has led a total of nine laps.
“I feel like complete crap to tell you the truth..I feel so stinking bad for him,” Harvick said of the fateful night.
“Today we were lucky. Nothing against the track; I just don’t like the track. It doesn’t fit what I do…even here in Victory Lane. I just have a bad attitude here; maybe this will change that.”
Kahne got hit from behind by Brad Keselowski when his engine sputtered and cars stacked up behind the pair.
But the caution flag did not fly and Earnhardt simply needed to get to the white flag to lock down the victory. With no yellow he had to do it under full power and that was enough to run his tank dry.
Jimmie Johnson brought out the night’s final caution flag with five laps-to-go when the engine in his Lowe’s Chevrolet expired. That set-up the overtime dash to the finish with Harvick pulling off the dramatic victory.
“Strategy didn’t work a few times. That happens from race to race. We’ve had a lot of things go our way over the years. The last couple of weeks they haven’t gone our way,” Johnson said.
“It’s definitely a disappointing way to end up. We had some pit road issues and then we got up there and had a chance at a top-five finish. It was very uncharacteristic.”
Earnhardt’s losing streak is now 105 races, as NASCAR’s most popular driver has not won since Michigan in 2008.
David Ragan finished second behind Harvick, followed by Joey Logano in third. Kurt Busch was fourth, AJ Allmendinger fifth and Marcos Ambrose sixth.
“We had a strong car all day,” Ragan said. “That’s a finish that we deserved, but we just went about doing it the hard way.”
Busch rebounded from some earlier race problems to post his best finish in more than two months.
“It’s amazing that we can race 600 miles and it comes down to a green-white-checkered finish and fuel mileage,” Busch said. “That’s the excitement that this sport brings and you never know when it’s going to be your time to have fuel or not.”
Earnhardt Jr., Regan Smith, David Reutimann and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top 10.
Carl Edwards maintained the Sprint Cup Series point lead and is now ahead of Harvick by 36 points. Jimmie Johnson, Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch round out the top five.
The Sprint Cup Series now heads to Kansas Speedway for Sunday’s STP 400.
