NASCAR Gas math sends Newman to head of the class

His victory at Chicagoland matched Kurt Busch for the most wins in 2003.
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) -- Ryan Newman stretched his last tank of fuel and won. Kevin Harvick, trying for a third straight win at Chicagoland Speedway, tried to stretch his last fill-up and lost.
"We didn't strive for fuel mileage today," Newman said Sunday after winning the Tropicana 400, his third victory of the season and fourth of his career. "We strove for balance in the car the best we could and, at the same time, hoping our fuel mileage windows were right."
Last year's top Winston Cup rookie gave crew chief Matt Borland and team engineer Michael Nelson credit for "an awesome job doing the math and getting us in the right position at the right time."
Newman and Harvick both pitted to top off their tanks on lap 198, hoping to make it to the end of the 267-lap race on the 11/2-mile oval without stopping again.
Three laps short
Harvick, one of only four drivers to win the first two races at a new track since NASCAR's modern era began in 1972, came up nearly three laps short.
"We ran out of gas and that was it," said the disappointed Harvick, who made a quick stop for a splash of gas and finished a lap down in 17th place.
After making his final stop, Newman got out of the pits first. He took the lead for good on lap 210 when the drivers ahead of him all pitted under caution.
Harvick worked his way to second on lap 225 and was close behind when the green flag waved on lap 240 for a restart following the last of seven caution flags in the race.
Harvick couldn't catch Newman's Penske Racing South Dodge.
Newman kept edging ahead, moving out to a lead of more than a second before Harvick's Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet suddenly slowed on lap 165.
Harvick, the top Cup rookie in 2001, said he probably would not have caught Newman anyway.
"I couldn't get up to him because the car was just too tight off the corners," he said.
Newman agreed, saying, "With three laps left, he wasn't going to make up 10 car-lengths unless something strategic happened. I got out there in the clean air and that was pretty much the biggest thing."
It was a little bit of payback for Newman, who led the most laps in the 2002 Chicagoland race but lost to Harvick because of fuel strategy.
Asked why he made it to the end and Harvick came up short, Newman shrugged and said, "It could have been them not getting their car full of fuel. It could have been us having better fuel mileage. I don't know."
Strategy off
Harvick said, "We all thought we had the pit strategy worked to perfection. Before we came in that last time, we took a gas and go [on lap 130, late in a caution period] that we thought would make up for about six laps that we thought we'd be short. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way for some reason."
Tony Stewart, who started from the pole, inherited second place, but was unable to challenge for the lead and finished 3.177 seconds -- about 20 car-lengths -- behind Newman.
"I think we had the fastest car in the race," said Stewart, who led a race-high 80 laps. "We were proving it at the end with our lap times, but it was just a case of scenarios.
"Ryan and Kevin got away on the restart. I'm happy with the way the weekend went, but it was too bad because we were bad fast."
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon finished third and fourth.
"It's all about track positioning," Gordon said. "You get out front in that clean air and you can just set sail."
Newman matched Kurt Busch for the most wins in 2003.
Busch went out of Sunday's race with a blown engine and finished 39th in the 43-car field.
Newman led twice for 67 laps, averaging 134.059 mph. Gordon led 47 laps and Harvick 46.
Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip finished fifth, followed by Jeff Burton, Robby Gordon, rookie Jamie McMurray, Elliott Sadler, Jeremy Mayfield and Bill Elliott, the only other drivers on the lead lap at the end.
The scariest moment of the race came on lap 214 when Johnny Benson and rookie Casey Mears banged together and ignited a five-car melee that ended with Bobby Labonte's car engulfed in flame.
With the fuel fire still raging, Labonte scrambled out the window of the mangled car, stumbled and fell to the grass. He sat for a few moments with his head resting on his knees, but Labonte was not injured.