RCR teammates bitten by fuel strategies

LOUDON, N.H. -- There was no possibility that Kevin Harvick was going to be in an altercation with one of his competitors after Sunday's Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire.

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His fuel cell was too dry.

Harvick, who led nine laps Sunday and was in the top 10 for 226 of 300 circuits, ran out of fuel while in the lead 14 laps from the checkered flag.

He finished 13th, a little more than 21 seconds behind race winner Jimmie Johnson.

Harvick's No. 29 crew elected to stay out when many of the leaders pitted on Lap 268. He had the lead on the ensuing restarts, but ran dry 91 laps after what would turn out to be his final pit stop of the day.

"Wrong," Harvick said of his team's fuel strategy. "We ran out of gas. That about sums up our whole day."

	Harvick was forced to pit while leading the race with only a few laps to go. Credit: Autostock

Harvick was one of many drivers who lost the fuel mileage gamble Sunday. Jeff Gordon was running second when he ran out of gas two laps from the checkers.

"It was hard to describe my day. It was up and down," Gordon said. "It was a great race car. We just had trouble on pit road.

"We didn't get enough fuel on our last pit stop, so we ran out," he said. "It was a pretty bad day at the end."

Gordon got a push around to pit road from Ken Schrader and a splash of fuel on pit road and finished 19th. The effort put him out of the top five in the series standings, as he ended the day in sixth place, 633 points behind leader Matt Kenseth.

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Robby Gordon also got bit by the fuel bug. He was leading at Lap 293 when his tank went dry.

"I probably could have saved the fuel to do it, too," he said. "If I run 50 laps and drive 50 feet less in each straightaway, we win the race."

Robby finished 21st, one lap down. Despite the tough luck, he says he doesn't mind races being decided on fuel mileage.

"It's not fuel-mileage racing, it's smartest-guy-wins racing," he said. "Unfortunately, we were about four or five laps short of being the smartest guy."