Kahne, Mayfield flirt with victory once again

FONTANA, Calif. -- Jeremy Mayfield played the lead role in a race driver's worst nightmare Sunday afternoon.

Mayfield was piloting a top-tier machine with only a handful of laps remaining. He'd run in the top five for most of the Auto Club 500, and was six miles from his first top-five finish at California Speedway since 2001.

VIDEO CLIPS Jeff Gordon celebrates his second straight win Play video Top finishers discuss the race Play video Gordon cruises to win as others run out of fuel Play video Wallace is upset after getting knocked around Play video Stanton Barrett hits the wall hard on lap 22 Play video Stewart brushes with Wallace and Gordon Play video

Dreamy, right? Not exactly.

There was a problem. He couldn't mat it.

Low on fuel, he was forced to feather the throttle. Conserve was the word.

With two laps to go, he thought he'd made it, thought that by spending much of the last run at part-throttle, he'd done the job necessary to bring it home.

Then, with one lap to go the tank ran dry, leaving Mayfield the first car a lap down in 14th position.

"What do you do, ya know?" said Mayfield, who won here in 2000. "I didn't know we were that close (to running out). I had no idea. I knew I was supposed to save. I didn't know I was supposed to save that much. I thought we'd barely make it.

"I didn't know we'd be a lap and a half short. I mean, hell, I was running half-throttle the whole end of the race. So what do you do? We've been beat so many times this year like that. It's hell. We have a fast car every week and beat ourselves all the time."

Likewise for his partner in crime, Evernham Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne. Kahne, a three-time runner-up already this year, was running second to eventual winner Jeff Gordon on the final lap when he also ran out of gas. He finished 13th.

"We knew we were close," said Tommy Baldwin, Kahne's crew chief. "Actually we thought we were going to make it. But that was from when the car was handling. We just got too tight in that run.

"It was a long run and probably didn't get the fuel packed in all the way because it had to be a real fast pit stop there. We'll take this, learn from it and move on. Hey, 13th's not so bad. We led a lot today, learned a lot. That's why we're here in our rookie season."

	Jeremy Mayfield was in the top 10 for 185 laps Sunday before ending up 14th. Credit: Autostock

Kahne led five times for 77 laps Sunday, second only to Gordon's 81 laps led. His perseverance is admirable. During the race, an icepack exploded in his firesuit, and as the race wore on the water from the spilled pack began boiling in his seat.

"It was kind of painful most of the day," Baldwin said, "but we got some insulation in there between him and the seat. That helped him."

Despite their run-in with Lady Luck, both Mayfield and Kahne improved dramatically from Saturday's Happy Hour practice. Kahne, the race's pole-sitter, ranked 24th, while Mayfield was 10th. Both had top-four cars Sunday.

"The car got tight that last run, ran more fuel," Baldwin said. "We were trying to save it but also trying race (Jimmie Johnson) at the same time so it was a lose-win situation there. We just came up short.

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"I'm proud of my guys. We weren't good at all (Saturday). We were a 25th-place car, at best. We put our heads together last night and ran top-four all day long, and just came up a lap short. That's part of racing."

Mere moments after the race ended, Baldwin was already second-guessing.

"This place is crazy like that. In hindsight we should have stopped. But in hindsight we should have made a better adjustment for him, got him freer, and we'd have finished probably second or third."

Neither team realized they'd run out so quickly, or they'd have employed different strategy.

AUTO CLUB 500  •  Results  •  Standings

"We didn't start saving until about 15 to go, probably should have started about 20 to go," Baldwin said. "We were racing (Johnson) for fourth, and probably should have taken it easy, given up that spot and probably would have been third or fourth."

"Conserve, conserve, conserve," Mayfield said. "Part-throttle the whole end of the race. I just don't know what else to say. I can't believe it."