The fuel-only stop by driver Reed Sorenson and crew chief Jimmy Elledge gave them a seventh-place finish. Credit: Autostock

Sunoco Pit Move: Chicagoland Speedway

JOLIET, Ill. -- Credit crew chief Jimmy Elledge for being unwilling to roll the dice on fuel at Chicagoland.

Reed Sorenson took fuel only on Lap 216 when almost everyone else opted to stay out.

	Pit road was a busy place Sunday at Chicagoland. Credit: Autostock
	USG Sheetrock 400 Official Results Pos. Driver Make 1. Jeff Gordon Chevy 2. Jeff Burton Chevy 3. Kyle Busch Chevy 4. Kevin Harvick Chevy 5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevy 6. Jimmie Johnson Chevy 7. Reed Sorenson Dodge 8. Kurt Busch Dodge 9. Clint Bowyer Chevy 10. J.J. Yeley Chevy • Complete results, click here • Official results, click here

Sorenson was running 11th when he came in for a splash of gas, following Greg Biffle, who was running 10th.

Sorenson restarted 15th but was able to pick off eight cars in the closing laps. He could have been able to score a top-five had the race stayed green, but the rash of late cautions prevented that.

"When we pitted there and just got gas towards the end, it was just too risky for me to try to make it," Elledge said. "It worked out. At the time it didn't look like it was and it mired us up back around 15th, and I didn't think that we might not even make it out of there. Tires weren't worth anything."

"The cautions hurt us at the end. In fact, if the whole race had gone green we would have been good to go," said Sorenson, who was the leading rookie at Chicagoland. "Today we finally got the finish we deserved. That's where we ran and that's where we finished, and we just need to do this more often."

Biffle only managed to finish 11th.

"We just never got any track position," Biffle said. "Every time it comes down to a fuel-mileage race we end up not doing well. It's unfortunate."

Rookie mistake

Todd Kluever didn't get much of a chance to score a lead-lap finish in his Nextel Cup debut -- he was penalized on Lap 59 for hitting the commitment cone during his first pit stop.

"I was just anticipating this thing to stop like my Busch car, and it doesn't," Kluever said. "And I didn't get on pit road like I should've and hurt us -- had to do a pass-through under green and it just destroyed our day.

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"But it was a good learning day. I learned some things and did what we had to do, logged a lot of laps and we'll be that much more prepared when we go to Michigan."

Kluever is scheduled to try for his second Nextel Cup start at Michigan on Aug. 20.

Quotable

"We worked all the way from 34th, and then to have it end like that ... it's pretty hard to take." -- Tony Stewart, who ran out of gas on Lap 267