Enduring Performance: 1996 Bud at The Glen

Running 12th and running out of patience, Geoffrey Bodine realized the only way he was going to contend for the victory in the 1996 Bud at The Glen was to do something out of desperation.

So when the caution came out on Lap 55, Bodine stayed on the track as the rest of the leaders came in for fuel and tires. That put him out front on the restart -- and four laps later, he made his last stop.

Able to go the rest of the way on fuel, Bodine then only had to wait for the competition to stop once more. When they did, he regained the lead with eight laps remaining and held off a struggling Terry Labonte for his first victory since North Wilkesboro two years earlier. (Complete Results)

"This is wonderful, this is great," Bodine said. "Considering what I went through the last two years, I thought about selling the team and running away. It was a terrible two years, personally and professionally."

To that point, Bodine had led six different occasions at Watkins Glen, but only had a second-place effort in 1990 to show for it. Bodine, a native of Chemung, N.Y., had qualified in the top 10 seven consecutive times -- but started 13th behind pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt.

Earnhardt, who wasn't even sure how long he'd last, since he broke his collarbone at Talladega the previous month, felt good enough to lead the first 29 laps, and 54 of the first 64. However, he ran out of brakes and stamina at about the same time, fading to sixth at the finish.

"I felt like staying in the car was the best call I could make," Earnhardt said. "I thought I could stand it. Right now, I don't feel so good. I'm ready to go home."

Labonte remained atop the point standings with his sixth runner-up finish of the season, but he was more frustrated than pleased.

"We're mad because we didn't win," he said. "I've never won a Cup race here, and I thought today was it. I really thought we were going to be pretty good."

But as the grip on his tires went away, Labonte was forced to make a decision: either drive hard and perhaps crash out or take it easy and salvage second place. He chose the latter.

"I was just holding on those last few laps," Labonte said. "It was like I flipped a switch from one lap to the next. We were flying. I was confident. I was going to catch [Bodine].

"Then all of a sudden, I didn't have any rubber left."

Mark Martin was third and Jeff Gordon fourth, although Gordon's streak of leading a lap in consecutive races ended at 17.

"We had a real strong car at the end, but when the race started, the car wasn't very good," Gordon said. "We were fortunate to finish fourth and never really had a chance to lead."

Bodine's victory would be his 18th -- and final -- win of his Cup career, although he would finish second at The Glen the next season.

History nearly repeated itself for Labonte in 2006 at Infineon Raceway. Using a fuel strategy similar to Bodine's a decade earlier, Labonte held a lead of more than seven seconds at one point before Gordon and Ryan Newman were able to run him down following a late-race caution.

Earnhardt, not known as a great road-course driver, had 31 top-10 finishes in 47 starts at Riverside, Watkins Glen and Sonoma.