CONCORD, N.C. -- On Sunday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Joe Gibbs Racing put three cars in the top nine and still walked away disappointed.

Well, not disappointed, exactly, but with a definite feeling of a missed opportunity.

Lap-by-Lap

Casey Mears used fuel to his advantage and stayed out while Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin had to come in and top off. Follow every move in Mears' Coca-Cola 600 victory.

• Complete story, click here

Gibbs' lead driver, Tony Stewart, had NASCAR's longest race in the bag until he had to come to pit road with seven laps remaining for 1.1 seconds of fuel. He gave up the lead, fell to eighth place and dug back to sixth when the checkered flag fell...on Casey Mears (watch video).

"It wasn't that wild to me," Stewart grumped. "We just had to pit for gas and ended up outside the top five."

Stewart led twice for 55 laps, 54 of them coming from lap 339-392 when he went to pit road.

J.J. Yeley, who has been told that he "controls his own destiny" regarding his ride in the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet, came through with a second-place finish, and Denny Hamlin wound up ninth despite several adventures with his FedEx Monte Carlo.

Stewart's crew chief Greg Zipadelli, as he has many times this season, was caught between a rock and a hard place on his driver's sixth-place finish.

"We were just a little bit off on fuel mileage," he said. "I didn't think we could make it. We were two and a half laps short. That's the problem?you run so fast and lead all those laps and you get the worst fuel mileage. That's just part of racing."

Stewart was the best of the cars that had to stop for fuel at the finish, beating Dale Earnhardt Jr. by more than a second. But that was little consolation to the two-time champion or his crew chief.

"If we didn't have an opportunity to win it, then I would have said that sixth place and leading laps was awesome," Zipadelli said. "But sitting where we are now, it seems like everything is stacked against us. There's probably four or five races we could have won easily this year and things just didn't go our way.

"This team's been through it before and if we continue to run as well as we do, we'll be there at the end of the year and hopefully get our wins when we need them the most."

Yeley was happy with second, but was really looking to be the driver who earned his first career victory on Sunday night, not Mears (watch video).

"I'm happy that I finished second, but I'm not nearly as excited as I would have been if we had won the race," said Yeley. "Second isn't where we want to be. It's definitely better than we've been finishing, but we have all the things it takes to win races.

"Obviously, there's frustration," he said. "It's one of those deals that goes in cycles. Joe Gibbs Racing has led as many laps or real close to what Hendrick has, and we don't have the victories because unfortunately we just haven't led the right laps. It's going to come."

Hendrick Motorsports's four cars have led 1,385 laps through 12 races, earning nine victories. In the same number of races, the three JGR cars have led 1,269 laps and have earned no victories and four runner-up results.

Hamlin struggled all night with track position, but rebounded to crack the top 10.

"We were going to finish third, but everybody had to pit," he said. "Some guys got better fuel mileage than us. We just missed out there. We had a great night, a lot better than we tested and practiced here."

Hamlin too had some frustrations about coming so close?again?with no victory to show for it.

"It's very frustrating (to run that well and have to pit late)," Hamlin said. "I was getting closer and closer to Tony and Dale Jr. We had the best car at the end, we just didn't have the right fuel tank, we just couldn't afford to come in and top off like some of those guys did and they lucked out and got a good finish."

For Yeley, there was frustration that his result was overshadowed by talk of his future with the organization.

"I do my best every time I go out on the track," he said, with a little bit of heat. "As far as being on the 'hot seat,' I'll go back to driving sprint cars, if that's what it takes. This is all I know how to do and all I want to do. We've had some good runs; we just haven't had the finishes to show for it."

Team owner Gibbs was upbeat about having all three cars in the top 10.

"I'm really happy for Interstate and J.J.," he said. "You look at something like that where they just fought and fought and fought, and I think that jumped them up to 15th in points.

"As bad as we feel for the 20 car, we're still moving in the right direction in points and everything. You hate to lose the race when you have the best car, but I think we did the smart thing. It was a big night for us."

Big night or no, frustration is still the emotion of the day for Joe Gibbs Racing.