Racing more against the weather than each other (cont'd)

Edwards was the last of the leaders to pit, handing the lead to Gordon on Lap 94. As much as the timing of the rain helped Gordon, it hurt Edwards.

"[Crew chief Bob Osborne] gambled and we stayed out real long there, and the rain didn't come early enough for us," Edwards said. "We were probably about a fifth-place car, finished 14th, so that's not good, but it's not terrible."

More than three seconds behind at Lap 99, Newman quickly closed the gap and was on the verge of passing Gordon for the lead when the caution came out (watch video). Had the rain held off one more lap -- or even a few seconds -- the No. 12 Dodge would have been declared the winner.

"We were half a lap away from winning today," Newman said. "We had a really good car. It was a lot faster than Gordon's at that point.

"The lap before the caution, I got the rain on the back straightaway so I knew it was going to be raining harder yet. Jeff didn't get it so he checked up and I got a good run at him."

Truex Jr. was third and gaining on both Gordon and Newman when the race was stopped.

"[Gordon] kind of sneaked one out by us there, but a couple of guys lost some spots, too," he said. "It was a good day for us. [Kevin Manion] called an awesome race. With the rain coming, we pitted at the right times. We took two on that one stop and that was big for us.

"We felt like with five, 10 more laps we had a chance. The 24 was coming back to us and the 12 -- and I was catching the 12 a little bit. Whether or not we could have gotten by him, I don't know -- but it would have been fun to try. We just came up a little short today but it was a great day for us."

Stewart, who wound up fifth, was left wondering what might have been had the No. 20 Chevrolet gone with a similar strategy.

"I wish I would have stayed out," Stewart said. "We talked about staying out on that one caution where Jeff got the lead, but everybody else in front of us came and I didn't want to make a bad mistake and stay out and have it hurt us. We played it safe and came in with everybody else."