LONG POND, Pa. -- With more storms approaching, Sunday's soggy Pocono "265" came down to racing against the weather more than the competition.

When the rains came for the final time, it was Jeff Gordon who was declared the winner (watch video). But had the timing been just slightly different, it very well could have been Ryan Newman, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin or even Carl Edwards celebrating in Victory Lane.

Lap-by-Lap

Jeff Gordon and Steve Letarte looked to the skies for their gameplan at Pocono. See just how the No. 24 team played their cards perfectly to win.

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Sunday's race was a matter of making it to the halfway point while still holding track position. It definitely had the feel of a road course race, as the storm clouds -- plus the smaller fuel cells -- played a key role in how teams worked their strategy.

While Gordon, Casey Mears and Mark Martin stayed on the track when the rest of the lead-lap cars pitted on Lap 65, others -- like Newman, Tony Stewart and Truex Jr. -- grabbed two tires and fuel. Hamlin, who had dominated the early stages of the race, went for four tires and restarted 20th.

Figuring that no one would have enough fuel to make it to Lap 101, Steve Letarte said the decision to trade fuel for track position at that point wasn't as dumb as it first appeared. Gordon gave up the lead when he pitted on Lap 83, but as the rest of the leaders ducked back onto pit road, he found himself back in front with enough fuel to make it the distance.

"We just race Pocono always like a road course," Letarte said. "We back it up from the end. That was also putting us in the fuel window for 200 [laps], which is another option.

"We had a good car but I really wanted to see what it would do in clean air. It's hard to judge a car back in fourth, fifth, sixth. It ended up working out well. I guess it was 'incredibly stupid' but sometimes stupid works."

Rival crew chief Bootie Barker realized at that point Gordon would be able to build a big enough lead that when he pitted, he would still be on the lead lap.

"Well you kind approach this like a road course, and that's what the 24 did," Barker said. "He knew that he was going to be far enough ahead that he came back to the pits, he wasn't going to be a lap down. Then it was all a question of when the rain came. If it would have fell then, he would have been in trouble, but obviously it held off long enough."

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."