Front-row starters end day fuming over fuel mileage (cont'd)

"You look at the monitor and look at the guys who beat us and they were nowhere all day long," said Gordon, a former Infineon winner. "It's just disappointing that fuel strategy makes a difference of a race win or not. I don't know.

"With our rental program that we get, obviously we don't get the same mileage that [Greg] Biffle and [Ricky] Rudd do -- and we're gonna have to discuss that because we weren't gonna make it."

Lap-by-Lap

Juan Montoya led his first Nextel Cup lap when he got by Jamie McMurray for good on Lap 104 of 110 and had enough fuel to win the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.

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Gordon's bitterness was understandable, but even though four other Roush Yates Engine users -- Biffle (fifth), Boris Said (ninth), Rudd (11th) and Bill Elliott (19th) -- were able to save fuel to record their finishes, two of owner Jack Roush's own drivers failed to do just that.

Along with McMurray, Carl Edwards also had to pit for a splash of fuel when he was running fourth with less than two laps to go. He finished 18th because he didn't fall as short as McMurray did in trying to get to pit road on an empty tank.

Although McMurray didn't seem devastated when he dismounted from his car behind his hauler, after going inside, a team representative came out a few minutes later to say McMurray was too upset to comment.

McMurray was passed by Montoya with six laps remaining but was actually faster than the race winner on at least one lap after that, before he ran out just past the pit exit, whereupon he had to limp back to the pit entrance, losing spots all the way.

Carter said his car's mileage never fluctuated throughout the day, but he never expected there to be no cautions from the time he pitted under the race's final yellow flag with 41 laps remaining.

McMurray had to run hard to keep Montoya at bay -- at one point even re-passing the Formula One and Indy car winner within yards of being overtaken by Montoya in the hairpin.

"Once we made that decision, our bed was made and we either had to finish and run to the end or run out, and we ran out," Carter said. "We knew we were two laps short and we thought maybe we could peddle a lap or two out of it by being a bit conservative and hoping maybe we'd get a caution.

"Things didn't work out for us, so we'll just have to chalk that one up to that day's over and move on to the next one."

Gordon, who in 2003 swept the two Nextel Cup road races while driving for Richard Childress and threatened to win a couple others, was just plain distraught.

"I told Gene [Nead, his crew chief] 'I'd rather just run out of fuel than finish 16th," Gordon said. "He said 'There's no way we're gonna make it,' and we barely made it the way we did it, so obviously, we've got to get with the boys at Roush and Yates and figure out why we're getting a quarter of a gallon less per lap than the other guys. It's a big deal."

Carter said his team has the solace of winning a pole here and threatening to capture its second consecutive top-10 finish.

"I think we've run pretty good lately," Carter said. "We've been in contention for several poles and got the pole this week, so it wasn't a complete disaster, though obviously it would've been a whole lot better if we'd had a little bit more fuel in the car at the end.

"We'll just keep doing what we've been doing, running competitive and if you can put it up in the top five every week, eventually you'll win one. And that's what we're going to do."

Gordon agreed with that.

"It's disappointing but it's a good run for us," Gordon said. "I guess that moves us up to 24th in points, so we're showing that a single-car team can compete. We do need a little bit of luck. We've got to dot our I's and cross our T's and do a little more research and figure out why we're not getting the fuel mileage.

"It's disappointing that we had a car as fast as we had, started on the front row and not just get beat but finish 16th. It's just wrong. We've got to really look deep into this one and figure out how we can prevent it before we go to Watkins Glen."