SONOMA, Calif. -- Robby Gordon and Jamie McMurray led 78 of the 110 laps of Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350, but in the end, fumes were all they had to show for it.

Gas fumes might have done it for either driver.

McMurray, who drives Roush Fenway Racing's No. 26 Ford, drew no consolation from race-winner Juan Montoya's praise after the race. "I'll tell you the truth, I was very surprised by the level of the drivers here," Montoya said. "Here, man, the top 20 -- you had to work for your money."

Sunday at Infineon Raceway, McMurray worked. He started from the pole and looked a great bet to win in the race's latter stages, leading a total of 30 laps before Montoya passed him with six laps remaining.

McMurray ran out of fuel with less than two laps left, pitted for gas, finished 37th and extended his streak to 166 races since his only career victory, in October 2002. He left the track after declining any comment.

Crew chief Larry Carter, whose last win came in 2004 with retired driver Rusty Wallace, showed every ounce of McMurray's pain after preparing a car for a driver that clearly had enough to contend with Montoya.

"We ran out of fuel," Carter said. "We knew we were about two laps short, we needed some cautions, we didn't get them and we probably couldn't have run out on a worse place on the racetrack.

"Jamie did a great job and I hate it for Jamie," Carter said. "Jamie didn't really deserve what he got dealt [Sunday], but if we'd have won the race, things would have been OK. We didn't so we'll just have to move on."

Gordon, owner of a single-car team that rents powerplants from Roush Yates Engines, was surprised and fuming over his lack of gas mileage that resulted in a 16th-place finish, after he led a race-high 48 laps.

Gordon couldn't stop when most of the top-10 finishing cars visited pit road, between Laps 68 and 70, because he knew his No. 7 Ford couldn't make it the rest of the scheduled 110 laps.

Gordon finally pitted at Lap 76 and after the finish voiced his rancor over not only first-time winner Montoya's victorious mileage strategy, but all the other cars that beat him, as well.

"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."