BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Pocono and Michigan would seem to share little in common. They are radically different in shape and banking. And yet, the way Tony Stewart won at Pocono last weekend could very well come into play in Sunday's LifeLock 400.

Each of the last five races at Michigan has featured at least one green-flag segment of at least 50 or more laps, which adds one extra dimension to team strategy this weekend. Horsepower is huge on Michigan's wide banks and long backstraight, but at the same time, crew chiefs have to be cognizant that the race may turn into a fuel economy run.

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When you come here, you have to know it might be a fuel mileage game. At the end of the day, though, what always seems to work is having a fast race car.

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-- JEFF BURTON

Consider last spring, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. went the final 55 laps on one tank of fuel -- including a green-white-checkered finish and being warned by NASCAR officials to quit passing the pace car under caution -- to snap a 76-race winless streak. Stewart used fuel mileage to pull off a surprising victory at Pocono but said there's no magic bullet. Instead, he said Friday after the first practice session that it's a matter of being prepared for that eventuality.

"It's hard because you never know what's going to happen," Stewart said. "It seems like the bigger the track, the more the fuel mileage seems to come into play. There's no guarantee you're going to get into a fuel mileage race, so you just go out and try to get your balance as good as you can and try to make your car as fast as you can. And then if you get into that situation at the end, you kind of adjust your strategy from there."

Planning for the possibility of a fuel economy race and executing it are not one and the same, according to Jeff Burton.

"You expect a lot of green runs [at Michigan]," Burton said. "It's hard to plan for anything. What you have to do is just have to go back and look at what happens here and make your best guess. When you come here, you have to know it might be a fuel mileage game. At the end of the day, though, what always seems to work is having a fast race car.

"The faster your car, the more options you have on trying to save fuel, those kinds of things. You really can't plan the race out because you don't know what's going to happen. The bigger your compartment of choices is, the better chance you have, and having a fast car makes that easier."

Jimmie Johnson ran out of fuel on the final lap last weekend, and he's of the opinion that you can never plan far enough ahead in your fuel strategy.

"You have to really commit to saving fuel at the start of the run, the minute you leave pit road on that run," Johnson said. "So if the crew chief notices, even two pit stops from the end, that 'Hey, we're getting to that point' and figure out how to save fuel, you can hopefully learn the run before and see what those savings are, and then count on that again for the final run.

"So it's always in our minds at places like Pocono, Michigan and the road courses, for sure. So hopefully it doesn't come down to that. We all like to race hard and stand on the gas and hopefully it doesn't."

David Reutimann made it to the checkered flag last weekend and tried to explain how drivers do what they can on the track to conserve as much as they can without losing momentum.

"Basically, the deal was just go as hard as you can, but just try to save a little bit, which meant rolling out of the throttle a little earlier and letting the car roll a little longer, staying off the brake a little more," Reutimann said. "Towards the end I was letting off not too much past the flag stand and you guys that know Pocono -- there's still a lot of race track to go before you are normally letting off.

"It's a unique deal -- I haven't been in that situation much in the past and I've never been very good at saving fuel, ever. It worked out last weekend and it's all because I was told at the beginning of the run by [crew chief Rodney Childers] that this is what we need to do. Up to that point I hadn't even thought of it."