Stewart loses fuel gamble in '99 to give Burton victory

This year's streak of fuel economy finishes is a reminder that it's not always the fastest car that wins the race. In the 1999 Jiffy Lube 300, Jeff Burton pulled off an improbable victory in a car that wasn't even fast enough to qualify. And Tony Stewart, who played the fuel mileage game to perfection at Pocono a few weeks ago, wasn't always as savvy with the conservation game.

1999 Jiffy Lube 300

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Jeff Burton	Ford
2.	Kenny Wallace	Chevrolet
3.	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
4.	Dale Jarrett	Ford
5.	Bill Elliott	Ford
6.	Mark Martin	Ford
7.	Wally Dallenbach	Chevrolet
8.	Dale Earnhardt	Chevrolet
9.	Jimmy Spencer	Ford
10.	Tony Stewart	Pontiac

• Complete Results

Burton needed a provisional to make the show, which meant the driver who had won the previous two spring races at New Hampshire had to roll off the grid 38th. And only Rusty Wallace -- who won the inaugural Loudon race from his 33rd starting position -- had come close to what faced the South Boston, Va., native that day.

"We were out to lunch," Burton said of his qualifying effort. "We just put the qualifying behind us and got on with the race. But we have to get better. We can't keep qualifying in the back."

Once the race began, Burton's car responded and he steadily moved his way through the field. Pole-sitter Jeff Gordon dominated the first third of the race before handing over the top spot to John Andretti. Andretti then stayed in front for the next 60 laps, until Dave Blaney crashed in Turn 4 and brought out the fifth caution.

All of the leaders pitted at that point, including Stewart, who beat everyone off pit road to take the lead. But when racing resumed, there were still 99 laps to go, and most experts thought the upper limit for stretching one tank of gas at New Hampshire was 95 laps.

Crew chief Greg Zipadelli thought otherwise, having had Stewart run the car out of fuel during Saturday's practice. So Zipadelli was confident that Stewart would have enough fuel to go the distance.

"We knew it was probably going to be a lap-and-half gamble," Zipadelli said. "It turned out to be bigger than that."

On Lap 204, Dale Earnhardt and Bobby Labonte made contact, bringing out what would eventually turn out to be the final caution of the day. This time, the leaders stayed out, and when racing resumed, Dale Jarrett raced Stewart hard for the lead before eventually dropping back. Whether or not that ultimately played a major role in the events to follow is still debatable, but at the time, Zipadelli was still certain his driver had more than enough fuel to go the distance.

That wasn't the case for most of the other leaders. One by one, they each came in for a splash-and-go stop in the waning laps, including Burton, who made a 3-second stop. That gave Stewart a huge cushion over Andretti, who also was willing to gamble on fuel mileage.

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But with two laps remaining, Stewart -- on the cusp of winning his first Cup race -- suddenly slowed coming onto the backstretch. And almost simultaneously, Andretti ran out of fuel. As both cars coasted slowly for the pit entrance, Burton -- who hadn't led a lap all day -- found himself the leader of the race.

"When everybody else pitted, I was surprised that [Stewart] chanced it," Burton said. "They had such a gap at that point that they could have pitted and still won because everybody else had pitted."

Burton was elated to win, but certainly could commiserate with Stewart and his team.

"I feel bad for those guys because it's a bad way to lose a race," Burton said. "But I knew how far the car would run on the amount of gas, so I knew that we had to pit.

"We had some fortune at the end, obviously, with the No. 20 car running out of gas. But after starting 38th and making all those big changes to the car, you're just looking to put yourself in a position to win and we did that."

For Zipadelli, it was a lesson learned.

"We went for it and, obviously, we went with the wrong decision," Zipadelli said. "We thought we'd be about half of a lap short on fuel, and we were short a little more than that. I guess we could have pitted for gas, but it's easy to look back and say what's right and what's wrong. We'll just have to live with this and move on."

And Burton was more than willing to take credit for the win, his fourth of the season, even if it came in fortuitous circumstances.

"I don't care one bit," Burton said. "It doesn't matter to me. We got that trophy and we got those points. I don't care how we did it. You win a lot of races different ways, and to win races you've gotta put yourself in position. We put ourselves in position and did a better job than they did."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.