Kasey Kahne and Paul Menard each had the same idea. Only Kahne, though, had enough fuel to carry out the plan and win the Ameriquest 300 on Saturday night at California Speedway.

Kahne and Menard both topped off their gas tanks during the last caution period of the Ameriquest 300, with 51 of the 150 laps to go on the 2-mile oval.

That dropped both of them out of the top 20, but the drivers ahead of them all had to pit for gas before the end and that left Nextel Cup star Kahne and Busch Series regular Menard to fight it out at the end.

The top two swapped the lead several times in the final 10 laps, with Kahne moving on top for the final time on Lap 148. It looked like Menard was ready to make another run at the leader on the final lap when he suddenly slowed on the backstretch, out of fuel.

"It was a great battle," said Kahne, who wound up with enough gas left to do some post-victory burnouts for the fans. "It was gutsy. I didn't know if we would make it. "We were both saving fuel and both trying to make it to the end, save fuel and race each other. But the bottom line is to make it to the finish."   More