Stewart Runs Out Of Gas To Win Kansas City

 

Stewart coasts to Kansas City win
Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Unlike most of the other competitors, and in particular the contenders in the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup, Tony Stewart and his crew actually did something that worked the way they planned Sunday at Kansas Speedway.

Stewart stretched his fuel mileage to the maximum, ran out of gas exiting Turn 2 on the final lap and coasted the rest of the way to win the Banquet 400 -- or more aptly, the Murphy's Law 400 -- by 12.422 seconds over Casey Mears, who also ran out of fuel on the final lap.

Stewart's first win at Kansas was his third of the year and the 27th of his career. When he ran out of fuel on the final lap, he put the No. 20 Chevrolet in neutral and rolled to the finish line.

Stewart's crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, had calculated the No. 20 would run out of fuel half a lap before the finish. Stewart began conserving gas with about 30 laps left in the final run.

"I said, 'We've got nothing to lose here. Let's try to win this thing on fuel mileage,'" Stewart said. "The rest of the way he (Zipadelli) was yelling at me on the radio to save fuel. The bad thing is, he's got a stopwatch and can tell if I'm slowing down or not.

"But I got to see the checkered flag for a really long time there for a change. That was cool."

more on Stewart's NEXTEL Cup win at Kansas