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Harvick grabs Charlotte victory

Kevin Harvick claimed his third NASCAR Sprint Cup race victory of the season after Dale Earnhardt Jr ran out of fuel on the final corner of Sunday's Coke 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Thousands of fans in the stands were ready to see NASCAR's most popular driver break a 104-race win-less streak after he took the white flag as the leader, following a late restart a lap earlier. Earnhardt seemed to be in control but the #88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet visibly slowed down before the final corner as his legions of followers watched in disbelief.

Earnhardt's tank ran empty less than a mile from the finish line and Richard Childress Racing's Harvick, who had led only one lap before that, went on to take the chequered flag as the winner of NASCAR's longest race. Harvick had rarely been a contender at the front for most of the event but once again his ability to close races better than rivals prevailed, this time with a bit of help from Earnhardt's misfortunes.

"It's one of those deals like today, when everybody started pitting we said to heck with it," said Harvick. "We're just going to try to save gas and try to get to one pitstop to go by saving gas. And the caution came out with like four or five laps before we were supposed to pit. So heck, it's just one of those deals where we had enough gas to get to the end and wound up winning the race."

The dramatic green-white-chequered finish came after Earnhardt's team-mate Jimmie Johnson caused the caution to wave due to an engine failure four laps from the scheduled end. Before the yellow flags waved, Roush Fenway's Greg Biffle, who recovered from early cooling issues inside his car, was trying to fend off the charging Red Bull Toyota of Kasey Kahne for the lead, while Earnhardt closed on both of them.

Most of the late frontrunners were marginal on their fuel mileage, and Biffle eventually had to pit under the caution while Kahne ran out of fuel when the green flag waved for the last time. Earnhardt had been saving gas before that, but the duration of the final caution made the race two laps longer, thus putting more pressure on those who were tight on fuel.

When Kahne ran dry on the final restart there was contact between a number of cars behind him, Penske's Brad Keselowski getting massive damage on the rear of his #2 Dodge. However no caution was waved, setting up the unexpected turn of events that unfolded on the last lap.

"I was out [of fuel] on the back straightaway," said Earnhardt. "My car just kept up enough speed it didn't look like it was out. But, I was out. The spotter is like 'man, they are coming, they are coming' and I'm like I'm just cruising here, what am I supposed to do? Get out and pedal this thing with my feet?

"It was a long race and a really hard race and I haven't ran good here in a long time. We ran really, really good tonight. Real good and I'm real happy about that. The wins are going to come; we just have to keep working."

Varying fuel and specially tyre strategies placed some of the fastest cars of the race in the middle of the pack ahead of the closing stages. The Roush Fenway duo of Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth seemed in a different league while running ahead during the first half of the race, but in Kenseth's case he had to pit for fuel just as he was about to catch the leaders with seven laps to go, while Edwards struggled to get track position due to his strategy.

"We were great, but it was just a track position game," said Edwards. "By chance, everything that we did ended up being bad for track position. We were loose at the wrong times and I made some moves out there that put us in some spots that set us back, but that's racing.

"I thought there at the end with all the fuel I saved that we were going to be in a really good spot, but somebody ran out of fuel on the restart and everybody just clobbered everyone."

Roush cars led more than half the race between them - Kenseth leading more than a quarter of the race - but the one that spent the least laps at the front among them eventually came the closest to victory. David Ragan led seven laps in total and looked just as quick as his team-mates at times, in the end crossing the finish line in second for his best Cup race finish to date.

Joe Gibbs Racing's Joey Logano finished third ahead of Penske's Kurt Busch, none of them top contenders through the 600 miles of racing. The Richard Petty Motorsports Fords of AJ Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose both led the race for a few laps and looked strong in the first half of the race, finishing fifth and sixth ahead of Earnhardt's coasting Chevy in the end.

It was a tough night for Logano's team-mate Kyle Busch, who led for 55 laps but then suffered two spins out of Turn 4, the second one causing damage to the rear of his Toyota and requiring a lengthy visit to the garage.

Edwards was only 16th at the flag, but he continues to lead the standings, now ahead of a closing Harvick who has all but earned an early birth in this year's Chase by virtue of his three victories thus far. This year the two drivers with the most wins after the first 26 races, who rank in the top 20, earn a place in the championship play-off and Harvick leads the series in wins so far.

Results - 402 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap
 1.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet          4h33m14.000s
 2.  David Ragan         Roush Fenway Ford                + 0.703s
 3.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                     + 1.393s
 4.  Kurt Busch          Penske Dodge                     + 1.953s
 5.  AJ Allmendinger     Petty Ford                       + 1.978s
 6.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                       + 2.243s
 7.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet               + 2.269s
 8.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet          + 2.443s
 9.  David Reutimann     Waltrip Toyota                   + 2.460s
10.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                     + 2.865s
11.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr  Wood Brothers Ford               + 3.184s
12.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet      + 3.225s
13.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford                + 3.413s
14.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford                + 3.562s
15.  Clint Bowyer        Childress Chevrolet              + 3.893s
16.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford                + 5.052s
17.  Tony Stewart        Stewart Haas Chevrolet          + 16.787s
18.  Brian Vickers       Red Bull Toyota                 + 19.744s
19.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                    + 37.637s
20.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet                + 1 lap
21.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet               + 1 lap
22.  Kasey Kahne         Red Bull Toyota                   + 1 lap
23.  Casey Mears         Germain Toyota                    + 1 lap
24.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota             + 2 laps
25.  Travis Kvapil       Front Row Ford                   + 4 laps
26.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                   + 5 laps
27.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet                + 6 laps
28.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet               + 7 laps
29.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet             + 19 laps
30.  Mike Bliss          FAS Lane Ford                   + 35 laps
31.  Ryan Newman         Stewart Haas Chevrolet          + 44 laps

Retirements:

     Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                     344 laps
     David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                   301 laps
     Mark Martin         Hendrick Chevrolet               301 laps
     Landon Cassill      Phoenix Chevrolet                293 laps
     David Starr         Leavine Fenton Ford              286 laps
     Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet      181 laps
     Robby Gordon        Gordon Dodge                      99 laps
     Michael McDowell    HP Toyota                         40 laps
     David Stremme       Inception Chevrolet               34 laps
     Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                      28 laps
     JJ Yeley            Whitney Chevrolet                 22 laps
     Mike Skinner        Germain Toyota                     6 laps

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