Stewart: we had nothing to lose

The 2005 champion ran out of fuel on the final lap, but coasted home to take the win from Casey Mears, who was also out of fuel.

"We had nothing to lose," he said. "When you're not in the chase and you know those guys can't take that chance that opens the door for us."

Stewart was told by his crew chief Greg Zipadelli that he was half a lap short on fuel, and was constantly telling the reigning champion to slow down as he timed his laps.

"The bad thing is he has a stopwatch, so he knows if I'm slowing down enough," said Stewart. "I'd pick it up a bit and think I was going to get away with it then he'd yell at me to slow down."

However, Stewart pointed out that he didn't manage to save any fuel at all, as he still ran out coming onto the back straight.

"Coming off turn two on the last lap the fuel needle went to zero," he said, "so I just kicked it out of gear so the engine didn't slow the car down.

"I just rode it round the bottom, and got to see the chequered flag for a really long time for once, so that was nice."