Exerpt from NASCAR.com
The view from the pit box: "At the time we had two conflicting stories on fuel mileage, and I'm in the middle," Gibson said. "My engineer is telling me this; my fuel man is telling me this. I thought, if I fill up, I'm going to finish in the top five. I went with the sure bet. If I'd ran out, I would have finished 20th. So I just took the sure bet. The company got two cars in the top 10, we led a lot of laps, so it's a plus for us. It's sad, but the bright side is, DEI is strong and we're getting better."
But in the immediate, emotional aftermath of Saturday's race, those plusses were difficult to find. "I believe we should have stayed out to try to win the race. I saved so much fricking gas, you don't know," Martin said over the radio after taking the checkered flag. But then, he softened. "I probably would have run out with two to go, so I'm sorry. But I want to win, you guys. Thanks for giving me such a great car."
Was Martin angry? "I threw my little fit," he said afterward. "We're all upset. We all were upset. I'm over it. I'm just proud of this team. They gave me the goods to do it with, and we let it slip through out fingers."
Should he have come in? "I thought I saved plenty," he said. "I really thought I saved plenty. But I don't know how much short. They first told me I was one lap short. I saved probably five laps' worth. And then they told me the 29 [car of Kevin Harvick, also powered by an Earnhardt-Childress engine] ran out with eight laps to go. So I don't know. I can't tell you. It's over with. I did my part to the best of my ability, they did their part to the best of their ability. I back them up when they have a bad day, and they back me up when I drive it into the wall."
Long after the race was over, while Martin's No. 8 car was being pushed through the inspection shed, Gibson still wrestled with the decision. "You don't know," he said. "The 29 saved, and he ran out. How slow do you run? If everybody makes it, and you slow down and you still lose, it, you're mad because you didn't [stop]. We didn't do a very good job tonight, figuring that, and we've got to get better at it. We failed him. Good driver, good car, and we just didn't do the strategy right."
And Martin, a driver forced to deal with more than his share of on-track heartbreak, was left to rue another one that got away. "We were really spectacular this weekend," he said. "It's a shame we finished fifth."
