Updated April 14
Jimmie Johnson was the biggest winner Saturday at Phoenix, but he wasn't the only successful gambler.
Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Casey Mears and Bobby Labonte all greatly enhanced their finishing positions by choosing to gamble on fuel mileage.
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| A gutsy move late in Saturday night's race helped Clint Bowyer finish second in Phoenix. (Getty Images) |
"It was a good call by (crew chief) Gil (Martin)," Bowyer said. "He told me from the get-go we were only three laps from making it all the way. I just sort of started saving it and saving my brakes more than anything. And then in turn, it was saving fuel too. So it just worked out for us today."
Bowyer's Richard Childress Racing teammate Burton also benefited from the fuel mileage gambit, though he wasn't particularly pleased with his performance.
"We were going to run 11th, 12th or something like that, but (crew chief) Scott (Miller) made a great call and got us a sixth," Burton said. "We will certainly take it. I am disappointed in how we ran. I am disappointed in myself.
"It was a good finish for us, but we are missing something at this track, I am missing something at this track. It has been a thorn in our side."
Mears, a teammate of Johnson's at Hendrick Motorsports, had an average running position of 20th for the race but snuck away with 11th after the No. 25 team chose to forgo a final stop for fuel.
"It was a gamble worth taking, we needed the points," said Mears, who is 25th in the standings. "Once we committed to it, we just went ahead and let some of those guys go ahead and go. I'm excited about where we ended up. I'm not really excited about our performance, but the guys did a great job and it was a good team effort."
Labonte spent but 13 laps in the top 15 and had just four "quality passes" -- defined as the number of times passing a car running in the top 15 while under a green flag -- yet finished just one spot behind Mears in 12th.
"We really fought all night," Labonte said. "I don't want to say that these cars don't drive good because they can drive better. We just didn't do the best job that we could do. We came here and tested and were awful. We had a lot of things going against us tonight, but I'll take it."
The biggest gambler of all was Johnson, but the funny thing is, it wasn't necessarily a risk the 48 team needed to make in order to take the victory. The 48 car was strong all night and crew chief Chad Knaus noted that the win wasn't simply something they lucked into.
"We didn't win it on fuel mileage," Knaus said. "You know, we could have pitted right there with everybody. Say if everybody came down pit road and took two tires, everybody came down pit road and took four tires, I think we would have been in position to race for the win."
Power Rankings after Phoenix:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 |
| Even if Johnson were to finish last and Mark Martin were to win and lead the most laps in the next race at Texas, he would still hold the points lead by 23 points. | ||
| 2 | Mark Martin | 2 |
| There was a time when Martin had a bit of luck at Talladega. From 1988 through 2001 he had 18 top 10s in 28 races. In 12 races since 2002, he has just two top 10s with nine finishes outside the top 20. | ||
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | 3 |
| He has four victories in his past 12 trips to Talladega. However, he finished outside the top 10 in the eight races he did not win, with finishes of 19th or worse in his past four visits. | ||
| 4 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 4 |
| He captured second at Talladega in the spring of 2008, but has finished no better than 15th in his other five visits to the track. | ||
| 5 | Tony Stewart | 5 |
| Though he won last fall at Talladega, he has finished 22nd or worse in five of his last seven trips to the track with three DNFs by way of crash. | ||
| 6 | Denny Hamlin | 6 |
| He has led at least one lap in all eight of his visits to Talladega, but has just two top 10s to show for it with six finishes of 21st or worse. | ||
| 7 | Kurt Busch | 7 |
| He has three finishes of 21st or worse in his past four visits to Talladega after finishing outside the top 10 just three times in his first 14 trips. | ||
| 8 | Kasey Kahne | 8 |
| Sunday marked his second second-place finish at Talladega. In 12 starts at the track, those are his only top 10s. | ||
| 9 | Ryan Newman | 9 |
| His 36th-place finish Sunday was his sixth of 33rd or worse in 16 starts at Talladega. "We had this race back here in the spring and complained about cars getting airborne and now ironically I'm the guy that gets upside down," Newman said. "I wish NASCAR would do something. It was a boring race for the fans. That's not something anybody wants to see; at least I hope not. If they do, go home because you don't belong here." | ||
| 10 | Kyle Busch | 10 |
| His win in the spring of 2008 is his lone top 10 finish in 10 starts at Talladega. | ||
| 11 | Carl Edwards | 11 |
| After three consecutive top 10 finishes at Talladega between 2005-06, he has finished outside the top 10 in his past six trips to the track, but at least he wasn't flying into the catchfence like in his last visit. | ||
| 12 | Matt Kenseth | 12 |
| Like his Roush-Fenway Racing teammate Edwards, he had three consecutive top 10 finishes at Talladega between 2005-06, but has failed to finish in the top 10 at the track since. | ||
| 13 | Greg Biffle | 13 |
| Finished a Talladega career-best fourth on Sunday, his second consecutive top 10 at the track after finishing no better than 13th in his first 12 visits. | ||
| 14 | Clint Bowyer | 14 |
| He won't complain too much about a 12th-place finish considering he has finished 35th or worse in four of his eight visits. | ||
| 15 | Kevin Harvick | 15 |
| His 21st-place finish Sunday was his fifth consecutive finish of 20th or worse at Talladega. He has been running at the finish of all 18 of his starts at Talladega. | ||
