Bowyer gases the field

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Jeff Siner / Charlotte Observer / MCT NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Clint Bowyer celebrates his victory in the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte, N.C. (TRIBUNE MEDIA MCT)

CONCORD, N.C. -- Clint Bowyer picked up his first win in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship Saturday night, winning a fuel mileage race that ended in disaster for points leader Brad Keselowski.

Keselowski dominated Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway but ran out of gas with 58 laps remaining to blow his chance at the victory. He fell a lap down, finished 11th and had his lead in the standings over five-time champion Jimmie Johnson sliced in half.

Keselowski, who has a seven-point lead over Johnson at the halfway point of the 10-race Chase, immediately gave his Penske Racing team a pep talk over the radio.

"Win some, lose some, guys. It's all good," he told them.

Keselowski, who also ran out of gas Friday night in the Nationwide Series race because of a fuelling error, then asked his crew if he led the most laps Saturday night. Indeed he led 139 of the 334, but had little to show for his effort.

"It's blackjack. You're not going to win every hand," he said. "When you got a bad deal, you have to try not to have too many chips on the table."

But Keselowski was able to see a silver lining in still finishing 11th.

"It was the worst-case scenario," he said. "We minimized the damage as best we could."

Denny Hamlin finished second and is third in the Chase, 15 points back, and Johnson finished third. Neither felt all that bad for Keselowski.

"Live by the sword, die by the sword," Hamlin said.

"I don't know how much it hurt him at the end of the day," Johnson said. "I've been doing this long enough, too, when you see something happen, in your mind, you're like there's an opportunity and before you know it, it happens to you."

Both had to play their own fuel-saving game, especially in the closing laps. Hamlin couldn't make a run at winner Bowyer and Johnson said he couldn't try to chase down Hamlin.

"We were just being really cautious and didn't want to go out there and chase (Hamlin) and get ourselves in trouble," Johnson said. "We're getting really good at this fuel mileage stuff. It's hard to get it right."

Everyone had to keep one eye on the gas gauge, starting very early in the race, and it worked out in Bowyer's favour for his career-best third victory of the season. It also put him back in the title hunt as he moved one spot in the standings to fourth. He's 28 points out as he heads next week to his home track in Kansas.

It all comes in Bowyer's first season with Michael Waltrip Racing and manufacturer Toyota, a partnership that's working out far better than expected.

"Who thought in a million years I'd walk into the situation I've walked into?" he asked in Victory Lane.

-- The Associated Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 14, 2012 B16