RUSTY WALLACE RUNS OUT OF FUEL ON FINAL LAP
TO SLIDE FROM 4TH TO 28TH IN DODGE/SAVE MART 350
-Costly Break Sees Him Slip A Spot To 16th In NEXTEL Cup Point Standings-

After starting today's Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway from the outside pole and running in the top five for the entire race, Miller Lite Dodge driver Rusty Wallace was running fourth on the final lap when he ran out of fuel and fell to a 28th-place finish.

At the start of the race, pole-winner Jeff Gordon and Rusty raced extremely hard for the lead, allowing third-place starter Kurt Busch the opportunity to sweep underneath and lead the first lap. However, Gordon came back to make an inside move on Busch the next lap in Turn 11 to grab the lead.

The remainder of the race belonged to Gordon, a native of nearby Vallejo, Calif., as he lost the lead only during pitting sequences. He took the lead for the final time when he cleared Casey Mears on Lap 74 and never looked back. He would lead a track record 92 of the 110 laps en route to his eighth career road course win.

He crossed the finish line some 1.012 seconds ahead of runner-up Jamie McMurray. Road racer Scott Pruett finished third, with Michael Waltrip fourth and points leader Jimmie Johnson fifth. Road racer Boris Said was sixth, Mears seventh, Mark Martin eighth, Jeff Burton ninth and Elliott Sadler rounded out the top 10.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 11th, Kevin Harvick 12th, Greg Biffle 13th, Ryan Newman 14th and Tony Stewart 15th.

The lead lap cars pitted for the final time of the race on Lap 68, during the fourth of the six caution periods of the race. Most teams calculated that they could run between 35 and 39 laps on a tank of fuel, with Rusty's team thinking they could make it 38 laps.

"Go easy on that throttle when you can, Rusty," radioed Larry Carter, crew chief for Rusty's No. 2 team, just before the race returned to green on Lap 70. "We know we can go 38 laps, but we're bond to get a couple of more cautions, so we should be okay on the fuel - just barely, but we should make it."

Rusty was fourth on the restart and got up to third at one point in the remaining laps. Carter was correct with his prediction that there would be additional caution laps to help conserve the fuel, as two more yellows flew for a total of six laps.

That was still just a bit shy of what Rusty needed to make the distance. The running order as the field came through the final turn to take the white flag - indicating one lap to go - was Gordon leading, with McMurray second, Pruett third, Rusty fourth and Waltrip fifth.

Just as he crossed the line to take the white flag, the engine started sputtering as Rusty desperately swerved his Dodge to try to pick up the final drops of precious fuel.

"We ran out of fuel," Rusty radioed as he slowed to a stop at the top of the hill and saw the remainder of the field blast by him. "I can't believe this - running fourth and run out of fuel on the last lap."

Rusty's bad break saw him fall from fourth all the way back to the first car running a lap down - the 28th finishing spot - in a matter of just the final 1.99-mile circuit around the track.

Johnson extended his points lead to 27 points over Earnhardt - 2,375 to 2,348 - after today's race. Matt Kenseth is third with 2,143 points, Gordon fourth with 2,123 and Stewart fifth with 2,068. Elliott Sadler is sixth (2,067), Bobby Labonte seventh (2,018), Busch eighth (1,993), Newman ninth (1,980) and Kevin Harvick 10th (1,974). Rusty fell down a spot to 16th after today's finish. He has 1,753 points.

The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup tour now heads back to Daytona Beach, Fla., for next Saturday night's running of the Pepsi 400.

POST-RACE QUOTES: (Courtesy of Dodge):

RUSTY WALLACE: "We had a really good car. We just ran out of gas and that was it. I didn't know we needed to save fuel. It was just run, run, run, run. They told me we had plenty of gas. I came around turn 11 and it just quit running totally. It passed the line and went up the hill and that was it. We didn't have anything for Jeff Gordon all day, but we had the second or third best car at least. We just came up one lap short, and it's really frustrating. The last four weeks we've had super fast cars and crazy things just keep happening. We had a fast car at Charlotte, a fast car at Dover, a fast car at Pocono, a fast car at Michigan. Dumb things just keep happening, and I can't get myself out of that 16th or 17th points' position. There's nothing else we can do about it today. All that's left now is to go home."