After watching his two Joe Gibbs teammates pitting Yeley, who is under pressure to perform in the final year of his contract, threw the dice and elected to gamble as well and with Kyle Petty, Reed Sorenson and Vickers also staying out and therefore easing off the throttle, Mears was left with no incoming threat from behind.
Coasting around the final four laps Mears took the white flag jus as his fuel pressure gauge disappeared but such was his advantage that he was able to virtually free wheel around the final one and a half miles to take just his second victory in any of NASCAR's three top tier series (Truck, Busch, Cup). Not only does his maiden Cup Series triumph give the National Guard a win in their most important race but it also catapults the #25 team into the top 30 in team points and hopefully out of danger for the rest of the season in terms of guaranteeing their place on the grid each week.
Amazingly, all six drivers who chose not to make a late splash and dash made it to the chequered flag without running out of fuel and took six of the top seven finishing positions, surely giving all those who did something to think about strategy-wise for next time.
Like Mears, JJ Yeley's career best finish couldn't have come at a better time just days after his team president JD Gibbs said that if he wanted to remain with the #18 team for a third year in 2008 he would have to improve his results. After a strong run all night, Yeley's second place effort was earned on merit as well as by a slice of good fortune.
While job security isn't much of a worry for owner/driver Kyle Petty, third place, his best result in ten years, will certainly have given his #45 team and the entire Petty Enterprises operation a massive boost. Even though Petty suffered front end damage when he clouted Johnson's errant tyre on lap 54 he was able to come through several other near misses to run in the top ten for much of the final 100 laps.
![Casey Mears. [Pic Credit Streeter Lecka/Getty Images]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/190203.jpg)
