Fuel gamble gives Newman victory at Michigan.

In a classic fuel mileage race at the two-mile Michigan International Speedway, Penske Racing's Ryan Newman capitalised on Kurt Busch's unsuccessful gamble to try and run 65 laps on a single tank to take home his fifth win of the 2003 season.

Driving the usually thirsty #12 ALLTEL Dodge Intrepid Newman stalked Busch's #97 Rubbermaid Ford Taurus through the final 50-lap green flag run to the chequers knowing that although he had 13 laps more fuel in his tank than his Roush Racing rival, he too was unsure of making it to the end without running dry.

However as Busch eased back more and more, Newman and crew-chief Matt Borland made the decision to go for the lead regardless of the consequences and coming off turn four on lap 198 of 200, Newman swept outside Busch for first place and immediately began to pull away.

Almost exactly one lap after losing the lead, Busch coasted on to pit road out of gas just as Newman took the white flag.

Behind Newman, Kevin Harvick moved into second spot as he aimed to score a third win in a row for Richard Childress Racing but despite having none of Newman's fuel worries, the #29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet driver couldn't close the gap to the leader over the final few laps.

Newman, who also won strategy battles earlier this year in Chicagoland and Pocono, crossed the finishing stripe two seconds ahead of Harvick after leading a total of 32 laps all afternoon.

Tony Stewart finished third with Greg Biffle fourth, Steve Park fifth and Watkins Glen winner Robby Gordon sixth, all drivers moving up the order significantly in the final dozen or so laps as almost half the lead lap cars came onto pit road for a late splash of fuel.

Michael Waltrip put in another solid performance to take home seventh place while Ken Schrader gave BAM Racing their best ever finish with an eighth place run.

Points leader Matt Kenseth failed to trouble the leaders for once this season but still came away with a top ten finish, his ninth place effort even sweeter than usual owing to the misfortunes that befell every sing one of his remaining title rivals.

Kenseth extended his points lead to more than 300 over Dale Earnhardt Jr after the #8 Budweiser team suffered a torrid day that included an accident with Rusty Wallace as the field tried to come to pit road, a dreadful early set-up that dropped Junior from 19th to 36th inside the first 20 laps and a damaging tyre blow-out. Seven laps off the pace, Earnhardt Jr finished 32nd.

Just two places ahead of Junior after a similarly miserable day was Jeff Gordon, who cut a tyre in the early laps and lost a lap making a green flag pit stop. Try as he might, Gordon never had the machinery to regain his place on the lead lap and actually lost one more lap to the leaders when his own fuel gamble failed.

Others who finished the race cursing their fuel mileage included Bill Elliott, who dropped from 5th to 15th, Sterling Marlin, who went from 3rd to 19th, Dale Jarrett, who was running second when he made his final stop and eventually finished 23rd and Jimmy Spencer, who was having one of his best races this year until his final green flag stop dropped him out of the top five all the way back to 26th.

But perhaps the most disappointed driver of all after the race was Jimmie Johnson, who ran out of fuel on track just three laps from home while on course for a top four finish and dropped to 27th.

The race was marred by two serious looking incidents that, although spectacular to watch, didn't result in any injuries. On lap 63 Todd Bodine and Kenny Wallace went for a wild ride coming off turn two after Bodine and Busch made slight contact with the #54 National Guard Ford and Wallace's #23 Stacker 2 Dodge both catching fire as Bodine's car briefly rode the guardrails almost clean off the floor.

On lap 105 Rusty Wallace gave NASCAR's new fire extinguisher system a rather inauspicious debut when he suffered an almost identical engine failure to that suffered by his Penske Racing teammate Newman in June's Sirius 400 at MIS. However, despite trying to set off the on-board extinguisher, the #2 Miller Lite Dodge still produced an impressive conflagration.

Watching Wallace's car smouldering in the infield Newman began worrying that his engine might produce a repeat performance. He needn't have given it a second thought.