I get a kick out of some of y'all.
You get a track like Kansas or Chicago and to some extent like Texas where most will call it a single groove track with next to no passing......it's "follow the leader". Though I tend to disagree with those statements. Then we get the tracks like Daytona and Talladega where the good cars can't get away from the pack. And, again, I sort of disagree but not so much. There's the road courses, which everyone loves.......but there's almost no passing once the cars get a lap or two in......unless someone runs off course (the famous "kitty litter"). And the short tracks where's its seldom the best or fastest car that wins, but the instead it's the luckiest or most physical driver that wins. But when we get to a track that does have multiple racing lines, is smooth and wide with fairly flat corners forcing the cars to handle decently...............and the good cars can and do get away..........we call them "snoozers or ho-hums". California, Michigan, Pocono and to a lesser degree Atlanta are all such tracks. To win, you need a fast car, you need a very good handling car and you need a driver and team who can put it all together. If you can't do that, you'll be lucky to be on the lead lap, let alone win.
Fuel mileage is part of racing............always has been too. Only they used to call it "getting out of pit sequence"...........and lot of drivers have won races in the past with that strategy. Only difference I see is now it's called fuel strategy.
And for most pulling that strategy yesterday (including Bobby Labonte) that was their only hope of winning...........Jeffy had the field covered pretty solidly. With 50 to go, there was absolutely no way Bobby was going to win unless Jeffy broke, wrecked or ran out of gas.......and the 18 team knew it. They gambled..........they lost. So did the Dodge guys. No one was going to catch the 24.
Jeff Gordon won, I really don't care too much for this track.
Actually, it was a good race....you should have seen the side by side racing coming out of turn 4!! 
