A surprise in Michigan

OK, who would have though Mark Martin would win Sunday's race at Michigan with two laps to go when he was running third?

That's what happened after both Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle ran out of fuel while leading, allowing Martin to take his third win of the season even as his car ran out of fuel in the final corner.

OK, on to some observations:

# After the race, NASCAR takes cars that go through post-race inspection to the fuel pumps. There, the cars have their tanks refilled to match the weight they were before the race when they were last inspected. Series officials pack the fuel. I stood and watched as they did that with some cars and came across something interesting.

Mark Martin's car took 18.9 gallons. Carl Edwards' car took 18.9 gallons. Yet, Greg Biffle's car, which ran out of fuel, took in only 18.6 gallons, likely meaning Biffle's car had some fuel in it that didn't get to the engine or they need to do a better job of packing fuel.  Jimmie Johnson's car didn't go to the pumps since he was not a part of the post-race inspection. Can you imagine if Biffle did indeed have a little bit of fuel left and lost this race because he ran out of fuel 1 mile from the finish? Ouch. Of course he's had some bad luck this year and could have had 2 or 3 wins by now instead of zero.

# Mark Martin because he couldn't go fast. Martin entered the race 13th in the points and couldn't afford to gamble and pick up the pace. Instead he saved fuel just after the final restart. Biffle and Johnson charged a bit more. Johnson is safe in the points and is going for the wins and the bonus points. Biffle was going for a win after having lost a few races he could have won. Martin admits fuel-mileage races rarely go his way but maybe this was payback for those engine failures at California and Las Vegas that had him 34th in the points in early March and some people figuring his comeback might have been a mistake. Not anymore. He's been fast at many tracks and with the bonus points he's building, he could be quite a threat for the title later this season. It will be fun watching him.

# How close did people cut it with fuel? By a rough count, at least five drivers ran out of fuel at the end: Jimmie Johnson (22nd), Kasey Kahne (21st), Tony Stewart (7th), Greg Biffle (5th) and Mark Martin (1st).

# Did you notice that Juan Pablo Montoya finished 6th? What's the big deal? He's placed in the top 10 in 3 of the last 4 races. Now it's off to Sonoma, where Montoya has won before. That's a positive sign for an organization that has some questions surroudning it. The buzz in the garge is how Montoya's teammate, Martin Truex Jr. likely will move to Michael Waltrip Racing and take over Waltrip's ride for next season. Waltrip, then, would run in select races as kind of a fan appreciation tour next year. We'll see if that happens. Truex and Waltrip are coy on the subject. Wouldn't be surprised to see Waltrip make an announcement on his future by Daytona in a few weeks.

# Not a good day for Richard Childress Racing. While Clint Bowyer finished 10th for his first top-10 since Martinsville, his teammates didn't fare as well. Kevin Harvick was 18th, Casey Mears was 24th and Jeff Burton was 26th.

# Kyle Busch was never happy with his car. Sure that anti-Busch fans will call it karma for his comments about Dale Jr. fans this weekend. Either way, it just wasn't a good day as he fought his car most of the day and screamed on the radio about it to his team. He finished 13th. Crew chief Steve Addington said afterward that the team would evaluate everything with the car this week to figure out what happened.

# OK, so was this a good race? Certainly, the end was dramatic. Is that enough to satisfy you or were you dulled by the race where there were few lead changes and the field got strung out? Or did TV make it interesting? What did you think?

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