Kevin Harvick was leading the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International when he ran out fuel on one of the final turns of the race.
Running out of fuel wasn't a compleat loss, however. The defending Sprint Cup champion still managed to finish 3rd in the event, having traveled enough to be able to cross the start/finish line.
Harvick said he thought he'd "done a pretty good job of saving fuel," in the race in the closing laps when fuel strategy came into play.
He just didn't save enough.
This was the second week in a row in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series where the race leader ran out of fuel with five or less laps to go.
The race before the Glen, at Pocono, race leader Joey Logano ran out of gas with less than five laps to go. Then Kyle Busch took command of the lead, only to run out of fuel on the last lap. Matt Kenseth would win the race.
"I was just running as fast as I needed to, to protect the lead there as I was in front of the 20 (driven by Matt Kenseth)," Harvick said after the race.
The third place finish this past weekend was Harvick's 15th Top-5 and 19th Top-10 of the season.
"I had to pick up the pace just a little bit," Harvick said, referring to when Joey Ligano caught up to him in the closing laps of the race.
"But, all in all, our ... team did a great job today and we were in position to have a win; two corners away, But that's just kind of how the middle of this season has gone. We've had really fast cars but the circumstances have just gotten the best of us.
"So, hopefully we're saving that up for the last 10 weeks."
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