If Sunday’s LifeLock 400-mile, 200-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup race on the 2.0-mile D-shaped Michigan International Speedway would have been called the LifeLock 396, Jimmie Johnson and his #48 Hedrick Motorsports’ Chevrolet would have happily rolled into Victory Lane.

But, unfortunately for Johnson, things didn’t quite work out that way.

While the three-time and reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion had his way with the majority of the race in Michigan and looked like a sure thing to win the race after passing the leading Ford Fusion driven by Greg Biffle of the Roush-Fenway Racing outfit with six laps to go. But then, four laps later, his car slowed dramatically, and Johnson began swerving back and forth. “What was going on?” collectively thought the 100,000 or so fans on hand. Well, what happened was that Johnson had been running on fumes while chasing down and passing Biffle and, finally, the #48 Chevy’s tank found itself bone dry, absent of the fossil fuel known as gasoline required to keep a 3,500-pound moving at 200 miles per hour. Johnson dropped down the leader board like a rock, landing in 22nd place. Greg Biffle appeared to have the race won, but then he too, ran out of gas on the last lap. Then came Hendrick Motorsports racer Mark Martin. Playing it safe and rolling on and off the throttle to save fuel to the end, the crafty 50 year-old played it just right, running out of gas and coasting across the finish line less than three seconds ahead of teammate Jeff Gordon to win the race.

"My car was good, but I couldn't run their pace and save gas," explained an exuberant Martin. "When Jimmie ran out, I said, 'Heck, we're this close. I'm going to run hard. With three quarters of a lap [left], what can happen?"'

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin finished third in a Toyota, followed by Carl Edwards, Biffle, Juan Montoya and series points leader Tony Stewart.

Jeff Gordon was thrilled with his second place finish as his team was forced to change an engine on Friday, mandating that the multifold NASCAR champion had to start the race from the rear. Once the green flag dropped, though, Gordon took off and began displacing one car after another.

"We just fought hard," Gordon said. "We had to work our way up through traffic and the car was there to do it. Once we got up there in the top 15 or so, we had to make some adjustments. We never really could get as good as the first two or three guys, but we were a top-five car. So I'm really proud of that."

Biffle, understandably, was bummed out after the race. Having place fifth overall, he was left wondering what could have been with a half a gallon of gas.

"The 48 [Johnson] came up there and ran like we weren't on a fuel-economy run," Biffle explained, noting that both he and Johnson knew they were both dangerously low on fuel. "I messed with him a little bit. It made me use too much throttle and burned up the gas. Unfortunately, he came up there and we cat and moused and used up too much gas."

After the race, Gordon — teammates with Martin, Johnson and Earnhardt — went to Victory Lane to shake hands with Martin.

Said Gordon: "I said, 'Old man, you snookered us again.' ... He's like a 21-year-old with a lot of experience under his belt, and that's tough to beat."

By Eric Johnson