Having scored absolutely no win in the past 104 races before Coke 600, Earnhardt seemed well on his way to breaking the curse. Leading the pack with about one mile left to go, Earnhardt was once again struck by misfortune as his car ran out of gas.
From the back, Harvick, who had barely managed to lead for one lap during NASCAR's longest Sprint, came like a rocket and snatched an unexpected victory at a track he is not very found of. Meanwhile, Earnhardt's winless streak reached 105.
"It's one of those deals like today, when everybody started pitting we said to heck with it," said Harvick. "We're just going to try to save gas and try to get to one pitstop to go by saving gas. And the caution came out with like four or five laps before we were supposed to pit. So heck, it's just one of those deals where we had enough gas to get to the end and wound up winning the race."
"We weren't supposed to win," Earnhardt explained. "We played our hand, and those other guys came in. I tried to save a ton of gas, but I know I didn't save enough. I tried to save as much as I could. I'm disappointed we didn't win. I know all our fans were disappointed to come so close.
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