Harvick wins 600 when Earnhardt runs out of gas

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was within a half-mile of breaking a 104-race drought.

But Kevin Harvick came up a winner when Earnhardt’s gas tank ran dry on the final lap of a green-white-checkered-flag finish in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Harvick powered past Earnhardt off Turn 4 and took the checkered flag for his Sprint Cup Series-leading third victory of the season and his first points victory at the 1.5-mile track.

David Ragan ran second followed by Joey Logano, Kurt Busch and AJ Allmendinger. Earnhardt coasted across the finish line in seventh place behind Marcos Ambrose in sixth.

The Roush Fenway cars dominated the first half of the race, with Carl Edwards leading early and Matt Kenseth the second 100 laps. All told, Kenseth had led 101 laps before coming to the pits under caution on Lap 233.

Divergent pit strategies under that yellow scrambled the field and mired Kenseth and Edwards in traffic for a restart on Lap 245. Kyle Busch cleared Marcos Ambrose for the lead moments after that restart and retained it—save for a cycle of green-flag pit stops—until Landon Cassill’s wild slide through the frontstretch grass caused the 10th caution of the race on Lap 295.

Busch led the field to a restart on Lap 302, but he chose to pit under caution on Lap 307—along with Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.—after a three-car wreck in Turn 3 off the restart lap, involving Mark Martin, David Gilliland and Ryan Newman, slowed the race for the 11th time.

Restarting deep in the field on Lap 311, Busch made little progress. Ultimately, he caused the 12th and 13th cautions of the race, first sliding through the grass in the tri-oval on Lap 318, and then spinning off Turn 2 on Lap 343.

Jeff Gordon had the lead when the field came to green on Lap 349, but Greg Biffle grabbed the top spot one lap later and stayed there until caution for Jimmie Johnson’s blown engine brought out the 14th caution on Lap 396. Biffle was forced to pit for fuel under yellow on Lap 399 and handed the lead to Kasey Kahne when he came down pit road.

Kahne ran out of fuel just after the restart, opening the door for Earnhardt. But Earnhardt didn’t have enough fuel to complete the extra two laps.