As Sunday's LENOX Industrial Tools 301 wound down, weather approached and the intensity picked up. With about 80 laps remaining in the event, most crews had their eyes on the radar and the evidence could be seen on the track. Throughout the field, the competition stepped it up with hard racing from the front to the back. Teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon drove door-panel to door-panel for a number of laps because they knew it was time to go. Unfortunately for many in the top-15, that intensity drove the eyes of their crew chiefs off the radar and onto the track.

When a caution flag flew on Lap 270, the top-14 cars hit pit road for fuel only and some two tire stops.  With thirty laps remaining, most teams admitted to being about eight laps short on fuel and brought their drivers in for service.

Tony Stewart - who led a race high 132 laps - came to pit road under that caution with the lead, but a two tire stop mired the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota in the 14th-position. On a track where track position is key, Stewart was stuck restarting near the back of the pack with a number of lapped cars ahead of him on the outside.

When the rain stopped the race at Lap 284 of the scheduled 301, Stewart had gained only one spot and was once again shut out of Victory Lane. "It's just been the oddest year I've ever seen for this race team," a dejected Stewart said sitting in his covered Toyota in the rain. "It's disappointing for all of us on the Home Depot team. I guarantee you there's a crew chief down there that they're hiding sharp objects from right now. He (Greg Zipadelli, crew chief) gave me the best car I've had since Charlotte. It's just frustrating. There's not anybody that's going to tell you any different than that. There's nothing you can do."

With the race threatened by rain and so near to the scheduled conclusion, this raises the question of why more teams did not gamble.

The most obvious conclusion is that teams were much closer on fuel than any of them would have liked to admit. Remember the caution that brought the field to pit road was brought out when Jamie McMurray drove into the back of Dale Earnhardt Jr. as he slowed to hit pit road. Perhaps the leaders were not too far behind him.

Another reason may be that those crew chiefs that brought their cars in for service did not think the approaching weather was going to be a major threat. For whatever reason, with a large green blob moving closer and closer to the one-mile track on the radar screen, crew chiefs like Greg Zipadelli opted not only to bring their drivers down pit road, but to give them tires. Where was the strategy in that?

While those teams blew a great opportunity, a number of other teams jumped at the chance for a great finish. Michael Waltrip and J.J. Yeley came home in second and third, thanks in large to staying out. While the pair had been running in the top-20, neither driver was a contender until the leaders hit pit road on Lap 274. These teams saw their chance to capitalize on the situation and reacted accordingly.

Anytime weather is a serious threat to the end of a NASCAR event, there are always a few teams that gamble on the rain and hope it works out in their favor. Judging by the radar for the area on Sunday, it is amazing the first team to gamble on the rain - Kurt Busch and crew chief Pat Tryson - was running in the 15th-position.

"We saw it was coming." Tryson said of the weather. "Those things give you a rough idea, but you never know exactly when it was gonna get there. At that point we were watching it more than we were anything. To be honest, we were rooting for it not to rain because we had the fuel mileage to make it to the end and other guys were going to have to pit. We weren't really counting on the rain. It just kind of worked out that they all pitted there and it rained. You know, could have went the other way, too."

It seems the majority of crew chiefs, Tryson included, underestimated the approaching weather and were unwilling to gamble late in the race. Unfortunately for Stewart and others, that call cost them the finish they were hoping for.

"That's part of racing and that's the gamble you take sometimes," Stewart added. "The result today wasn't indicative of how our car was and how hard our team worked. Everybody did a great job. That's racing man. That's the way it happens sometimes."