Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had the lead on the white flag lap in Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway but it wasn't meant to be. With victory within his grasp Dale, Jr.'s No. 88 ran out of fuel as Kevin Harvick blew past to collect his third NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win of 2011.

"Unbelievable," Harvick said on the radio after crossing the finish line 0.703 seconds ahead of runnerup David Ragan.

The final caution of the race came out when Jimmie Johnson's engine expired with five laps remaining, setting the race up for the first green-white-checkered finish in 600 history. Greg Biffle held the lead at that point and was among those who elected to pit while Earnhardt, Jr. and Kasey Kahne both gambled and stayed out. Harvick’s RCR teammates Paul Menard and Jeff Burton pushed the No. 29 around the track to save fuel during the caution period.

Dale, Jr. and Kahne lined up one-two on the ensuing double-file restart with Junior pulling out to a sizeable lead when Kahne's tank ran dry heading to turn one. Polesitter Brad Keselowski rear-ended Kahne when he suddenly lost speed and sustained heavy damage to the front end of his Penske Dodge as Jeff Burton spun behind them as a result of making contact with Carl Edwards. The incident did not bring out the yellow flag.

Junior looked to have the win locked up until the final turn when Harvick seemed to come out of nowhere as the two Chevrolet drivers approached the finish line. Harvick led two laps of the 603-mile race and has led a total of nine laps in the three races he has won this season.

"I tried to save a ton of gas, as much as I could," Earnhardt, Jr. said. I'm disappointed we didn't win. If we had won that race, it would have been a gift."

David Ragan's decision to visit pit road paid off with a second-place finish.

"We didn’t luck in to it," said Ragan, winner of the Sprint Showdown last weekend. "We were saving gas and thought we were going to finish fourth or fifth. We're happy to get a top five but we really wanted to win this thing."

Joey Logano finished third followed by Kurt Busch and A. J. Allmendinger.

Rounding out the top-10 were Marcos Ambrose, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Regan Smith, David Reutimann and Denny Hamlin, respectively.

The 2011 Coca-Cola 600 featured 38 lead changes among 19 drivers.

Carl Edwards leads Kevin Harvick in the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings as the series heads to Kansas.

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