Dale Earnhardt Jr. gambled on tires and fuel and made it pay off Saturday night in Richmond, Va., outrunning Jimmie Johnson and Bobby Labonte over the last 45 laps for his third victory of the season.
The Nextel Cup points leader took the lead when Tony Stewart and most of the other contenders pitted for tires and fuel with 54 laps to go in the Chevy American Revolution 400.
Earnhardt made the move look brilliant, gradually building a lead of more than 3 seconds and beating Johnson by 1.481 seconds.
"It was a great race car, just had a great long-run setup on it," Earnhardt said.
The victory was his second at Richmond International Raceway and the 12th overall for the five-year veteran.
At the end, thousands of fans of NASCAR's megastar stood with a triumphant No. 1 wagging in the air, a tribute to his dominant victory. He answered with a smokey spinout on the frontstretch to more roars.
Earnhardt led five times for 115 laps and also extended his Nextel Cup championship points lead from 25 points to 40 over Johnson in 11 races.
Labonte finished third and Stewart was fourth, giving Chevrolet the top four spots. Matt Kenseth was fifth in a Ford.
Earnhardt, Johnson and Jeff Gordon stayed out when Stewart, as the leader, and the rest of the contenders surprisingly headed for the pits when Scott Riggs blown engine brought out the ninth caution on lap 345.
"It was loose on new tires, so pitting wasn't even an option," Earnhardt said.
Earnhardt quickly showed it was a good call when he took off on the restart with 45 laps to go with Johnson second, Gordon third, Stewart fourth and Bobby Labonte fifth — all having broken from the field.
Gordon was the first to falter, sliding up the track in the fourth turn just four laps into the green flag run, but he lost just one spot while Labonte sneaked inside Stewart for third at about the same time.
Earnhardt's lead was 1 1/2 seconds over Johnson and Labonte with 25 laps to go on, while Stewart seemed to be slowly fading from contention.
It never mattered as Earnhardt pulled away and never slowed down.
Earlier, Michael Waltrip and Stewart engaged in one of the longest, closest duels, with Stewart keeping his Chevrolet on Waltrip's tail for more than 20 laps, unable to get by until Waltrip wiggled on lap 250.
Stewart sailed by and quickly built a lead of more than three seconds as Waltrip eventually yielded second to Earnhardt. Once Earnhardt took the spot, he started reeling in the leader in lapped traffic until a series of green-flag pit stop jumbled the field to set up the finish.
The first half of the race was messy, but not because of the track as the drivers found two racing grooves and passed in either one.
The lead changed hands 11 times, with Earnhardt leading three times for 55 laps. There also were seven cautions flags lasting 45 laps.
The last one, only a few laps before the midpoint, came as Virginia native Jeff Burton challenged Jeremy Mayfield for the lead coming out of the fourth turn. But as Burton pulled alongside, the rear of his car lost its grip and he spun backward into the frontstretch infield grass.
Burton finished 14th, his 87th consecutive race without a victory.
IRL: Buddy Rice wasn't the driver everyone expected to win the pole for the Indianapolis 500. Perhaps the only one not surprised to find Rice at the top of the tentative grid for May 30 race after Saturday's opening round of time trials was the youngster himself.
"That's obviously what I was brought here to do when I came to sub for Kenny Brack," said Rice, who replaced the injured former Indy 500 winner and IRL champion this season.
Despite winning his first IRL pole in the season-opener at Homestead, Rice wasn't even among the favorites going into the first of three days of qualifying at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
At the end of the day, though, it was the man filling in at Rahal Letterman Racing who topped 21 other qualifiers with a four-lap, 10-mile average of 222.024 mph.