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The Irish Hills were blessed with an absolutely beautiful day as the race fans settled in to watch the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers make their first visit of the year to the famed two- mile oval for the LifeLock 400. The Michigan International Speedway (MIS) fans witnessed one of the wildest finishes in recent memory on Sunday as Mark Martin ended up in Victory Lane after a final lap that stunned the large crowd. Mark Martin looked like a sure 3rd place finisher, when leader Jimmie Johnson ran out of fuel in sight of the white flag. Greg Biffle inherited the lead with just one lap to go, but then he ran out on the backstretch, handing the win to Martin. Michigan has had several fuel mileage finishes over the years, but I don't ever remember one quite like this with three different leaders in just over a lap.

Jimmie Johnson was the class of the field the entire day in the LifeLock 400 leading 146 laps, and at one point had a huge lead over the rest of the field of nearly eight seconds. The race was a typical Michigan race being composed of many long green flag periods with some great three and four wide racing throughout the entire field. The first caution flag of only three did not fly until debris was spotted on lap 73 with a second debris caution just past the halfway point. The very last caution on Lap 150 was triggered when David Stremme slid through the grass exiting turn 4 and hit the water barrels at the end of the pit wall, spraying water everywhere. The No.12 Penske Dodge was the only car all day that had an incident with the wall, but was able to return to the race after repairs.

The field all stopped on pit road for the last time under the last caution, knowing they would be close on fuel if the race went green the rest of the distance. Go green it did, as Greg Biffle's Roush Fenway crew was able to get him out first in front of Martin and Johnson as Greg led at the restart. Biffle was able to build a comfortable lead and looked like he was headed for victory, but Johnson was not to be denied and was able to pass Greg with less than 10 laps to go. Biffle made a couple valiant attempts to retake the top spot but was unable to get by Johnson and looked like he was going to have to settle for 2nd place, as Jimmie was able to pull away.

Just as the leaders approached the white flag for the final lap, Johnson's car unexpectedly slowed as he ran out of fuel, thus handing the lead back to Biffle. Greg's elation was short lived as he also ran out of fuel on the backstretch. A surprised Mark Martin, who had been in fuel conservation mode, was able to sweep by Biffle and take the checkered flag at Michigan for his third win of the season. The enthusiastic crowd was stunned at the sudden turn in events as it looked like first Johnson and then Biffle had the win locked up but both fell short by less than a lap.

After the race Martin said; " We knew we were short; I had a great race car that allowed me to save fuel; I started saving about three laps after that last restart. I couldn't run the pace that the leaders were and save fuel, so I just let them go. After I saw Jimmie run out, I decided I was going to run very hard and then I thought, I am catching Greg really fast!" Mark then expressed his liking for MIS when he said " This is a great place to race."

cws