In a stunning turn of events, race and point leader Brad Keselowski ran out of gas on the 275th of 334 laps in the Bank of America 500. He coasted his Dodge to pit lane, where it took 22 seconds to get the serviced and then re-fired. The potential disaster dropped Keselowski to 14th in the running order once the cycle of pit stops concluded.
The field is on wildly-varying pit strategies, but most of them will require another pit stop if the race does not see another caution flag. One of the drivers who can make it on fuel is Denny Hamlin, who pitted 54 laps from the conclusion. Another is Clint Bowyer who ran 56 laps on his previous stint before pitting with the same number of laps remaining in the race.
Greg Biffle leads the way but he will certainly have to pit. Ditto Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, and Carl Edwards (having his best run perhaps all season). Bowyer runs fifth and the first car with a realistic shot of stretching the gas tank to the end of the race. Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano, and Martin Truex Jr. are all on cycles that will need another pit stop, while Hamlin can likely make it and Jimmie Johnson ran out of gas as he hit pit road.
A caution flag would throw all this strategy out of the window and allow everyone to pit and make it to the end of the race on fuel, but the race has been clean and green most of the evening after having three cautions in the opening 41 circuits.