Stewart races to Infineon victory.

Tony Stewart finally broke Joe Gibbs Racing's 2005 victory duck as he claimed a hard fought win at the Infineon Raceway on Sunday.

With 38 laps remaining and with everyone having made their final fuel-stops Stewart found himself running only 14th with a dozen cars ahead of him all running a slightly different fuel strategy. Undeterred, the driver of the #20 Home Depot Chevrolet simply scythed his way up the order, passing ten cars in the first eight laps following the lap 72 restart.

By the time the 110-lap Dodge/Save Mart 350 reached lap 90, Stewart was second and closing rapidly on race leader Ricky Rudd but while most expected Stewart to simply drive past the #21 Wood Brothers Ford, Rudd put up a stout defence around the hilly 1.99-mile road course.

Even though Rudd was trying desperately to save fuel, having made his final stop under the sixth caution of the day on lap 66, some six laps earlier than Stewart, it took Stewart almost ten laps to find a way around Rudd's rather wide Ford.

Once in the lead Stewart never looked back and even a late caution with six laps remaining didn't pose any problems as he drove away from the field on the final restart with five laps remaining.

Stewart's 20th career Nextel Cup victory and his first since Watkins Glen last year came on a day where he spent the first 30 laps chasing pole sitter Jeff Gordon before moving into a commanding lead when Gordon found himself stuck in third gear.

Despite a flurry of mid-race caution periods Stewart was able to drive away from the rest of the field on each restart, only falling out of the lead when a dozen drivers gambled on making their final fuel stops just before the last pit window opened. That put Rusty Wallace into the lead when Stewart and the rest of the leaders made their finals stops and set the stage for some simply sublime road course driving from the 2002 Cup Series Champion.

Rudd passed Wallace on lap 81, by which time Stewart was second but despite his fuel worries, Rudd held on for second place and his best result of the year. On the same strategy as Stewart, Kurt Busch crossed the line in third place with Wallace fourth and Dale Jarrett fifth after a rough day that included contact with erstwhile points leader Jimmie Johnson.

But while Jarrett was able to recover from his various bumps and scrapes to record a solid top five finish, Johnson wasn't so lucky.

From the outside of the front row, Johnson was the first of three Hendrick Motorsports entries to suffer from transmission troubles when the #48 Lowe's Chevrolet lost third gear after just 15 laps. Electing to try and drive through the problem, Johnson faded to the rear of the field and finished 36th.

Gordon's bid for victory ended shortly after the 40 lap mark when he found himself trapped in gear and although repairs were made, the problem returned in the final ten laps, dropping the quadruple Champion back to 33rd.

The third Hendrick car to fall foul of the Infineon Raceway's demands on transmissions was Kyle Busch, who could select a gear while trying to leave the pits during the first round of stops, losing more than a dozen laps in the process.

But despite the mechanical demands of the circuit, no less than 42 of the 43 starters were still running at the finish with the only casualty being road racer Tom Hubert, who retired Kirk Shelmerdine's Ford with engine problems shortly after the 30-lap mark.

With so many cars still on track, more than 30 of them still on the lead lap, one single mistake or problem would prove costly, as Gordon, Johnson and several other big names discovered.

Dale Earnhardt Jr crashed after just three laps and although he returned to the track on lap 18, he finished 42nd. Likewise Kasey Kahne, whose throttle stuck open on the half way mark resulting in a turn seven crash. Kahne's Evernham Motorsports team took less than 20 laps to repair the damage but Kahne could finish no higher than 41st. Kevin Harvick lost just one lap but dropped to 37th while Carl Edwards dropped three laps after being punted into PJ Jones and finished 38th.

Staying out of trouble was the name of the game and Elliott Sadler played it well as he moved from 42nd on the grid to sixth at the finish while seventh placed Jeremy Mayfield and eighth place finisher Ron Fellows also made good ground after starting outside the top 30.

Road racer Brian Simo scored a career best finish in tenth place, behind Ryan Newman but ahead of Matt Kenseth and the returning Terry Labonte, whose 12th place effort equalled the best finish of the year for the #11 Joe Gibbs team.

Greg Biffle finished 14th after starting 41st and moved into the Nextel Cup points lead thanks to Johnson's misfortunes while Robby Gordon recovered well from his own set of gearbox problems to finish 16th. Boris Said suffered a penalty after pitting when pit lane was closed and took the lap 72 restart in 32nd position. Incredibly Said was on the verge of breaking into the top ten when he ran off course trying to pass Biffle on lap 93, the off-course excursion dropping him to 17th.

As expected, the first road course event of the season caused a great deal of chopping and changing in the standings with Biffle turning a near 50 point deficit into a 22 point advantage over Johnson at the head of the standings. Sadler remains third but Stewart has now moved into fourth, less than 200 markers behind Biffle. Just 110 points now separate third from ninth in the points table, with Edwards dropping five spots to ninth overall.