racing at Kansas

So I'm running an online race (Nascar Racing 2003) at Kansas the other night. 81 laps.

At the green flag, I make a move on the outside of the car in front of me, heading out of the tri-oval I'm up against the wall, nowhere to go, and my car goes spinning. The car on the inside came up just a bit into my rear side. No real damage to the car. Pitted for tires under caution and I was off again.
My car was handling like garbage. Wicked tight, hard to handle. I was running around fourth place. First and second place were about five seconds ahead of me, which is a HUGE lead in a race. Third place was about two seconds ahead of me and I was losing him lap by lap.

So, as I drive, I was watching lap times, and how my distance to the leader was changing. Time to get ready for a pit stop. Taking one hand off the wheel, I reached for the keyboard. I had to do something to fix this car. Adjusted all four tire pressures. Adjusted the track bar. Moved some wedge. 28 laps to go, I had just fallen to fifth place. Time to pit. Good entry, stopped on my marks and got out clean. Back on the track, the car was starting to handle much better. Pitting under green put me more than a lap down.
I was about a second faster per lap (sometimes more) on my fresh tires. The top four cars continued to drive the track. With 15 to go, two of them pitted. A few laps later, another pitted. He came out just ahead of me but recieved a black flag for speeding on pit road. He would have to go into pits for a drive through penalty. Finaly with about 10 to go, the only car not pitted went in. I looked down at the times. I WAS WINNING! I had about an eleven second lead over the rest of the field with ten to go. I had worn tires. I had to stay within a second slower of these guys to keep my lead. The plan was working. With two to go, I was told I may not have enough gas. WHAT DID YOU JUST TELL ME?! White flag...one to go! Fuel light is lit (almost empty). Second place about 3 seconds back. Flying down the back straight....let off the gas...apply just a touch of brake to turn the car into turn 3.... back on the gas slightly turning into turn 4. . . pedal to the floor, coming out of the turn. I can see the checkers now. My car stutters. OH, gas! Checkered flag, I actually won this race that started out so badly. As I drove my car back toward turn 1, slowing it down, the engine went silent. Just enough gas to make it.

What a great race!