NASCAR: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Ends Winless Streak in Dramatic Fashion at Michigan

In a race where it looked like Dale Jr. had it in the bag due to fuel mileage with two laps to go at Michigan, Sam Hornish Jr. spun out and brought out the caution. This put the race into overtime, which made Earnhardt, who was already sweating the amount of fumes in his tank, sweat even more. 

Jr. shut his car off as much as he could during the caution laps, some times passing the pace car while coasting to save gas. After NASCAR warned him to stay in line, the race was scheduled to restart for a green-white-checkered finish, but the question was: did Dale Earnhardt Jr. have enough petrol to make it to the line? 

When the green came out, Tony Eury Jr. told his driver to basically go for broke because they were probably going to run out of gas anyway. So Dale Jr. started to pull away to a comfortable lead over Kasey Kahne.

Then, with one lap to go, Michael Waltrip and Patrick Carpentier spun to bring out the final caution of the race. This may have saved Earnhardt from running out of gas, but alas we'll never know for sure now.

Dale Jr. would coast to the finish line under caution, victorious for the first time in 76 Sprint Cup events. And he didn't even have enough gas for a victory burnout. 

Kasey Kahne was second, followed by Matt Kenseth, Brian Vickers, and Tony Stewart rounded out the Top Five.

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If you follow my Fantasy Picks each week let me update you on how my picks came in at Michigan.

Jimmie Johnson: Sixth

Carl Edwards: Seventh

Kasey Kahne: Second

Matt Kenseth: Third

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: First

Brian Vickers: Fourth

My picks had an average finish of 3.8. That's pretty good stuff right there. Stay tuned for my Fantasy Picks for Sonoma coming up Thursday.