Marcos Ambrose and Jeff Gordon started Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Sonoma in first and second, and in some order many expected the duo to finish that way.
However, for much of the afternoon neither was a factor. When the checkered flag flew, Gordon was sixth in the final rundown and Ambrose was eighth.
So what happened?
Gordon's bid for a sixth Sonoma win went by the wayside when he ran out of fuel just as he was passing pit road – typical of how his season has gone – and Ambrose's team simply missed it.
"We went about a half-lap too far there on that one run," Gordon said. "I think we made the car a little bit better, and just used a little bit more fuel in that second run, and ran out unfortunately. It never fails – you run out just as you pass pit entrance. We were lucky to get back to pit road and get it fueled up."
Ambrose's quest for victory wasn't undone because of a lack of fuel or poor strategy, but just a car that wasn't the best.
"We really missed it," Ambrose said. "I just feel bad for my Stanley team. We missed it bad and we did good to recover and get a top-10 out of it. We will take it and move on.
"We got the pole and had a lot of speed; we just missed it for the race. We were slow. It was just terrible. We had no speed in the car and we paid the price."