The final round of service placed the top spot in Kurt Busch’s, and then Johnson’s hands as stops cycled through for the final time, but Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus pulled the fuel strategy card out of their hats to try and win their fifth Coca Cola 600.

Truex, charging from a lap behind, found himself fifth with 20 to go and took fourth from Ryan Newman with 17 to go.

At 13 to go he was third, seven seconds back of Johnson, and with eight to go that gap had been slashed to five and a half seconds as Johnson continued to save fuel.

With three laps to go the gap dimished to 2.6 seconds and at the two to go mark, Johnson’s fuel cell finally gave up the ghost down the backstretch, paving the way for Dillon to assume the lead and snag his storybook ending.

The win marked the first victory for the No. 3 in NASCAR’s top series since Dale Earnhardt’s final Cup triumph in October of 2000 at Talladega Superspeedway.

On the other side of the emotional spectrum, Busch wound up second, just missing out on his first-career points-paying victory at Charlotte after winning last weekend’s All-Star Race.

“Our guys did a great job tonight. Adam Stevens and everybody brought me a really fast car, the best car I’ve ever had at Charlotte … and for as far as Truex got out there towards the end in that last stint, I was surprised I was able to close in on him and get him there at the end in order to finish second,” Busch said.

“It’s just a frustrating night; I’m just so disappointed. There was nothing we could have done differently. We ran our own race and we did what we needed to do … just came up short.”

Truex came home third after leading a race-high 233 of 400 laps, marking the third-straight Coca Cola 600 in which he’s led the most laps and tying a record set by Darrell Waltrip.

“Out of the last three years, that’s two of them I lost on fuel mileage, so that kind of stinks … but big picture wise, it was a good night,” said the new Cup points leader. “The guys did an awesome job all night long. “We got behind a few times, fell back and then got the lead.”

“We were a little too loose on that last run as well, but I think we may have still caught him on the last lap. Tonight was tough and the cars were a handful; I drove my butt off but it wasn’t (meant) to be tonight.”

Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin followed in fourth and fifth, giving Toyota four of the top five positions at the finish, just not the one that mattered most.

Kurt Busch, rookie Erik Jones, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt Jr. completed the top 10.

Johnson wound up 17th at the checkered flag.

“I didn’t know we were going to try to make it on fuel. Last I heard nobody could make it, so if I would have known that a little bit earlier I think I could have made that extra lap,” Johnson said with a light laugh. “I just came up a little short. Congratulations to Austin.”

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns to action June 4 at Dover Int’l Speedway.

Full race results can be viewed on the next page…