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BROOKLYN, Mich. — Thomasville's Brian Vickers focused on his fuel gauge, not the track.

Crew chief Ryan Pemberton wondered if he had ruined a season or saved it.

Pemberton's decision to pit Vickers 51 laps from the finish played out before them. The Trinity High School graduate inherited the lead with three laps left when Jimmie Johnson, using the same strategy, ran out of fuel.

Johnson had little to risk. All but assured of making the Chase, the three-time defending series champion lost only a race, finishing 33rd.

Vickers had more to lose. He entered Sunday's race at Michigan International Speedway 96 points out of a Chase spot with less than a month before the field is set. Run out of fuel and he would have likely finished 30th or worse — all but ending any hopes of making the Chase.

"You put a stake in the ground," Pemberton said of his decision to pit during the race's next-to-last caution period. "We're either out of it, completely out of the Chase or we're going to win the race.

"You talk about a sickening feeling."

He could say that with a smile, though. Vickers won.

Vickers also moved tantalizing close to the Chase. He trails Mark Martin, who ran out of fuel with two laps to go, by 12 points. That can be as little as three positions in a race.

The victory was the second of Vickers' career, snapping a 100-race winless streak. And he gave the 3-year-old team its first Sprint Cup victory.

"It's a big weight off our shoulders, I know it is off of mine," Vickers said.

The finish, again, mocked Johnson.

"We've won one race on fuel mileage," said Johnson, who led 279 of the 400 laps in the two Michigan races this year but never finished better than 22nd. "It is just not what we are good at. I did all I could. I was running half-throttle for 80 to 90 percent of that run. I don't know how else I could have saved any."

Vickers saved fuel by drafting close to Johnson. What looked like great racing — they were less than two car lengths apart the last few laps — was as much Vickers drafting Johnson and pressuring his former teammate.

They had been together at Hendrick Motorsports when Vickers won his only previous Cup race in 2006 at Talladega. They made contact as they tried to make a run on leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. that day. Johnson and Earnhardt wrecked. Vickers won.

Vickers was headed elsewhere even before that race. He left Hendrick after that season to join Red Bull Racing Team, which was making its series debut. The team struggled and Vickers failed to qualify for more than a third of the races that first season.

"That was painful," Vickers said. "Probably the hardest year of my racing career."

All of that rode with Vickers in those final laps. It's why he was more focused on his fuel gauges than the track. He's lost such races before. Even this year. He's won six poles this season, including this weekend, but never finished better than seventh in any of those races.

Too many missed opportunities. Either a slow pit stop, ill-handling car or some other misfortune often struck. Thus, a team some looked at the beginning of the season as one that could make the Chase, seemed out of contention less than two months ago.

He and his team have rallied. He's finished 11th or better in each of the last six races to move into contention for the Chase with just races left at Bristol, Atlanta and Richmond before the title run begins.

"We've got to continue to perform the same way we have the past five weeks," Vickers said. "If we push ourselves too hard, we can make mistakes. We need to stay calm, and continue to do the exact same thing we've doing and the Chase is in sight."

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com