DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) – Victory was most certainly in sight for Ryan Newman until strategy snatched it away at Darlington Raceway.

When a late caution forced teams to gamble on pit strategy, Newman made the wrong decision and stayed out on the track. The contenders behind him all stopped for new tires, and used the fresh rubber to blow past Newman on the restart.

The result was Greg Biffle winning his third race of the season while Newman faded back to a fifth-place finish in Saturday night’s race.

“That’s the way it works sometimes,” Newman said. “Sometimes you’re the dealer and sometimes you’re not. I can’t say it was a bad call by any means. We had a car that should have definitely won this race but didn’t.”

Newman had seized the lead from Biffle and was cruising to his first win of the season. No one was even close to catching him.

But with less than five laps to go, Mark Martin lost control of his car to bring out a caution.

It was decision time.

Biffle knew stopping for four fresh tires was his only option. He had lost a race the same way earlier this season, when he chose not to change the rubber on his Ford at Bristol and blew any chance at a victory.

“There was no question we were coming for tires,” Biffle said. “We were coming no matter what.”

But Newman wasn’t so sure what to do. As the leader, he knew all the drivers behind him were watching and waiting for his decision. If he ducked off the track for tires, there was no guarantee anyone else would. Newman would be shuffled back into the pack without enough time left to race back to the front.

And he knew if he decided against taking tires, several cars would surely stop and hope the fresh Goodyears would propel them past Newman in the two-lap dash to the finish.

So Newman stayed out.

Everyone else went in.

Newman was a sitting duck.

“I couldn’t imagine Ryan restarting on those worn tires,” Biffle said. “I knew we’d be four seconds a lap quicker. I knew I had him beat.”

Jeff Gordon, who was riding in third at the time of the caution and ended up finishing second, sympathized with Newman’s predicament.

“The lead in a situation like that is the toughest place to be,” Gordon said. “I’m sure he didn’t think that many guys were going to come in and take tires.”

Newman tried one last maneuver to pull out the win when he was slow on the restart, forcing Ken Schrader to lock up his brakes to avoid running into Newman.

Had the action caused an accident, it would have brought out a caution that would have ended the race with Newman in front.

“I was just hoping they’d crash right away at the start,” Newman said. “That didn’t happen, unfortunately. I gave them too clean of a restart and that’s the way it ended.”

Gordon applauded the strategy.

“I don’t know if he spun the tires or stopped or what, but it almost worked if that’s what he was doing because we almost had a huge wreck,” Gordon said.

Instead, Biffle drove off to the fifth victory for Roush Racing in 10 races this season.

But it wasn’t a banner race for the entire Roush camp. Defending Nextel Series champion Kurt Busch had an awful – and embarrassing – night after wrecking on the first lap and then infuriating NASCAR with his behavior.

His early accident had guaranteed him an awful finish, but Busch was trying hard to salvage every point he could. But he lined up in the wrong place on the track during a caution, and refused an order from NASCAR to stop his car to allow the field to pass so Busch could get in the correct spot.

He was sent into the pits for a two-lap penalty, and NASCAR officials took offense to the language he used over the radio. They ordered him to turn his engine off, and he responded by revving it.

He also tossed a water bottle out of his window that hit the official in his pit.

“His actions were certainly not befitting of a champion,” NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said.

NASCAR reserved the right to penalize Busch later this week.