Especially in carburated engines, there is no fuel shut-off like you might get with an electronic injection system. If the engine's pulling vacuum, it's sucking gas down.
But yeah, some race engines are set rich, for cooling of all things. If you're old enough to remember Dan Gurney's IMSA Toyotas in the early '90s, they were 2-liter (maybe 2.2) turbo 4s, putting out enough power to dominate the GTP class. They were within nanobars of exploding, I mean right at the limit of boost. They had a very dark exhaust, almost like a diesel, they were running so rich. The rich mixture was cooler, and helped avoid detonation.
The above post appeared while I was typing, so I'll just add for emphasis, lean is hot. Maybe done-blowed-up hot.