Biffle triumphs again

BY RALPH N. PAULK
Media General News Service
Published: September 22, 2008

For the past three seasons, Greg Biffle has been trying to prove he can hang with his high-profile teammates, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth.

Biffle dusted both yesterday as he took the checkered flag in the Camping World RV 400 at Dover International Raceway. Biffle has won the first two races in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, enabling him to narrow Edwards’ Chase lead to 10 points.

Biffle, who last week won the postseason opener at Loudon, N.H., won with an average speed of 114.168 mph as Roush Fenway Racing swept the first three positions. Kenseth finished a season-best second, while Edwards’ third-place showing left him alone atop the Chase standing.

While Biffle moves up the Chase chart, Kyle Busch had disappointing performance with a last-place finish that dropped him to 12th in the points, leaving him only mathematically alive for the season title.

While Busch appears to have peaked too soon, Biffle continues to gather momentum as he heads to Kansas to defend a title he won last season.

“We haven’t been good enough to win in the past,“ Biffle said. “I’m more involved with everything now, and it’s starting to pay dividends.

“I feel as if this has been coming for a while. We are concentrating on what we’re doing, and it’s working.“

It worked perfectly over the last 20 laps as he battled Kenseth for the checkered flag.

“We got together a little bit,“ Biffle said. “But once I got my nose out there, I couldn’t give up.“

Kenseth had taken the lead with 23 laps to go but couldn’t shake Edwards and Biffle as they swerved through lapped traffic. Biffle and Kenseth rubbed doors and tapped fenders as they maneuvered for position through the corners, particularly in turns 2 and 3.

“I feel mentally that I can drives these cars better than those guys,“ said Biffle, who led three times for a total of 29 laps. “It was just a matter of waiting for the right time.“

On Lap 391, Biffle was better coming out of Turn 2. With Kenseth slowed some by lapped traffic, Biffle steered the No. 16 Ford near the wall on the back straightaway to take the lead.

“The position I was in, it was kind of fun because Matt is so smart,“ Biffle said. “We got to [Kenseth], and he didn’t give me a chance to get to outside.

“Carl came up there to give me a little help. We went down in the corner, and the lapped car went high, then I went high. I figured it was my time to try [Kenseth].“

Kenseth, who took the lead from Edwards on Lap 378, led a race-high 136 laps. But his No. 17 Ford was too loose to keep Biffle at bay.

“My car was really loose, so when you get somebody outside you it’s hard to hold on,“ Kenseth said. “If somebody can run outside and hold you kind of tight in the corner, where they barely got enough room between the apron and your car, it’s very hard for the inside car to get off the corner.“

Edwards couldn’t hang with Biffle either, mostly because of a pit-road strategy that backfired. He and crew chief Bob Osborne opted for a two-tire change instead of four during their last stop after Juan Pablo Montoya spun out to cause the 10th caution.

“Bob is mad at himself for making a two-tire change,“ Edwards said. “We did what we had to do considering how we ran on two tires earlier in the race.“

Jimmie Johnson, the two-time reigning Cup champion, seemed on his way the victory after leading 81 laps. But he couldn’t keep up with Team Roush after the Lap 298 restart, and settled for a fifth-place finish that leaves him second [based on a tiebreaker with Biffle] in the Chase 10 points behind Edwards.

“I knew deep down that the Roush cars had something special,“ said Johnson, who now has five straight top-five finishes.

Mark Martin finished fourth, followed by Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer. South Boston’s Jeff Burton, who moved up a notch to fourth in points, outlasted Clint Bowyer for ninth.