Biffle blows it at Kansas

After two Chase races to forget, on Friday the race at Kansas looked to be a set up for another day of disappointment for Greg Biffle after he qualified 31st.

But by lap 48 of the 267-lap event Sunday, Biffle appeared in 17th place and was charging to the front.  

Then during pit stops on Lap 71, crew chief Greg Erwin made the call for two tires while most of the front runners took four. With a faster pit stop, Biffle won the race off pit road and took the lead.

Suddenly Biffle’s past two weeks of woe looked to be on the rebound. On only two tires, Biffle took command of the race holding off Jimmie Johnson and only losing the lead for a short time during a round of green flag pit stops.

On lap 131 Biffle began to fade and Johnson was able to get by him and make the pass stick but only after several laps of side-by-side racing. On lap 149 during another round of yellow flag pit stops, Biffle again took only two tires and the lead.

This time Biffle was able to keep Tony Stewart behind him and was even able to open up a two second lead by lap 187.

He had a three and a half second lead when green flag pit stops came around again starting on lap 202. After the stops cycled through, Biffle re-inherited the lead.

By Lap 217 Biffle had stretched out his lead to seven seconds and it began to look as though a victory was in reach for the Roush-Fenway team for the first time in the 2009 Chase and for the first time since September of last year.

It looked like it was Biffle’s race to lose and unfortunately he did just that.

On lap 236 during a caution for the blown engine of Dale Earnhardt Jr., the victory slipped from their grasp.

Despite having less then 30 laps to go, Biffle overrode crew chief Erwin’s two-tire call and told the crew he wanted four.

“Not much else to say about that,” Biffle said of the call.  “I stuck my fingers out the window like that, and said, "four, four, four," so (they) came around to the other side.”

It was that call that ended up losing the race.

Biffle restarted fourth and dove to the outside after the start-finish line. He slid into second and looked as though he would chase leader Stewart down. Stewart, perhaps seeing the success of Biffle nearly the entire race, had taken the lead off pit road, by only taking two tires.

The four tires for Biffle proved to be his undoing as soon Jeff Gordon was able to catch him with less then 12 laps to go. To his credit Biffle put the blame squarely on his shoulders.

“I feel bad,” Biffle said. “At the end I wanted to take four tires and the crew chief wanted to take two, and I decided I wanted four. Probably the wrong thing to do.”

Despite losing the race however, Biffle can console himself with the fact that he was able to gain 10 much needed bonus points for leading the most laps, 113, and was able to climb one position in the standings to eighth.

“We had a really good day.  It felt good to run back up front again,” Biffle said. “Quite a bit different, obviously a lot different setup than what we've normally run, so I wasn't sure what I was going to have.”
 
“But you know, first time I've really been able to run the top, as well,” he added. “So maybe we found out what some of these other guys have been doing that we haven't.  It feels good.”

Whether he will be able to come back from that far back to win remains to be seen, but on things for certain it will be a long uphill battle that will only be won if Biffle and his crew are the absolute top of their game from here on out.

“I know what I did wrong.  I know I made a mistake,” Biffle said. “But we're sure excited to be running good again and especially going to some tracks we like, like California and some other places.  I'm having the time of my life, I know that.”
 

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