Greg Biffle can draw a lot of similarities with the title character from the old television cartoon ‘Underdog’.
In the role of mild unassuming ‘Shoeshine Boy’, the Roush-Fenway Racing driver is making a quiet entrance into the Chase squeaking into the 10-race playoff as the 12th seed.
But when the chips are down, or in our case the green flag drops on the Chase for the NASCAR Championship, Biffle comes exploding out of the phone booth, cape and all and becomes that super hero persona.
Witness his Chase last year. Biffle came into that Chase in 11th. Then he promptly went out and won the first two races of the Chase. 
Biffle would go on to finish the 2008 season third in the points, a climb of eight positions in ten races.
This year however, there’s one important change for Biffle.
Last year Biffle entered the Chase 80 points out of first. This year he’s only 40 points back.
“I'm excited about it,” Biffle said. “Because if I win the first two races this year, I'll be leading the points and last year I wasn't.”
Biffle should be excited heading into Loudon, the first race in the Chase, this weekend. Not only is he the defending winner, but despite finishing 18th here in the June rain shortened race Biffle was happy with his performance and carries a ton of confidence into the weekend.
“I was racing with Kurt (Busch) for fifth and got into the wall,” Biffle said “We had gotten back to the top-10 I think when the caution came out for rain. We decided to pit and that just didn't work out in our favor. We got out of there with an 18th place finish but we did have a good car and that's the same car we're running there this weekend.”
Another thing Biffle will have in this years Chase that he had in 2008 will be his own superhero version of a sidekick, crew chief Greg Erwin. And according to Erwin the key to a good finish at Loudon is getting a good starting spot.
“Track position is crucial with these cars,” Erwin said. “We will be focusing on qualifying when we unload for that reason and also for pit selection.”
Biffle knows what he has to do and after making the Chase week he is quite aware of what he needs to do at Loudon and beyond.
“We have to get it done there,” Biffle said. “And go to Dover, Kansas, all the places that we love.”
Last season Biffle followed up his win at Loudon, with a victory at Dover then a third place finish third at Kansas. If he can put together a run like that and better his 24th place finish at Talladega, his poorest last year’s Chase, Biffle may just surprise a lot of people.
“It's pretty tight. Biffle said. “40 points, that's reachable in a couple of races. We are just going to have to run better. We are capable of that and we have good racetracks coming up. That's what I'm excited about.”
And if he can pull it off it will be just like a saying from the old cartoon: ‘It’s not a plane, nor bird, nor even frog, It’s just little old me, Underdog’
Or in the case of Greg Biffle, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion.
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