While the Biff, Greg Biffle, is back with a win in Kansas; so is Jimmie Johnson.
Biffle whose last win came at Pocono in August said “Man! It’s a big win for us. We were down in the dumps at Dover,” where he finished 19th.
Biffle took the lead for good on lap 238 of the 267-lapper at Kansas Speedway and cruised, unchallenged to a 7.638 second victory over Johnson, the defending and four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion who moved into first in the standings.
“Once we got our car adjusted we were off and set sail. The thing was really fast. I didn’t think even if there were more cautions that they would catch us,” Biffle added.
Johnson who started 21rst did what he had to do move through the field and have another good result following his Dover victory last week.
“The car, although we were able to pass a lot of cars today, we started 21st, worked our way forward. Some pit sequence put us back to 21st. Then since we were back there we pitted another time to work on the car. That put us in the 30s. With that adjustment, it worked great for us. I drove up right to about the top 10 on that next run,” Jimmie Johnson explained.
With Denny Hamlin finishing 12th Johnson has an eight-point lead going into the fourth race of the Chase next week. Johnson added “It's a great position to be in, but it's way too early to think about it, to worry about defending.”
Kevin Harvick, who led the points before the reset, finished third and is third in the Chase 30 points down. “We had a strong car really from the drop of the green flag all the way till the end. Obviously, we would have liked to win. We lost some track position there on those last couple pit stops. Just took a little bit longer to get through traffic than we would have liked.”
While Jimmie Johnson remains the major focus Biffle’s comeback is meaningful for the Ford contingent which did not get its’ first victory this year until Biffle’s win in Pocono in August and while it’s Biffle second win of the year(16th in his career) it’s also Ford’s second win.
More importantly it keeps Ford drivers in contention for the Cup with Carle Edwards in fourth, 53 points behind Johnson. Biffle is up to eighth, 85 points out.
“You know, everybody asked us last week if we're out the Chase, have we given up, whatever the case was. The 16 team will never give up,” said Biffle.
Another driver on the comeback trail was Tony Stewart who ran a strong race leading four times for 76-laps and finishing fourth. Jeff Gordon finished fourth.
The most interesting action in the race involved Kyle Busch and David Reutimann. Early in the race Busch says he inadvertently bumped into Reutimann seriously causing serious damage.
Reutimann rejoined the race, out of contention and turned into Busch paying back with damage to the rear end housing and rear control arms.
Although Busch wanted to go to the garage for repairs which would have made him faster, crew chief, Dave Rogers called for more minor repairs. This meant Busch would lose less laps and it did Busch ended up 21rst.
Busch said, about the first contact “the guy (David Reutimann) was loose -- said it on the radio. He slid up off the bottom and I got into him unintentionally and just spun him out. My fault 100 percent, but then the retaliation to a guy that’s in the Chase that’s racing for something.”
Reutimann countered, “He just rolled over me. I’m on the bottom of the racetrack and he had the whole top of the racetrack to go to, and he run over me. I got wrecked. You guys can sugarcoat it all the time, but he wrecked me. You can tell me how bad he wants it, how hard he drives, how much he wants it above everybody else. That’s all fine. You guys can say all that, but he just wrecked me."
Patrick Carpentier, of Joliette, Que started 36th and finished 27th ; he lead ten laps.
Biffle whose last win came at Pocono in August said “Man! It’s a big win for us. We were down in the dumps at Dover,” where he finished 19th.
Biffle took the lead for good on lap 238 of the 267-lapper at Kansas Speedway and cruised, unchallenged to a 7.638 second victory over Johnson, the defending and four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion who moved into first in the standings.
“Once we got our car adjusted we were off and set sail. The thing was really fast. I didn’t think even if there were more cautions that they would catch us,” Biffle added.
Johnson who started 21rst did what he had to do move through the field and have another good result following his Dover victory last week.
“The car, although we were able to pass a lot of cars today, we started 21st, worked our way forward. Some pit sequence put us back to 21st. Then since we were back there we pitted another time to work on the car. That put us in the 30s. With that adjustment, it worked great for us. I drove up right to about the top 10 on that next run,” Jimmie Johnson explained.
With Denny Hamlin finishing 12th Johnson has an eight-point lead going into the fourth race of the Chase next week. Johnson added “It's a great position to be in, but it's way too early to think about it, to worry about defending.”
Kevin Harvick, who led the points before the reset, finished third and is third in the Chase 30 points down. “We had a strong car really from the drop of the green flag all the way till the end. Obviously, we would have liked to win. We lost some track position there on those last couple pit stops. Just took a little bit longer to get through traffic than we would have liked.”
While Jimmie Johnson remains the major focus Biffle’s comeback is meaningful for the Ford contingent which did not get its’ first victory this year until Biffle’s win in Pocono in August and while it’s Biffle second win of the year(16th in his career) it’s also Ford’s second win.
More importantly it keeps Ford drivers in contention for the Cup with Carle Edwards in fourth, 53 points behind Johnson. Biffle is up to eighth, 85 points out.
“You know, everybody asked us last week if we're out the Chase, have we given up, whatever the case was. The 16 team will never give up,” said Biffle.
Another driver on the comeback trail was Tony Stewart who ran a strong race leading four times for 76-laps and finishing fourth. Jeff Gordon finished fourth.
The most interesting action in the race involved Kyle Busch and David Reutimann. Early in the race Busch says he inadvertently bumped into Reutimann seriously causing serious damage.
Reutimann rejoined the race, out of contention and turned into Busch paying back with damage to the rear end housing and rear control arms.
Although Busch wanted to go to the garage for repairs which would have made him faster, crew chief, Dave Rogers called for more minor repairs. This meant Busch would lose less laps and it did Busch ended up 21rst.
Busch said, about the first contact “the guy (David Reutimann) was loose -- said it on the radio. He slid up off the bottom and I got into him unintentionally and just spun him out. My fault 100 percent, but then the retaliation to a guy that’s in the Chase that’s racing for something.”
Reutimann countered, “He just rolled over me. I’m on the bottom of the racetrack and he had the whole top of the racetrack to go to, and he run over me. I got wrecked. You guys can sugarcoat it all the time, but he wrecked me. You can tell me how bad he wants it, how hard he drives, how much he wants it above everybody else. That’s all fine. You guys can say all that, but he just wrecked me."
Patrick Carpentier, of Joliette, Que started 36th and finished 27th ; he lead ten laps.