Biffle wins the Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan

[media-credit name=”Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”221″][/media-credit]Greg Biffle captures his second win of the season on Sunday in the Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan Int’l Speedway.

Biffle was gaining on leader Jimmie Johnson with less than 10 laps to go.  With six laps remaining, Johnson slowed with an engine failure, bringing out the final caution of the day and giving Biffle the race lead.

“I thought that I knew I would be able to get him then. I was closing in on him and I don’t know if I would have got him in those eight laps or not but it would have been a hell of a run to the end.” Biffle said.

Biffle got a great restart and held off Keselowski for his 18^th career victory, third at MIS and the 609th Sprint Cup Series win for Ford.

“Junior gave me a huge push for that win. I have to thank him for that. I saw Brad laying back like always and he got a little jump on me. It probably would have been leveled out by turn one.” Biffle said.

With the victory Biffle reclaimed the Sprint Cup points lead by 20 over Roush Fenway Racing (RFR) teammate Matt Kenseth, who finished 17th after a late flat tire.

“We are going to make a run at the title.” said Biffle. “I know they don’t talk about us a lot, but they will when we get to Vegas.”

Keselowski finished second, Kasey Kahne third, Dale Earnhardt Jr. fourth and last weeks winner Marcos Ambrose finished fifth.

Pole sitter Mark Martin was dominating the race until Bobby Labonte spun in front of him, sending Martin sliding down pit road.  Martin slid down pit road into an opening on the inside barrier.  Martin’s car was essentially impaled by the end of the wall.  Martin was able to get out and walk away.

“That was a pretty freak angle that I got it. I’m not sure what you can do. It could have been really bad if I would have got into that hole a little deeper where it would have caught me in the door instead of the crush area back there.” Martin said.

On lap 76, Ambrose got into Regan Smith, sending him into the outside wall.

“Marcos Ambrose is just driving over his head. I don’t know if it is because he won last week, he’s got extra pressure or what. He’s been doing it all day. He’s almost wrecked four times that I’ve seen.  Unfortunately, four tires are better than two, and I was four.” Smith said.

“I didn’t mean to get into him. I got down in there and he came off my side of the car and I was trying to get out of there for him and just caught him on the way past. I feel bad for him. You can’t take it back, all you can say is sorry.” Ambrose said of the contact.

Hendrick Motorsports suffered four engine failures over the weekend.  Two with Johnson, one with Tony Stewart and one with Jeff Gordon.

On lap 95, Gordon suffers another setback in his chase hopes.  Gordon headed to the garage after his engine let go.

“A valve spring, just running along there and all of a sudden dropped a cylinder.  I was pretty sure that’s what it was.  Of course the No.14 had that same issue got our fingers crossed for all the other Hendrick engines out there.  This is a tough place on engines.  We rarely have these issues and it’s unfortunate to have this one here today.  It’s the kind of year we have been having.” Gordon said.

Stewart suffered engine trouble on lap 56.

“It’s uncommon to have a problem like this there. It’s not something I’m concerned about and having problems in the future with it’s just a bad day and like I said we have the best engine department in the world in my opinion.  Definitely in this series they did everything they could do.” Stewart said.

The series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway next Saturday night for the IRWIN Tools Night Race at 7pm on ABC.