GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – HOW DID YOU BALANCE THE FEELING OF NOT RUNNING HOW YOU WANTED AT RICHMOND WITH ULTIMATELY MAKING THE CHASE? “You know, last week there was a lot of emotion. We were as high as we could be on life going into that race. Well, keep in mind I was completely nervous about it but we had five great races, our five best races of the season all put together put us in that position to even be close to making it. We were three spots out of it plus two guys won, so we were like five or six spots out of it at one point and not even in the thing. Then we got five great runs and we thought we had this thing whipped. Then to run like we did really took the wind out of our sails. We made the Chase but we were like, “Gosh, that was tough.” So we came back and had a huge meeting on Monday for probably two hours and talked about what our game plan was and how we were going to change things up to compete. We got some great, aggressive plans like bringing different stuff to the race track and just racing it at Loudon and Dover that we don’t know how it will do but we have nothing to lose. But that approach could pan out for us.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE RICHMOND WAS AN ABERRATION IN TERMS OF HOW YOU HAD BEEN RUNNING AND THAT CHICAGO WILL BE BACK TO THE GOOD? “We are hoping. We test Chicago about four weeks ago. It was an okay test. It wasn’t as good as Michigan. We learned a tremendous about there and got really fast. We did get better at Chicago but it wasn’t like Michigan where we picked up four or five tenths which is huge. We picked up two or three tenths at Chicago off the truck. I think we will be okay at Chicago. I am excited about the different suspension we will try at Loudon and Dover.”
DIDN’T IT RAIN WHEN YOU TESTED AT CHICAGO? “Yeah, they blew through and would come and go.”
IS THERE A LEVEL OF POINTS AS FAR AS HOW MANY YOU ARE BEHIND WORRY YOU AT ALL? IS IT THREE POINTS, SIX POINTS, NINE POINTS? “Not really because there are so many spots available. They are only going to eliminate four so I guess what I am getting it is there are so many spots available that the points probably won’t make that big a difference. It might turn out to be that is the deciding factor but once you make it past this first round, if you do, there are no more bonus points. Now, if you were talking that kind of deficit with only eight cars and the head guy has 12, that would be a big hurdle but I think in this first round it probably won’t be as bad.”
DO YOU HAVE A ROAD MAP FOR GOING THROUGH EACH ROUND? “We don’t. We are just going to keep our head down and do what we did the five weeks to get us in the Chase. If we do that, we will definitely make it by the first round.”
WHERE DO YOU BELIEVE YOUR MILE-AND-A-HALF PROGRAM IS COMPARED TO EVERYONE ELSE IN THE CHASE? “I think everyone at RFR is on the same playing field but I think we are the bottom of the list when it comes to the Chase cars. We are behind Hendrick, Penske and Haas. We aren’t far but they have been better than we have. I can’t sit here and lie to you. It is pretty painfully obvious. It hurts us to say that but that is the truth. They are better than we are and we feel like every week we have that opportunity to close that gap up.”
WITH THE WHOLE ‘ONE FORD’ TYPE OF PSYCHOLOGY WHY IS PENSKE SO FAR AHEAD AT THIS POINT? “They are just better at this point. They have it figured out. They have a better mouse trap, better suspension, better bump stops, better aero, better something. They just have gotten better than we have and we are trying to close in on them.”
OBVIOUSLY IF YOU KNEW WHERE EXACTLY – IS THERE JUST NOT ENOUGH SHARING GOING ON? “Well, it isn’t their job to share. Hendrick doesn’t share with Ginassi all their shock data and all that and those are two Chevy teams. Just because we are Ford teams doesn’t mean it is an open notebook, similar to the Toyota teams of Waltrip and Gibbs, they are still competing.”
