Greg Biffle’s Quest For A Championship Begins Sunday in Kansas
Many race fans have ignored the fact that Greg Biffle is in the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Chase. Don’t look now but Biffle is currently sixth in the overall series point’s standings and down a deficit of 41 points to series points leader Matt Kenseth.
Kansas marks the start of the road for Biffle if he plans on competing for this 2013 NSCS Championship. The only win of 2013 for “The Biff” came back in Michigan and that win has propelled him to being able to contend for this years title. Biffle is hoping for those few wins on these intermediate tracks and predominantly could give him an advantage in the battle for the championship.
“We’ve got a lot of speed in our cars and 1.5-mile tracks are our favorite type of tracks,” said Biffle, who has captured seven of his 19 career checkered flags in the series at 1.5-mile tracks. “I like Kansas and have a couple of wins there. We’ve been running well and we have a strong opportunity to get our first win of the Chase.”
Chicagoland wasn’t the best race for the No. 16 team as Biffle brought home a 16th place finish. A lot of fans believed that was the way Biffle’s chase would be, outside the top fifteen. Well if you were one of those fans then you have been proved wrong. Biffle went out to New Hampshire and posted a solid ninth place finish and then surprised many fans after a third place performance in Dover International Speedway.
Biffle will have to overcome a bad qualifying run on Friday. Biffle took to the track as the 29th qualifier and couldn’t find the speed, forcing him to start 26th for the Hollywood Casino 400 on Sunday.
Biffle has had success at Kansas though with 2-career wins coming in 2007 and 2010.
Biffle is hoping consistency will also win him this championship, that’s worked out pretty well considering he’s the only competitor to be running at the end of all the season’s races. So far through this chase consistency is winning nothing, it’s winning. Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson are the two that are winning, but this weekend in Kansas the Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Biffle is hoping to change that and make this a 4-man race between Kenseth, Johnson, Kyle Busch and Biffle.
“We’ve got to get a win this weekend to get back in the Chase,” Biffle said.
Kenseth wins the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas
The NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Kansas Lottery 300 was a caution filled 200 lap race that ended with Matt Kenseth in victory lane.
This victory makes Kenseth sixth on the all time series win list. This was also his first victory in seven races at Kansas Speedway.
“When we got here yesterday we had a lot of speed right off the truck and I told Matt I thought it was the best car we had had all year. We had a fast car all the way through the race. We lost a lot of track position but it all worked out in the end.”
Paul Menard finished second, capturing his fifth top-10 finish in eight races at Kansas and his third top-10 finish in 2013.
Regan Smith finished third and captured his first top-10 at Kansas.
The drivers struggled with the new tires with everything from excessive wear to lack of grip. Austin Dillon reported tires giving up and blistering. Despite his tire issues, Dillon was able to finish sixth and take over the series points lead by eight points over Sam Hornish Jr.
After leading most of the race, Regan Smith would lose the lead on a late round of pit stops and come back to finish third.
A late race altercation between Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski while both were racing for the runner up spot, led Keselowski to issue a warning to Busch regarding tomorrow’s Sprint Cup race. Keselowski stated, “I got wrecked by a dirty driver. There is no other way of putting it. He is cool with that. I have raced him really cool over the last year to be respectful to him and try to repair our relationship. He has a lot more to lose than we do. That is one of the advantages to not being in the chase.”
Busch also had a run in with Trevor Bayne which cost Bayne numerous spots in the running order. Bayne remarked, “It was really crazy out there. We had a super fast car and I think we ran out of fuel there. I messed up on pit road and sped the last segment and got a penalty and Mike made great strategy to get up back up there then we went in one and two and got wrecked by the 54. He sent me up the race track. I think he got loose and slid up. It almost happened with me and the 18 when we were leading. It is unfortunate for our team to have this fast of a race car and not be able to capitalize. I am sure he was probably frustrated by that but I think it was just hard racing.”
Final Finishing order:
1) Matt Kenseth 2) Paul Menard 3) Regan Smith 4) Kyle Busch 5) Justin Allgaier 6) Austin Dillon 7) Parker Kligerman 8) Brad Sweet 9) Trevor Bayne 10) Elliott Sadler 11) Alex Bowman 12) Michael Annett 13) Mike Bliss 14) Travis Pastrana 15) James Buescher 16) Chris Buescher 17) Sam Hornish Jr 18) Brian Scott 19) Dakoda Armstrong 20) Nelson Piquet Jr 21) Ryan Sieg 22) Landon Cassill 23) Bryan Silas 24) Johanna Long 25) Joe Nemechek 26) Jennifer Jo Cobb 27) Eric McClure 28) Brad Keselowski 29) Brian Vickers 30) Kyle Larson 31) Mike Wallace 32) Ken Butler 33) TJ Bell 34) Carl Long 35) Hal Martin 37) Blake Koch 38) J.J. Yeley 39) Josh Wise 40) Jeff Green
Dillon captures the Kansas Lottery 300 pole
With cool damp air, the qualifying speeds for the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Kansas Lottery 300 pole were elevated. Austin Dillon captured the pole position with a new qualifying record with a lap of 29.281 seconds or 184.420 mph in the AdvoCare Spark Chevrolet. This is his 10th pole position in 2013 and his first at Kansas Speedway.
The outside front row spot will be Justin Allgaier. Elliott Sadler will start third in the Sport Clips Toyota.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) regular and NNS stand out Kyle Busch turned in a disappointing qualifying performance in the Monster Energy Toyota starting on the outside of the sixth row in the 12th spot.
Kyle “Yung Money” Larson qualified 19th in the Cessna Chevrolet. Larson who will be joining the Earnhardt/Ganassi Sprint Cup team next year was confident in his teams ability to rebound during the race.
Austin Dillon who was decked out in pink to represent Breast Cancer Awareness said, “Our car was really fast and we are going to make sure we stay out front all day with the cooler temperatures. The guys made a lot of changes to adapt to the cooler temperatures and I am really proud of them. Now it’s up to us and the pit crew to keep them up front all day and put this AdvoCare Spark Chevrolet in Victory Lane.”
NNS points leader Sam Hornish qualified a disappointing 15th with teammate Brad Keselowski coming home in the 13th spot. Hornish said, “We have a really good car we just didn’t qualify well. We will make some changes and we will come back and do what we can in the race.”
Note of interest all of Austin Dillon’s driver wardrobe will be donated to raise money for Breast Cancer awareness. Information on the auction can be found at Richard Childress Racing.com. If Dillon wins this weekend’s Nationwide Series race at Kansas Speedway, AdvoCare will make a $5,000 donation to the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma.
