Biffle to the top

LAS VEGAS — Greg Biffle didn’t have the car to win Sunday’s race, but he did manage to leave Las Vegas with a consolation prize. After his third third-place finish in as many races, Biffle is the Cup series leader for the first time since June 2005.

As loose as his car was in Saturday’s practice, Biffle had to scramble to claim his third podium finish of the season.

Greg Biffle, driver of the #16 3M/Meguiars Ford, pits during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 11, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada.  (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Greg Biffle, driver of the #16 3M/Meguiars Ford, pits during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 11, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)

“My car just didn’t turn good enough today,” Biffle explained. “That’s what I lacked. We fought loose, loose, loose in practice, kept working on it, working on it. Finally, at the end of the day, we got it to where it was pretty good.

“Today I was just too tight. Right from the green, I was too tight. We just kind of pecked at it, and we should have taken two, three rounds of wedge out (to change the weight distribution). We took one out. I just was not aggressive enough.

“I should have taken two, three rounds out of it or raised the track bar a half-inch, maybe pulled rubber out of the left rear — I might have been up their tail pipe (of race winner Tony Stewart) at the end. We had a good run. Even then I don’t know if we had a car that was fast enough.”

 

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.