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Biffle and Brewco Record Third Top-Ten Finish of 2005

 

HAMPTON, GA (March 19)- Coming off of a fifth place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Greg Biffle, driver of the #66 SUBWAY® Ford Taurus, headed into Saturday's Aaron's 312 full of confidence and anxious to visit victory lane with his Brewco Motorsports teammates.  Having never finished outside of the top-five in four career NASCAR Busch Series starts at the 1.566-mile facility, Biffle was considered a heavy favorite upon entering the two hundred and three lap event.

 

Bringing a brand new, untested racecar to the track can often times be considered a crap shoot, but don't tell crew chief Newt Moore that.  After Friday afternoon's first practice session, it was clear that Moore had done his homework.  Topping the charts with a speed of 185.617 mph, Biffle liked his chances heading into Saturday morning's Busch Pole qualifying session.  "Newt (crew chief Moore) did an awesome job preparing this car.  This thing is a blast to drive.  You never know how good you are going to be when you unload a new car, but Newt and the guys hit the nail on the head with this one.  I'm pumped up for Saturday," Biffle added.

 

In an interesting twist to the traditional schedule, Busch Pole qualifying and the Aaron's 312 were both scheduled for Saturday.  Needless to say, Team Brewco had a busy morning preparing the SUBWAY® Ford Taurus for both events.  For the second weekend in a row, Biffle became the victim of a bad qualifying draw.  As the track temperature rose thirty degrees from the start of qualifying to the end, Biffle ultimately had to settle for a fifteenth place starting position.  Disappointed but not discouraged, Biffle set his sights on the afternoon's 312-mile race.

 

At the drop of the green flag, Greg Biffle wasted little time moving to the front of the field.  By lap twelve, he managed to break into the top-ten, only to move into the top-five a few laps later.  When asked how his car was handling, Biffle said, "If anything I am a little tight in the center.  It wants to push when I get in traffic, but this car's going to haul the mail when I get in clean air."

 

Team Brewco made their first pit-stop of the day on lap twenty-nine.  Crew chief Newt Moore decided to make an air pressure adjustment on all four tires to help free up the #66 SUBWAY® Ford.  Biffle would restart the race in eighth place, as a handful of cars decided not to pit.  By lap forty-three, Biffle began pressuring Jimmie Johnson for the race lead.  Within three laps, he would make the pass and lead the next fourteen laps.

 

After a second round of stops, Biffle found himself comfortably in the top-five.  As the caution flag fell on lap one hundred and thirty-nine, the decision was made to stay out, despite seeing a number of lead lap cars head to pit road.  "We only have one set of sticker tires left, and I really want to save them for the end of the race.  To me this is a no-brainer, but we'll see how it plays out," Moore added.

 

With enough fuel to get him to lap one hundred and seventy-seven, Biffle and his Brewco Motorsports teammates anxiously awaited a late race caution.  Fortunately for them, the caution would fall just in the nick of time on lap one hundred and seventy-six.  Biffle, low on fuel and in desperate need of new rubber, headed to pit road for his final stop of the day.  Unfortunately, Biffle would have to restart the race from the twenty-third spot after an air hose problem significantly delayed the stop.  Nevertheless, Biffle felt confident he could race his way to the front in the final twenty laps.  A series of untimely cautions and lapped cars cost Biffle a shot at the win, but the 2002 NBS champion managed to race his way to a sixth place finish.

 

"We just ran out of laps. It was kind of a bold call that we made, but it was obviously the right call.  First and second place was tires.  I'll tell you, the SUBWAY® / Duraflame car, the guys did a good job, but I just got too far back there in the traffic and I couldn't get back up through there.  It's kind of unfortunate.  I think I had a chance to give those guys a run for their money at the front, but I just couldn't get it done," Biffle added after recording his third top-five finish of 2005.

 

Next up, Team Brewco heads to Nashville Superspeedway for the Pepsi 300 on Saturday, March 26th.  Twenty-two year old, Aaron Fike will make his first start with Team Brewco.  FX and MRN will provide live coverage of the event beginning at 3:30pm ET.