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Biffle and Brewco Record Fourth Top-Five Finish

 

DARLINGTON, SC (May 6) - Greg Biffle, driver of the #66 Duck Tape® Ford, started 13^th and finished 4^th in the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at Darlington Raceway.  Biffle led twenty-seven laps en route to his fourth top-five finish of the season.  As a result of the finish, Biffle, who has competed in nine of eleven events, moved from 12^th to 9^th in NASCAR Busch Series standings.

 

Coming off of a disappointing finish at Talladega Superspeedway, Team Brewco #66 was determined to regain momentum at historic Darlington Raceway.  With Thursday afternoon's practice session cancelled due to inclement weather, competitors had their hands full practicing, qualifying, and racing on Friday.  Topping the charts during the hour and a half practice session, Biffle and his Brewco Motorsports teammates held high expectations prior to Busch Pole qualifying.  However, the defending race champion would have settle for a thirteenth place starting spot.

 

"Believe me, we have nothing to worry about.  This car is exactly where it needs to be for the race.  Because of the new impound procedures; you've got to sacrifice a little on your qualifying set-up to prepare for the race.  Once the track cools off a little bit, we will be right on," Biffle added after qualifying thirteenth.

 

In typical Darlington fashion, tires were the name of the game.  At the drop of the green flag, Biffle patiently waited for the rest of the field to fall back to him, careful not to wear out his tires.  Saving the rubber for later in the green flag run, Biffle managed to take the race lead on lap thirty-six, as the rest of the field struggled to hold on to their ill-handling racecars.  Consistently seven-tenths faster than the rest of the field, by lap forty-eight the 2002 Busch Series champion had a ten second led over second place driver, Kenny Wallace.

 

Team Brewco made their first pit stop of the night on lap fifty-one.  Crew chief Newt Moore made the call to put one round of wedge in the right rear to help loosen up the #66 Duck Tape® Ford.  With four fresh tires and "freed-up" racecar, Biffle would restart the race from 1^st place on lap fifty-four.  Careful not to wear out his tires, as many drivers are guilty of doing, Biffle handed the lead over to Kenny Wallace on lap fifty-six.  When asked how his car was handling Biffle radioed, "If anything I'm a little bit loose.  I feel like a vulture right now- I'm just watching these guys, waiting to tear them apart.  They'll come back to me and we'll be just fine."

 

The turning point of the race came on lap sixty-eight.  Riding in third position, Biffle elected to stay out while the rest of the field came in for four fresh tires.  With only a dozen green flag laps on his current tires, Biffle felt his car was strong enough to hold off "new rubber."  "Guys, I'm not sure if that was the right call or not, but I think we should be alright.  We'll probably fall back to sixth or seventh, but we aren't out of this thing yet," Biffle added after deciding to stay out.

 

Restarting first, it was only a matter of time before Biffle was passed by a handful of cars.  Holding his own in fifth position, Biffle got the break he needed on lap one hundred and nineteen.  In their final stop of the night, Team Brewco made a minor chassis adjustment and added two pounds of air pressure to prepare for the thirty-lap shootout.  Unfortunately, track position would prove to be the deciding factor in the closing laps of the Diamond Hill Plywood 200.  Due to a series of untimely cautions, Biffle was forced to settle for a fourth place finish.

 

"I feel awful for these guys.  I'm the one that made the decision to stay out.  I knew better than that, but I guess I thought some more people would do the same.  We had the car to beat here, but we just gave this one away.  If there had been a long green flag run at the end, we would have had a shot to race Matt (Kenseth), but as usual the final laps were a mess.  We are all very excited to get to Richmond- we'll get them there," Biffle added after posting his fourth top-five finish of the season.

 

Next up, Team Brewco #66 heads to Richmond International Raceway for the Funai 250. The NASCAR Busch Series race will air live from Richmond on Friday, May 13, beginning at 7:30 p.m. EDT on FX and MRN Radio affiliates.