Greg Biffle, who couldn’t buy a break earlier in the season, has gained 10 spots in the Nextel Cup standings during the past three races.
Biffle finished fifth at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway the week before his victory at Darlington, then finished seventh last weekend in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
With 14 races to go before the 10-race Chase for the Championship begins, Biffle sits 13th in the standings, only 86 points out of 10th – the last guaranteed playoff spot. He is the defending champion of this weekend’s race in Dover, Del.
“I feel like our team is going to be really, really hard to beat the rest of the season because that first part of the season tested our toughness, tested our team as a whole,” Biffle said during Tuesday’s national teleconference. “I think that we proved that we’re tough as alligator skin. It’s going to take a lot to beat us down.”
Biffle leads all drivers in miles led (1,099), races led (10) and average running position (7.74). He is third in driver rating (103.7) behind Jimmie Johnson (104.9) and Matt Kenseth (106.5).
Last year, Biffle finished second in the final standings, nearly becoming the first driver to win championships in NASCAR’s three national circuits. The 2000 Craftsman Truck and 2002 Busch champion already is the only driver to win titles in both of those series.
“I’m certainly keeping the pressure on myself to be able to be the first guy to (win all three),” Biffle said. “I just work hard every week. I feel better and better. As we get more races under our belt that we get good finishes, obviously you get closer to the top 10 in points. But I feel better about gaining some consistency.”
What a Monster
This weekend’s race at Dover International Speedway is the home of good and bad memories for Kenseth, who is second in the standings behind Johnson.
Kenseth made his Cup debut at “The Monster Mile” in 1998 at age 26, substituting for Bill Elliott and driving to a sixth-place finish. Kenseth then produced his first Cup pole at Dover in 2002.
“I used to always say Dover was my favorite track, but ever since I’ve been saying that we’ve had some terrible luck there,” Kenseth said in a release.
In two of his past three races at Dover, Kenseth has finished worse than 30th.
Footnotes
Last weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 winner Kasey Kahne has been passed more than he has recorded a pass. Among the top-10 drivers in the standings, he’s the only one with that negative statistic. Kahne has been passed 727 times and has passed other drivers 713 times. … Jeff Burton leads all drivers in quality passes (873), which are the times a driver passes another car that is running in the top 15 under green flag conditions. But overall, Burton has been passed 1,158 times, far more than any other driver in the top 10 of quality passes. … Among 4,050 laps this season, points leader Johnson has completed all but 13 of them. … Jeff Gordon will make his 450th career start Sunday at Dover, which sits near the DuPont world headquarters in Wilmington, Del. DuPont has been Gordon’s only primary sponsor since the four-time series champion began in Cup in 1992.
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-820-5453 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporter’s error, it incorrectly reported that Greg Biffle has finished fifth and seventh in two races since his victory May 13 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. Biffle finished fifth at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway the week before his victory at Darlington, then finished seventh last weekend in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
