Biffle gasses Kansas field as Chase standings shuffle

01.10.2007 18:00 Sport and Travel - Source: USA Today

Greg Biffle, who didn't qualify for NASCAR's Chase for the Nextel Cup, endured rain, a succession of wrecks and almost six hours of wide misfortune Sunday, winning — under yellow — for the first time in 29 races in the darkness-shortened LifeLock 400 at Kansas Speedway.

RESULTS: LifeLock 400SPORTS SCOPE: Video from the race

Behind him was a trail of crumpled fenders, shredded tires and tears. Seven of the 12 drivers in the Chase, from Tony Stewart to Kyle Busch to Carl Edwards, wrecked or experienced some kind of contact on the 1.5-mile track. Another, Jeff Burton, had fuel-pressure problems.

Twice, the weather stepped in. The race was red-flagged early for 45 minutes, and later for two hours, 13 minutes — after which NASCAR officials decided to shorten the event to 225 of the scheduled 267 laps, then to 210.

Biffle's win, the 12th of his career but first since Homestead, Fla., last November, came with controversy. The last of the day's 12 caution flags — this one because of debris — was waved with only two laps left, and officials froze the field.

Running low on fuel, Biffle says he pulled onto the infield grass to save enough fuel to do a burnout and get to victory lane. NASCAR officials came out, asked him if the car would run, were told it would, then told him they would push it in.

That was Biffle's story. Before he guided his No. 16 Ford across the finish line, however, Clint Bowyer and others crossed it. Their story: By not maintaining the caution speed of the pace car across the line, he forfeited the win.

"The car runs right now. You can go and start it," Biffle protested afterward, claiming he was following NASCAR orders and had enough gas for three more laps. "They (officials) told me not to start it.

"I was unbuckling and coasting to save my gas because I knew the race was over. ... I didn't know they were going to go by me."

Third-finishing Jimmie Johnson immediately said Kansas native Bowyer should be celebrating, not Biffle.

"He was clearly out of gas, and if you can't maintain pace car speed, that's a problem," Johnson said.

Bowyer agreed.

"It was definitely dark, and it was starting to be a concern, but it wasn't dark enough that I couldn't see (Biffle) having trouble," he said. "I just didn't know what to do. I knew it wasn't right, but I didn't think they expected us to pull down in the grass and follow him.

"I don't know what happened, (Biffle) didn't cross it the way I thought you were supposed to, but I know they're not going to pull him out of victory lane. ... I don't know what's going on. I don't think anyone knows."

Uncertainty was Sunday's theme. The circuit's next stop is at calamitous Talladega Superspeedway, but it'll be hard to top the carnage that occurred at Kansas.

That the race went as long as it did — and wasn't called when the heaviest weather hit after 148 laps — was regrettable for Stewart.

With skies darkening and weather threatening just after the race reached the halfway point, Stewart chose to stay on the track and in the lead, nurse his No. 20 Chevrolet through as many laps as possible ... and pray for rain. NASCAR weighed calling the race after 148 laps, which would have awarded the victory to Stewart and moved him to the top of the Chase standings.

Instead, Stewart was involved in two of the final three crashes, the first creasing his fender slightly into his left-front tire, the second starting 20 laps later when the tire finally blew and he was bumped as his car slowed by Kurt Busch's No. 2 Dodge.

Stewart spun, and was whacked by Edwards, who declined to second-guess the officials' decision to allow Stewart to continue to run.

"Heck, if that was us, we'd be betting to stay out, too. I see both sides of it," Edwards said. "It's auto racing. That's how it goes."

The shortened event altered the Chase standings. Johnson moved from third to first in the ratings. Jeff Gordon, the leader going in Sunday, finished fifth and dropped to second in the Chase, six points behind.

Three drivers in the Chase ran into early problems. Martin Truex Jr. blew a tire and grazed the wall. Burton was dropped to the back of the field for tugging a rear fender after his car was parked on pit road during a no-touching-allowed rain delay, then had fuel pressure issues. And just 28 laps in, Kyle Busch— who entered the day in fourth place in the standings, just 10 points behind Gordon — spun and nosed into the wall after a bump from behind by Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Earnhardt, of course, is moving from Dale Earnhardt Inc. to Hendrick Motorsports next year, essentially squeezing Busch out of the elite Hendrick lineup. Busch is moving to Joe Gibbs Racing.

"It was a pretty stupid move on his part," Busch said of Earnhardt. "I'm sure these guys that he's going to be working with next year don't really appreciate this because they've got a championship they can win this year and (with Earnhardt not qualified for the Chase) he doesn't. I don't know what he was thinking, really, or what the problem was.

"We had an awesome car. I thought it was going to be a car that was going to be top three definitely if not maybe a winning car. I was cruising there, riding around, minding my own business on the bottom and just got run over."

Busch said he was leaving a lane for Earnhardt to pass outside, but the opening he had in mind wasn't the same one Earnhardt anticipated.

"He just moved up, and I got into him," Earnhardt said. "I should have been able to get out of (the way of) the car, and I was screaming as I was going by for him to save it. But he couldn't gather it up. It was my fault."

Earnhardt apologized "to his fans and their team and Kyle. That was a bad mistake on my part."

Busch got back onto the track, but found further misfortune when he was moved to the back of the field for tinkering with the car during the second and longest of the afternoon's two rain delays. He finished 41st.

Contributing: Nate Ryan, USA TODAY; Wire reports

  Add comment

Name:
E-Mail:
Comment:
Enter code: