Biffle makes it two in a row at Dover
Greg Biffle claimed his second victory in a row, beating teammates Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards in a close battle to the flag in the Camping World 400 at Dover International Speedway
On a day when the Roush Fenway cars were the class of the field, Biffle made the most of the situation following his last pitstop when some setup adjustments helped him get rid of a visibly loose car.
He was third on the last restart but lost his place to Kenseth shortly after the green flag waved. He then passed former teammate Mark Martin for third and the capitalized on the battle for the lead ahead of him between Edwards and Kenseth to close on them.
With 23 laps to go Kenseth claimed the lead from Edwards, who struggled for grip after his crew chief Bob Osborne gambled on taking only two tyres on his last stop, while all his rivals took four.
Biffle was also able to get by Edwards on the same lap and then had a long battle for the lead with Kenseth. A couple of times the pair made contact, with Biffle even slightly pushing in the left front fender on his car.
While they ran side-by-side Edwards started closing in again and ten laps from the end he even dived on the inside of Biffle for second place.
However a corner later while going through traffic Biffle made his decisive move on the outside of both teammates. Kenseth tried to hold on the lead on the inside for half a lap more, but he finally had to concede to 'the Biff', who then pulled away to his fourteenth Sprint Cup career win.
"I've got to keep doing this," said Biffle who is now tied in second place in the Chase with reigning champion Jimmie Johnson. "I got up beside (Kenseth) and he tried to pinch me off and we got together a little bit. But I got (the car's) nose out there and I couldn't give up."
Kenseth's second place is his best result of the season thus far, and one that allows him to move up two spots in the Chase following his first DNF of the year a week ago at Loudon. Despite losing a chance to win for the first time this season, he was upbeat about the close finish with Biffle and Edwards.
"We raced as hard as we could for the win there," said Kenseth. "I was leaving Greg a lot of room a lot of times but it was intense. That's got to be one of the best races to watch, probably the best of all year. I got lucky getting by Carl and Greg when they got racing and we were just loose."
"I did everything I could. Just couldn't hold him off."
Edwards rounded up a perfect top-three sweep for team owner Jack Roush, who scored his eighth win at the 'Monster Mile'. Despite Biffle's second win in as many weeks, Edwards continues to lead the Chase with a ten-point gap to Johnson and his teammate.
However it could have been Edwards' day to celebrate. He was in the lead of the race when he pitted for the last time and called on his radio to change four tyres, but his crew chief decided otherwise.
"I hope the fans enjoyed it because we did," said Edwards. "That's the most you can run into one another and go back and forth without wrecking each other. Had two really good guys and that's fun to do.
"Obviously I wanted to win, thought we had a car that could win but we gambled on two tyres and that's how it went. Had a blast!"
Behind Edwards, veteran Mark Martin finished a strong fourth after looking capable of winning the race before he pitted for the last time. His pace in the short run was not as good as on the long ones and that cost him, dropping from the second place he had on the final restart with 44 laps to go.
Johnson finished fifth having run well through the middle part of the race and later when he stayed out while most of his rivals pitted. He led 81 laps, which was remarkable given the domination of the Roush cars that led 285 laps out of 400 between them. Only David Ragan missed leading the race from the Roush team's five cars.
"We could get the car driving good but just didn't have the pace with a couple of the Roush cars," said Johnson. "We did all we could today and got a good top-five finish. We're ten points out of the lead (in the championship) and if we can take a fifth place on a bad day, I think we can be happy with that."
Fellow title contenders Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton followed him to the flag from sixth to ninth place. Johnson's Hendrick teammate Gordon led for 30 laps after starting from pole and had one of his most solid races for weeks, moving up three places in the Chase to eighth.
Michael Waltrip rounded up the top ten in arguably his best race of the season. In fact he was the highest Toyota finisher, beating Tony Stewart to that honour.
'Smoke' now emerges as the leading driver from Joe Gibbs Racing in the Chase after both his teammates had problems, Kyle Busch retiring with an engine failure and Denny Hamlin finishing 38th following transmission problems that kept him in the garage for a good number of laps.
Michael McDowell was the highest finishing rookie in 29th, while Juan Pablo Montoya ran a promising race from 35th on the grid to put his car in the top ten, but a delayed pitstop after his car dropped from the jack hampered his chances of a good finish. He had to retire later with damage from a right-front tyre blowout.
Pos Driver Car Laps 1. Greg Biffle Ford 400 2. Matt Kenseth Ford 400 3. Carl Edwards Ford 400 4. Mark Martin Chevrolet 400 5. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 400 6. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 400 7. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 400 8. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 400 9. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 400 10. Michael Waltrip Toyota 400 11. Tony Stewart Toyota 400 12. Dave Blaney Toyota 400 13. Ryan Newman Dodge 400 14. Bobby Labonte Dodge 400 15. Casey Mears Chevrolet 400 16. A.J. Allmendinger Toyota 400 17. David Reutimann Toyota 399 18. David Ragan Ford 399 19. David Gilliland Ford 399 20. Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet 399 21. Paul Menard Chevrolet 398 22. Robby Gordon Dodge 398 23. Travis Kvapil Ford 397 24. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 397 25. Scott Riggs Chevrolet 397 26. Kasey Kahne Dodge 397 27. Elliott Sadler Dodge 397 28. Tony Raines Chevrolet 396 29. Michael McDowell Toyota 395 30. Reed Sorenson Dodge 395 31. Brian Vickers Toyota 395 32. Marcos Ambrose Ford 395 33. Ken Schrader Toyota 394 34. Kurt Busch Dodge 394 35. Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 388 36. Jamie McMurray Ford 369 37. Regan Smith Chevrolet 365 38. Denny Hamlin Toyota 362 39. Juan Montoya Dodge 351 40. Kyle Petty Dodge 349 41. Patrick Carpentier Dodge 348 42. Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 304 43. Kyle Busch Toyota 172 Chase For The Cup - Points Standing: Pos Driver Change Points 1. Carl Edwards 5390 2. Jimmie Johnson 5380 + 10 3. Greg Biffle 5380 + 10 4. Jeff Burton +1 5308 + 82 5. Kevin Harvick +5 5289 +101 6. Clint Bowyer +3 5284 +106 7. Tony Stewart 5277 +113 8. Jeff Gordon +3 5272 +118 9. Dale Earnhardt Jr -5 5261 +129 10. Matt Kenseth +2 5223 +167 11. Denny Hamlin -5 5197 +193 12. Kyle Busch -4 5180 +210
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