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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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