Biffle to miss Bristol Nationwide race

The Roush Fenway driver will still contest the Cup race at the same venue on Sunday, but has pulled out of the Nationwide event to aid his recovery. Fellow Roush driver Matt Kenseth will take his place.

Biffle sustained bruising to his right ribs after slipping off a platform while trying to jump onto his boat on Tuesday during a fishing trip.

"I wish I had a better story, I really do," said Biffle. "It was about 11:30, so there was a little bit of dew in the air and the platform must have been wet, and when I jumped over it just shot my foot out from underneath me. It turned me around backwards and put me right on my side and on my back on the edge of the boat.

"It's not a normal boat. It's got a sharp edge on it because it has a platform on the front, so it's just one of those freak, stupid accidents where you take a fall and you have no way to stop it or brace it or grab because I was over top of water.

"You're going to land on your ribs with all your weight, plus you jumped on top of it, so it was a stupid deal. If I had to do it over, I didn't do anything out of the ordinary. Everybody's jumped onto a boat before, but I just lost my footing."

Biffle says he is feeling well enough to compete in Sunday's 500-lap event at Bristol. The decision not to run in the Nationwide series event is just a precautionary one he adds, as he wants to focus on the Sprint Cup race and not risk worsening his injuries on Saturday.

"Remarkably, I cannot believe how much better I feel in three days," Biffle added. "I did it Tuesday and I was really hurting Tuesday night. I felt a fair amount better by the end of the day Wednesday, and yesterday I was up and doing all kinds of stuff, stretching and getting ready to go, so I feel pretty good now.

"I got in the car, just bruised, and the reason why I'm just focusing on the Cup race is if you're bruised and you get in a wreck in the Nationwide car, you blow a tyre, you know how easy it is to get in a chain-reaction crash here. I'm thinking 'why be even more sore for Sunday if something happened?'"