Biffle vows to stay positive

The Roush Racing driver finished second to Tony Stewart in last year's Nextel Cup and was many people's favourites for top honours this year. However, after the first nine races of the season, Biffle languishes in 23rd in the points standings due to a spate of retirements.

Biffle has led the most laps in three races this season, but has yet to take victory. He was dominant in last month's race at Texas before a crash with Kurt Busch put him out, and he lost second when he run out of fuel at Phoenix. He was running strongly at Talladega last weekend, before engine problems sidelined him.

However, Biffle has pledged to keep a positive attitude for the season ahead.

"I don't go to the racetracks with a negative attitude," Biffle said. "I go, you know, with the attitude that we're going to get a good solid top five run out of our race car that weekend, hope for the best.  I have to stay positive to keep the team positive and everything.

"It is frustrating.  You know, all you can do is just take as many precautions as you can.  During testing, don't over-rev the engine going through the gears qualifying.  Whatever you can do. Minimize the mileage you put on your engine in practice if you can.  If you feel like your car is good enough, don't make the extra lap.

"All the things that you think about, not making mistakes, weighing in on the cautious side, back out, wait the next lap, I've done all those things, put all those things in place, felt like I really paid close attention to that to try and finish these races in the top five.

"I definitely had a car on Monday [at Talladega] that could have finished up front, was being cautious with it, being careful, doing all the things I needed to do.  Unfortunately, we had a part failure again.  They have found no rhyme or reason to it.  You know, it seems like my engine ends up with the bad part that failed.  It's just one of those things that happens.

"I've got to stay positive.  The team's real excited because we've been running so well.  We ran extremely well at Phoenix.  We ran extremely well everywhere we've been. 

"Our pit stops are really good.  We just need to keep doing that.  We know that if we keep doing that, we'll get some top five finishes and some wins in the near future."