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Greg Biffle ends NASCAR Sprint Cup win drought by beating Jimmie Johnson at Texas

Greg Biffle snatched victory from Jimmie Johnson at Texas, claiming his first victory of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season

Roush Fenway racer Biffle made the most of an opportunity to attack Johnson when the leader was slowed down by lapped traffic. With 31 laps remaining, Biffle dove to the inside of Johnson entering Turn 3 and exited Turn 4 powersliding his Roush Fenway Ford Fusion ahead of the #48 Chevrolet Impala of the five-time Cup champion.

Although Johnson seemed to be able to follow Biffle's pace for a while, he would then gradually drop back until sliding up the banking at the same corner where he lost the lead, brushing the wall and conceding any remaining victory hopes. A big margin to the rest of the field, partly thanks to very few caution periods, allowed Johnson to still cruise to second place.

Biffle, who entered Saturday's race as the points leader, ended a 49-race winless streak with his second Texas victory, giving his team owner Jack Roush a record ninth win at the Fort Worth venue.

"I could say it was about time but had work pays off and that's what this is about," said Biffle. "We knew it was a matter of time [before] we were going to win one of these things. We've been running so good and we had great pitstops, we had good cars.

"Catching the #48 at the end, I had to dig deep. It was all I had to be able to get to him. Seemed like when I got to him it was too easy. I don't know if he'd used up his tyres or... he had a little bit of trouble with traffic, that's why I was able to close on him."

Johnson led nearly half the distance, yet just as two weeks ago at Martinsville he was unable to translate his speed into maximum score. The Californian blamed Stewart-Haas' Ryan Newman for costing him the lead as he believes the Martinsville winner raced him harder than he should have when being lapped.

"He was already a lap down and proceeded to race me and cost me the lead," said Johnson.

"Definitely disappointed. Our pit stops were amazing. Just got tangled up in some lapped traffic, and [Biffle] made a great move."

Michael Waltrip Racing drivers were among the top contenders again, veteran Mark Martin finishing third while Martin Truex Jr, who led for 68 laps, finished sixth after battling a loose car in the second half of the race, while trying to recover from a slow pitstop.

Hendrick's Jeff Gordon finished fourth, more than 10 seconds behind the winner, crossing the finish line ahead of Roush's Matt Kenseth, who also led early on and remained a top-five runner all through the 501 miles of racing.

Reigning champion Tony Stewart, driving the same car that he took to victory lane at Texas last November, struggled to a 24th-place finish, two laps down on the race winner.

The lack of cautions reduced the opportunities for crews to work on handling, which was also affected by strong winds all weekend long.

The race saw a venue record of 234 caution-free laps, while a 160.577 mph speed average for the winner was also a record after the race was interrupted only twice and for 10 laps, both due to debris, one of the problems being a hat blown away by the gusty winds.

Results - 334 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap
 1.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford            3h07m12.000s
 2.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet               + 3.235s
 3.  Mark Martin         Waltrip Toyota                   + 9.094s
 4.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet              + 10.560s
 5.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford               + 11.928s
 6.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                  + 18.603s
 7.  Kasey Kahne         Hendrick Chevrolet              + 21.969s
 8.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford               + 28.100s
 9.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet             + 28.576s
10.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet              + 29.097s
11.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                    + 31.110s
12.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                    + 32.785s
13.  Kurt Busch          Phoenix Chevrolet                 + 1 lap
14.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet       + 1 lap
15.  AJ Allmendinger     Penske Dodge                      + 1 lap
16.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet       + 1 lap
17.  Clint Bowyer        Waltrip Toyota                    + 1 lap
18.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet               + 1 lap
19.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                      + 1 lap
20.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                        + 1 lap
21.  Ryan Newman         Stewart-Haas Chevrolet           + 2 laps
22.  Aric Almirola       Petty Ford                       + 2 laps
23.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet          + 2 laps
24.  Tony Stewart        Stewart-Haas Chevrolet           + 2 laps
25.  Casey Mears         Germain Ford                     + 3 laps
26.  David Reutimann     Baldwin Chevrolet                + 3 laps
27.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota             + 4 laps
28.  Trevor Bayne        Wood Brothers Ford               + 4 laps
29.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet              + 4 laps
30.  Landon Cassill      BK Toyota                        + 4 laps
31.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                   + 6 laps
32.  Reed Sorenson       FAS Lane Ford                    + 7 laps
33.  JJ Yeley            Robinson-Blakeney Toyota         + 9 laps
34.  Tony Raines         Childress Chevrolet             + 11 laps
35.  David Ragan         Front Row Ford                  + 21 laps
36.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                    + 22 laps

Retirements:

     Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet                228 laps
     Travis Kvapil       BK Toyota                        114 laps
     Josh Wise           Front Row Ford                    66 laps
     Mike Bliss          TriStar Toyota                    38 laps
     Michael McDowell    Parsons Ford                      36 laps
     Scott Riggs         R3 Chevrolet                      25 laps
     Scott Speed         Leavine Family Ford               13 laps

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