Stewart wins, but Biffle, Johnson, others lose race at Kansas
Tony Stewart found a way to win a race, in this case, the Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway. A number of others, unfortunately, found a way to lose one.
Give Stewart his due. The owner/driver who practically owned the Sprint Cup Series’ regular season didn’t steal career win No. 37. He and his Stewart-Haas Racing teammates had to work for it. But while his crew was adjusting this and tuning that, while Stewart was steadily making his way to the front, others were either adjusting themselves out of the race, making the wrong calls – or perhaps the right calls simply at the wrong time – or lessening their chances with simple mistakes.
Chief among them was Greg Biffle, who like Stewart has designs on this year’s championship trophy. The Roush Fenway Racing driver was dominant, leading six times for a race-high 113 laps. A fast car and smart decisions on pit road put Biffle, who started 31st, up front by lap 72.
By the latter stages of the race, the outcome was obvious. The race was his to lose. Biffle finished third.
Pitting with the lead under caution on lap 238, Biffle overruled a two-tire call by crew chief Greg Erwin, asking for four fresh tires instead. At least three drivers went with a two-tire stop, leaving Biffle fourth on the restart with only 25 laps remaining.
“Not much else to say about that,” Biffle sheepishly admitted. “I stuck my fingers out the window [to signal four], and [Erwin] said, ‘four, four, four … .”
His nearly flawless Ford was suddenly flawed. Stewart wins, and Biffle’s left to ponder the past.
No, it’s not the most heinous misstep, but it’s a tough one to swallow when riding a 36-race winless streak.
Still, taking two tires was no guarantee of success, either. Just ask Jimmie Johnson.
Johnson, the guy chasing a spot in the sport’s record book, elected to take two tires on the final stop, hoping for track position, clean air, pure thoughts, good karma and anything else that would help get his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet back in front.
At the time, it seemed every bit as correct as the call made by Biffle. The three-time champion had led five times for 53 laps. Early on, his car was as rock solid as the Ford of Biffle, and the two spent numerous laps tracking one another’s path around the 1.5-mile racing surface.
Sixth when he pitted for his final time, Johnson gained three spots to restart third when the green flag appeared. When the dust settled, though, Johnson was ninth.
“We were trying to be the first one out of the pits and went for two tires,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, a couple of guys took two with us.”
Pit-road stumbles, calls that backfired and out-and-out misfortune weren’t limited solely to those in the Chase. Which brings us to Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Second in qualifying and eventually first on the race track, Earnhardt had the fans on their feet, cheering him on when he rocketed past Mark Martin on lap 12 for the lead. That he resided there for 41 laps, eventually pulling off to pit on lap 53, seemed to indicate that this was no fluke.
But a combination of problems eventually put Earnhardt back on the track two laps down to the leaders. A loose lug nut brought him back to pit road under green, and a subsequent caution shortly afterwards – while he was back on pit road – cost him a second lap.
Not that it mattered, but his team’s day finally ended 35 laps shy of the finish when an oil pump-belt came off and damaged the engine. He finished 36th.
“It’s frustrating,” Earnhardt Jr. said, perhaps for the umpteenth time this season.
So the Chase moves on to California, three races completed and the points battle as tight as ever. Three different winners and a host of those who haven’t.
Only one driver will win this year’s Chase. Many more, it now appears, will lose it.
