Biffle: Championship is anybody's game
By Rea White - Associate Editor
Thursday, August 07, 2008
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Roush Fenway Racing's Greg Biffle says that the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship is up for grabs this season. With a tight battle ongoing for the top 12 spots in the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup, Biffle says that all the contenders are showing they are capable of contending for the title in the final 10-race showdown.
Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch, the current points leader, clearly has topped the field in the season to date with his seven wins, but a rotating group has challenged the front-runners. Roush Fenway's Carl Edwards has four wins, Gillett Evernham Motorsports' Kasey Kahne has two and Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson has stepped up his game of late. Several others have been contenders.
Watching their performance, especially of late, it's clear that Hendrick's Jeff Gordon and JGR's Tony Stewart may be in the mix as well,
despite their lack of a win this season.
So when Biffle looks ahead at the championship, he sees a group of drivers with lots of potential. He's currently eighth in the standings and hopes to be in that group of 12 competing for the title when the Chase is set five races from now.
"I think that it's anybody's game," Biffle said. "I mean you can't count anybody out when that deal comes … I certainly wouldn't count out any of the 12, I promise you, that make it. Any of those 12 guys are capable of putting together a string of top-five, top- three finishes that we know, historically, will win the championship, period. ... If you run fifth or fourth or third every race, you know you've got it locked up. So that's not - I'm not saying that's not hard to do, but that wouldn't be hard for one of the 12 guys to pull that, something like that off. And it seems like No. 18 [team of Busch] has lost a little steam, a tiny bit. It seems like No. 48 [of Johnson is] real strong, No. 99 [of Edwards is] real strong.
"We've been running right there. We ran in the top five at Pocono, and that pit strategy, you know, didn't work out for us and we ended up 13th.... I think everybody at that top-12 category is running good enough certainly to be a factor."
Biffle says teams are already eyeing the Chase, trying to line up which cars will be used in those 10 races and being ready for those events while also focusing on trying to lock into the field.
It's a tough balancing act, especially for teams outside of the top group that have essentially locked in to the Chase, but it's one that the top teams are somewhat accustomed to.
"They're getting prepared and slated for, you know, their 10-race Chase," Biffle said.
Whoever makes the field has a shot, the Roush Fenway driver thinks.
"I wouldn't count out any of the 12 guys," he said. "It's not a three-man Chase."
Biffle has become a huge fan of the Chase format that began in 2004. He looks at a group that will include drivers who are currently at lest 547 points behind the leader Busch but who will suddenly find themselves with less than a 100-point deficit.
That, he thinks, is a good thing. Especially for teams like his that could now have a shot at a championship and for the fans wanting to see the title contested to the final race.
"I think the Chase format is great. I mean I think it's perfect," he said. "It creates a lot of excitement getting to the Chase. You know people have to work extremely hard to get there, to get in the Chase. And then I think it works really well the way it's formatted out and the bonus points for wins and everything NASCAR has done.... I couldn't see how to make it any better. And I'll have to admit, I was not a fan of it in the beginning. I was like, oh, I don't like that.
"But, you know, I mean technically right now, the opportunity to win the title for me under the old system is gone. You know I'm racing for - you know I'm eighth in points, so I'm right now I'm racing to try and make the top five [in] points, which is a stretch. So with the Chase format, it gives me an opportunity to win the title.... And so I have to admit that in the beginning I was skeptical of it, but I think it's great."
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Greg Biffle
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