Greg Biffle has to settle for third at Indy after pit strategy backfires
Greg Biffle settled for third in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. // LaDon George, NASCAR Illustrated
Despite having one of the best cars – if not the best – in the Brickyard 400, Greg Biffle had to settle for third.
Coming into the final pit stops of the race on lap 139, Biffle had proven just how good his car was. He had led twice for 38 laps and seemed to be the only driver capable of running with Juan Pablo Montoya, who dominated the race until a late wreck knocked him out of the race.
But Biffle and crew chief Greg Erwin were caught off guard when six teams elected to change two tires instead of four. Instead of starting first or second, Biffle restarted in seventh.
“We had been putting four on and making tracks right to the front there,” Erwin said. “I don’t want to say they caught me, but they took a gamble and it paid off for them. I played it safe and it didn’t.”
Erwin figured that teams like Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48, which was two laps down at that point, might try to gain some track position with a two-tire stop. He did not expect teams that had run well all day to give it a shot.
“I really didn’t anticipate that many cars taking two,” Erwin said. “I figured it would be a couple guys from the back. I expected the No. 42 [Montoya] to take four. I was not expecting the No. 1 [McMurray].”
McMurray snatched the lead with a two-tire stop and never looked back.
“You take a car that was capable of running in the top five all day and you put two on it and start up in the lead, he’s going to be a lot harder to catch and pass than a guy who was running 14th all day,” Erwin said.
Biffle meanwhile got everything he could out of his four fresh tires, picking his way through traffic with ease.
“My car was really, really fast all day,” Biffle said. “I could just cut to the bottom, just lay the throttle to it. I was closing on the guys 10 miles an hour faster than they were. I just drove by Tony [Stewart] on the short chute.”
He managed to pass five cars and catch second-place finisher Kevin Harvick with more than 10 laps to go.
“I thought we were going to get around [Harvick],” Erwin said. “I had been listening to Kevin and I knew he was struggling. And considering we were in his wake, I thought we’d get around him.”
But with no clean air and fading tires, Biffle could not complete the pass.
“It's really unbelievable, the difference,” Biffle said. “It's like you got brand‑new tires when you're out front. It's like you have 20‑lap tires when you're six car lengths behind a guy. The thing just stops. Just slides all four tires.
“I was behind Kevin, sliding the front, sliding the back, right up against the fence. I couldn't get enough run to get to him.”
The third-place finish, Biffle’s third top-five of 2010, wasn’t good enough to give him a significant boost in the point standings. He remained 11th and bumped his lead over Clint Bowyer by just 10 points. He left the Brickyard with a slim 16-point cushion over the RCR driver.
“Obviously, with our backs up against the wall, in the 11th-place position we’re in, we really need to be concentrating on scoring points,” Erwin said. “And we did that today.”
