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Upset by Darlington setbacks, Biffle sounds less certain about future plans
By Jared Turner - SceneDaily Staff Writer
Monday, May 12, 2008
Jerry Markland
Getty Images for NASCAR
CONCORD, N.C. – Greg Biffle is sounding a little less certain about his desire to remain at Roush Fenway Racing.
The driver said during Monday’s Nationwide Series test at Lowe’s Motor Speedway that he doesn’t know if Roush Fenway Racing is where he wants to be next season, citing a consistent pattern of team-inflicted mistakes.
“You know, you get frustrated, and you look at that last race, and you say: ‘Gosh, I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to do something different,’” said Biffle, who led 95 laps in Saturday’s Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway before a broken timing belt in his car’s engine relegated him to a 43rd-place finish.
“But you look around the garage, everybody has these issues. Everybody has these problems. A timing belt can fail on anybody’s race car. You can have a loose wheel at any time. You can have a problem with the transmission. All these guys have had these issues in the past. I just don’t want to continue to have them year after year.”
Biffle, whose contract with Roush Fenway expires at the end of 2008, said as recently as two weekends ago at Richmond International Raceway that he fully intends to return to the team in 2009.
But the driver of the No. 16 Ford was highly critical of his team at Darlington for leaving two loose wheels on his car. One of those wheels forced Biffle to make an unscheduled green flag pit stop, giving up the lead.
“It’s easier to accept when it’s a Denny Hamlin situation, where he dominates at Richmond and he gets a flat tire,” Biffle said, referring to the woes that cost Hamlin an almost certain win at Richmond two weekends ago after leading all but one of the first 382 laps.
“That can happen, and it did happen, and a driver can accept that. … But when it’s other issues it makes it harder inside to take because stuff will happen. I don’t know. It’s one of things. You feel frustrated, but you’ve got to continue to give it 100 percent effort all the time.”
Biffle, who started from the pole at Darlington and was leading when the timing belt forced his retirement from the race on lap 234, said Monday that he believes he had a better car than eventual race winner Kyle Busch.
“I think we had a better car than he did because I was driving my car 60-70 percent, and I could tell he was shoeing it when he was in front of us those few times,” he said.
Biffle says he has voiced his concerns about the No. 16 team with team co-owner Jack Roush since Saturday night.
“A little bit, but, you know, we’re always fixing things, you know,” he said. “‘We’re going to fix it, we’re going to make it better. We’re going to this, we’re going to do that.’ At some point you have to say to yourself, ‘Let’s fix it before we go to the track. Let’s fix it right now and not have the problem after the fact. Let’s not put the patch on the tire, let’s avoid running over the nail if you will.’
“It’s frustrating for me because it seems like it’s always something. When you have a parts issue like we had – we had a timing belt break in the engine – that is not anybody’s doing. That’s a part failure. As long as the tension was correct and all the things were correct, there’s nothing we can do about that.
“But we had a lot of other things happen to the car that night that have been symptoms that we’ve had in the past and that are unacceptable to perform in the Sprint Cup Series.”
Mentioned Drivers: Greg Biffle
2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings
Driver Standings after the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 6492 |
| 2 | Mark Martin | -108 |
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | -169 |
| 4 | Kurt Busch | -211 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | -285 |
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | -289 |
| 7 | Greg Biffle | -321 |
| 8 | Denny Hamlin | -352 |
| 9 | Ryan Newman | -411 |
| 10 | Kasey Kahne | -476 |
| 11 | Carl Edwards | -520 |
| 12 | Brian Vickers | -666 |
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