Will Greg Biffle win the Sprint Cup?

Biffle Makes History By Winning First Two Chase Races

Greg Biffle

Greg Biffle (No. 16 3M/Sherwin Williams Ford) has become the first driver to win the first two races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, and in the process, has established himself as a top contender for the 2008 series championship.

Biffle, who entered the Chase as the No. 9 seed and winless over his last 33 races, won in dramatic fashion at Dover International Speedway last Sunday, passing teammate Matt Kenseth (No. 17 DEWALT Ford) with eight laps remaining to claim his 14th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory. He’s currently third in the point standings, trailing only Carl Edwards (No. 99 Office Depot Ford) and Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet).

Biffle looks to continue his surge of momentum this weekend at Kansas Speedway, a track where he drove to Victory Lane in 2007.

“We’ve worked extremely hard to get our cars and our team where they need to be,” said Biffle. “I guess if you want to use the term ‘peak at the right time,’ you could. I feel we have worked hard all season and now our hard work is starting to show up. I feel a lot better about this championship run than I did in 2005.”

In 2005, Biffle won a series-high six races and finished second in the Chase, 35 points behind Tony Stewart (No. 20 Home Depot Toyota). The Vancouver, Wash. native is the only driver to win both the NASCAR Nationwide Series (2002) and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (2000) championships and looks to add a championship in the sport’s elite series to his resume.

Biffle is also a superb example of NASCAR’s developmental system. In addition to the two series titles mentioned above, he was the 2001 NASCAR Nationwide Series Raybestos Rookie of the Year and the 1998 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Raybestos Rookie of the Year. He cut his teeth in NASCAR racing by competing in the Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series – a NASCAR Touring Division in 1997 – and the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series from 1994-97.

The remaining schedule in the Chase sets up pretty favorably for Biffle. In addition to his 2007 victory at Kansas, he has a series-best Driver Rating of 118.5 at the 1.5-mile oval and has posted three top-five finishes there. He’s also won at Texas (2004) and is a three-time winner at Homestead-Miami (2004, ‘05, ‘06). More importantly, the relationship between Biffle and his crew chief, Greg Erwin, appears to be jelling at the right time.

“When I came on board about 15 months ago, there was a lot of work to be done,” said Erwin, who joined Biffle’s No. 16 team in May, 2007. “Obviously, at the beginning I really didn’t have any kind of a relationship with Greg. So learning about him as a driver, we had some personnel issues and some pit crew issues. But, towards the end of last season, we made some really strong improvements that we were able to carry over into this season.”