Biffle leaves with a smile, Vickers can’t wait to leave
KANSAS CITY, Kan. Sunday’s Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway began with four drivers within 100 points of the lead in the Chase.
It ended with six within 100 and two more just outside of that mark, meaning the championship is far from settled with seven races to go.
Mark Martin held onto the points lead and actually was able to slightly increase the distance between himself and his closest pursuer, Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, from 10 points to 18. But five of the next six Chasers who comprised the post-race standings gained ground on the clubhouse leader.
Race winner Tony Stewart gained the most, picking up 39 points to move from fifth to fourth in the Chase pecking order and within 67 points of Martin with seven races remaining. After Stewart, though, the biggest gainers on Sunday were Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon, who finished third and second, respectively.
Gordon, second in Sunday’s event, moved from eighth to seventh in the standings and picked up a total of 19 points to move within 103 of Martin.
“We definitely made some gains, but I don’t think the big swings come on days like this,” Gordon said. “Days like [Sunday] definitely help, but the swings are going to come at places like Talladega and Martinsville. I mean, it can happen any day. But we can’t expect to make up 100 points on these guys in one weekend.”
Biffle entered Sunday ninth in the standings, 138 behind Martin, and left in eighth, only 114 back for a gain of 24 points. Only Stewart gained more ground on the leader, and it was enough to leave Biffle in a good mood afterward even though he didn’t win despite leading six different times for a race-high total of 113 laps.
“We had a really good day. It felt good to run back up front again,” said Biffle, who matched his season’s best finish. He also finished third twice earlier in the year, at Texas and Dover, both way back in the spring.
Biffle’s crew chief, Greg Erwin, was pleased with the way their No. 16 Ford ran as well. He pointed out that Biffle came from the 31st starting position to earn his third-place finish. In his earlier two third-place runs, he started 14th and fifth, respectively.
“It’s a positive thing. That’s the best we’ve run since probably the first Michigan race back in June,” Erwin said. “That’s the most competitive we’ve been, and probably the best part of that is truthfully not starting at the front and coming up through the field the way we did. We passed a lot of cars on the race track.”
It proved ironic that it was a gamble on a two-tire pit stop early in Sunday’s 400-mile race that initially allowed Biffle to grab the lead, but it was the opposite call on the final pit stop of the day — taking four tires instead of the two put on by race winner Stewart and others — that probably prevented Biffle from getting to Victory Lane for the first time this season.
Biffle said he overruled Erwin on the call, admitting that the crew chief wanted to take on only two tires on the final stop.
“I stuck four fingers out the window. I should have said one,” said Biffle, who nonetheless was able to laugh about it afterward.
Erwin added: “That two-tire call early in the race got us the lead, and it just goes to show you it’s all about track position. In the end there, we were kind of wishy-washy about what we were going to do, and wound up getting beat by our own play.”
Nonetheless, when the day ended, Biffle was much closer to Martin and still considered himself a legitimate contender in the Chase. The same could be said of Stewart, Gordon and the others who are within 100 points of the lead — including Kurt Busch (fifth, 91 back) and Denny Hamlin (sixth, 99 back). Busch finished 11th in the race and actually dropped 16 points to Martin, falling one spot in the standings to fifth; while Hamlin pretty much held his own, gaining eight points to remain in the same points position he was entering the day.
The Chaser who lost the most Sunday, almost certainly taking himself completely out of contention was Brian Vickers. He began the day in 10th and left in 12th, dropping another 99 points behind Martin to fall a total of 250 off the pace heading into this Sunday’s race at California.
“I just want to get out of Kansas, to be honest with you,” said Vickers after spinning early in the race and later having the engine blow in his No. 83 Toyota, relegating him to a 37th-place finish. “It’s been a long weekend for me. … The engine was the only thing that finally just put us out of our misery.”
Meanwhile, Biffle and others left feeling at least a little more optimistic about what might lie ahead in the rest of the Chase.
“Right now, it’s all about winning races,” Erwin said. “To close the gap on those guys with seven races to go, we’re going to have to win races.
“Somebody is going to have to stub their toe in front of us. There is going to have to be a DNF or two up there with the 5 [of Martin] and the 14 [of Stewart] and the 48 [of Johnson] in order for one of us guys from 100 points back to close the gap. But that’s why we race every Sunday. Any of that can happen.”
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