Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Biffle, Edwards split on top team
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Greg Biffle leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings.
He’s coming off a late pass of Jimmie Johnson to win at Texas and next on the schedule is today’s race Kansas Speedway, where he’s won twice.
Everything seems to indicate that Biffle is on top of his game, but he isn’t so sure he’s even tops on his team.
The often- overlooked driver at Roush- Fenway Racing still believes that title belongs to Carl Edwards, who became the poster boy for the organization during a dream 2008 season. But it’s the former Trucks and Nationwide champion who has dominated this year, with top-three finishes the first three races and a sixthplace run at California a few weeks ago.
“I still think the 99 is the No. 1 team at Roush. I’m the underdog,” Biffle said.
Edwards, who is 11th in points, had a different opinion.
“Right now, Greg is the No. 1 team,” Edwards said. “The 16 team is because they’re leading the points and winning races.”
Biffle, who qualified 17th for today’s race, has finished no worse than 13th this season. He has a 19-point lead in the standings over teammate Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The strong showings early seem to validate a number of changes to the No. 16 team that owner Jack Roush made after last season. Biffle finished 16th in the points and went the entire year without a Sprint Cup victory for only the second time in his career.
“We’ve run competitively at every venue,” Biffle said. “The short tracks we’ve been pretty respectable. At this point I feel good about improving on all those fronts, just getting a little better than we are now.”
The No. 16 team was about as good as could be last weekend.
He ran near the front at Texas most of the race before making a pass of five-time champion Johnson with 30 laps remaining. Biffle pulled away down the stretch to snap a 49-race drought and give himself a boost of confidence heading to one of his favorite tracks.
“It was certainly kind of a relief to finally get to victory lane,” he said.
The 42- year- old driver understands his window for winning a title is rapidly closing.
He’s come close before, winning six races in 2005 and finishing second to Tony Stewart by a mere 35 points. But since then he hasn’t been able to put everything together as he did when he won the Trucks title in 2000 and the Nationwide championship in 2002.
No driver has won both of those series along with a Sprint Cup title.
“I feel the urgency because I’m ready to win it,” Biffle said.
Biffle doesn’t believe the expectations placed on him were unrealistic when he arrived in NASCAR’S marquee series. He does acknowledge the competition was tougher than he expected.
“I feel better than I ever have in these past five seasons, the way our team is and how competitive we are,” he said.