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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Biffle Hunts For Answers, Better Results
Greg Biffle has gone winless so far in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted November 11, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Although a Sprint Cup championship is now out of reach, Greg Biffle hopes to win one of the last two races of the season. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
It’s no secret that it’s been an erratic season for Greg Biffle and the rest of the Roush Fenway Racing organization. Biffle, who along with teammates Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth were expected to be serious championship contenders, frankly haven’t has years that measured up to their own expectations.


For the first time in his career, Kenseth missed the Chase for the Sprint Cup, while Biffle and Edwards are winless on the 2009 season after visiting victory lane 11 times in 36 races last year.

It’s not that they’ve been bad, exactly. After all, Biffle is seventh in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings and Edwards is 11th. But as a team, the Roush Fenway organization has not been able to consistently challenge for race victories week in and week out, and that’s been a source of frustration for Biffle and the rest of the squad.

Asked where his team needs to get better, Biffle admitted he was wondering about that himself.

“That’s a great question because we’ve been looking at that and digesting all of the information that we have and with the lack of testing, we’re putting a lot of importance on each race each weekend,” Biffle said during a NASCAR teleconference on Tuesday. “Looking forward to 2010, we know that the spots are to figure out these front bump stops, figure out the front geometry, figure out how to get our cars to turn around the center of the corner – rotate so that we can put the gas back down – and that’s what we’re facing every week. Those are our issues.”

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect for Biffle and crew chief Greg Irwin is that the No. 16 Roush squad has come close to victory on several occasions, but has been unable to seal the deal.

“The season has been a little bit disappointing for the 16 team,” said Biffle. “We just digested this whole year for the last couple hours in Erwin’s office getting ready for these next couple races and we look back and we almost won California. We were right there at Las Vegas. We would have probably won Texas had we not dropped a lugnut. We were so close. Michigan. We would have won Michigan if we wouldn’t have run out of gas 800 feet from the start-finish line.”

And Biffle will be the first to tell you that all those woulda, coulda, shouldas have been immensely frustrating.

“We look back and look at so many opportunities that we missed, where we were the fastest and most dominant car of that event,” he said. “That really is the highlight of our season and that gave us the momentum to get into the Chase. What is disappointing is that we haven’t been able to perform the second half of the season. Leading up to the Chase and the first eight Chase races so far haven’t been where we wanted them to be and we’re working hard at it. I don’t know how to explain anymore than we’re doing everything humanly possible to be more competitive and faster.”

For now, though, Biffle isn’t giving up on 2009. Although a Sprint Cup championship is now out of reach, he hopes to win one of the last two races of the season, at Phoenix International Raceway this Sunday or Homestead-Miami Speedway the following week.

“I really look forward to Homestead,” said Biffle. “I look forward to Phoenix, too. I’ve got three wins there (Homestead) and a couple second-place finishes, so I look forward to that race track. It’s a fun track, but I want to win a race this season and I’ve got two opportunities left. We’re just gonna try as hard as we can and see what we can do.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED, and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com! Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to



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