September 15, 2008
By Ron Felix
CIA Stock Photo
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Biffle Wins First Sprint Cup Race This Year
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Greg Biffle passed Jimmie Johnson with eleven laps to go in the Sylvania 300 Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday to win his first race of the 2008 season. It was his first victory at Loudon and it was Biffle's 13th career win in 213 tries. It had been 33 races since Biffle last visited Victory Lane, that win coming at Kansas Speedway in September of 2007.
"I was holding back at the end there, and then we got those cautions and it closed me up to Johnson -- and gave me a shot at him," Biffle said. "The horse rode today, didn't it?"
Johnson, who finished second, kind of could see what was coming.
"Short runs is what hurt me the most," Johnson said, "I felt a little vulnerable, and sure enough he got by."
Carl Edwards was looking for an opening to get past the two leaders but the opportunity never came, he settled for third.
“Man, I feel like we won that thing just because of how terrible we were in practice, and to finish this well and to be tied with Jimmie there in the points, that’s a huge day for us," Edwards said. "It was really cool that Greg got the win. That’s awesome for him and the Dish Network team and it was really fun to watch Jimmie and him race. That was wild. They were fighting hard, so it was a good day for us.”
Edwards and Johnson are tied for the lead in the Sprint Cup points with 5220 points each with Greg Biffle holding down third place with 5190.
Next came Jeff Burton in fourth place with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on his bumper for fifth. Kurt Busch race his way to sixth spot followed by Martin Truex Jr., Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick to round out the top ten.
Kyle Busch, points leader when the race started, had an absolutely miserable day. Busch led the first three laps before something broke on his car. Busch fell back to the rear of the field and when the first caution fell, the team found that a suspension part had broken. They attempted to fix it but it never got better. Busch was falling laps off the leaders and after fighting an ill-handling car for most of the race, he spun out and wrecked. It went down hill from there. Busch finished in 34th spot, 13 laps down.
Busch didn't stick around the track for post race interviews but left the duty to his crew chief Steve Addington.
“We had a part failure and it’s one of those things -- you can’t do nothing about," said Addington. "We weren’t very good when we unloaded here, but we felt like we did the right things and were going to have a good race car. Part failure cost us so we’ll just have to go back and re-evaluate.”
Regan Smith scored a 23rd-place finish and took top Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the eighth time this season. Smith will keep the lead in the Raybestos Rookie standings for the 10th consecutive race.
"We struggled all day, really tight all day long,"said Smith. "We just kept fighting and that’s all you can do on days like today and you take as much out of it as you can. We’ve got good notes for next time.”
Michael McDowell was the only Raybestos Rookie to lead a lap in today’s race. He held the top spot once for one lap and became the first rookie to lead the fall race at New Hampshire since 2006.
The Sprint Cup Series moves to Dover International Speedway next Sunday September 21, 2008, for the Camping World RV 400. The race is scheduled to start at 1:00 PM / Eastern Time on ABC. The race will also be broadcast live on MRN radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
For full final race results...
(Insider Racing News)
For top-40 Sprint Cup drivers points...
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