Biffle Drives 3M Ford to Fifth Place Finish in Phoenix; Moves Up One Position in Points Standings

Avondale, Ariz. (April 18, 2009) – This weekend Greg Biffle and the 3M team continued their climb back toward the top 12 in the point standings with a fifth place finish in Phoenix.  Despite a 13th place qualifying effort, Biffle and the team believed they had a top-five car.  Shortly after the start of the race, with the help of his crew in the pits, Biffle showed that the 3M Ford was absolutely a top-five car.  Biffle ran in the top five for several laps and was rarely seen outside of the top 10.  In the end, he picked up four positions after the final restart with six laps remaining for a fifth place finish.  The top-five finish moves Biffle and the team up one position from 15th to 14th in the point standings.

While the team made several adjustments on the 3M Ford Fusion throughout the weekend’s practice sessions, Biffle emerged from the car every time certain they had a top-five racecar.  He got an early draw for qualifying but had the fast time when he went out eighth.  His speed was quickly bested by a few others and he was 13th on the board at the end of time trials. 

After starting on the inside of row seven, Biffle got shuffled around a little and quickly reported that the 3M Ford was way too loose.  He was back in the 13th position when the first caution of the day came out on lap 54.  Crew chief Greg Erwin instructed him to come down pit road for four tires, fuel, a wedge adjustment and an air pressure adjustment.  The 3M pit crew picked up six positions in the pits and sent Biffle out seventh for the restart on lap 59. 

Unfortunately the loose condition of the race car was not improved significantly by the adjustments.  Biffle was still able to pick up one position with the ill-handling car before the next caution on lap 102.  This time Erwin went with an air pressure adjustment to try to tighten up the car’s handling and the crew picked up three more positions in the pits.  Biffle restarted third on lap 108 when green-flag racing resumed.

He maintained the third position behind Kurt Busch and Mark Martin for the next 30 laps until the third caution came out.  David Stremme had spun, bringing out the yellow and Biffle used the opportunity to pit for some fine-tuning on the 3M Ford.  This time it would be four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment.  A couple of teams opted for two tires and Biffle returned to the track in the sixth position for the restart on lap 143.

The 3M team continued to make minor adjustments on the car’s handling during a pit stop on lap 167 just as Biffle had made his way back into the top five.  He reported that the handling had improved and despite falling back to 12th shortly after the restart, made his way back into the top five before a round of green flag stops began on lap 230.  Biffle was running fifth when he entered the pits but when the green flag stops were complete, it became clear the the 3M pit crew had picked up another three spots on pit road.

Biffle was running second when the green flag stops were complete on lap 246.  A long green flag run followed and it appeared that there might not be another caution.  By the pit crew’s calculations, they were just a little short on fuel, so Erwin asked Biffle to conserve as much fuel as he could.  Biffle backed out of the gas and had dropped back to seventh when Dale Earnhardt, Jr. spun and brought out the final caution flag of the race.

After some discussion, Biffle pitted for four tires and a splash of fuel. He restarted ninth with only six laps remaining and passed Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Martin Truex, Jr. and Denny Hamlin before the checkered flag dropped.

“We just hung out there a lot of the night and, especially at the end there, we were saving enough gas to make it and I wish that strategy would have played out,” said Biffle.  “I would have liked to have seen what happened there, but the 88 spun out and brought the caution out, so we came down pit road.  Of course, I wanted two and the crew chief wanted four and that’s just part of it.  It’s racing.  You’ve got to make a decision one way or the other.  Four is probably the right call because we ended up fifth and we could have ended up sliding way back, so I’m pretty happy with the night overall.” 

Following their fifth place finish in Phoenix, Greg Biffle and the 3M team moved up to 14th in the Sprint Cup point standings.  They are 312 points behind leader Jeff Gordon but only 16 points out of the top 12.  The 3M team will return to the track on Sunday, April 26 at Talladega Superspeedway.