Biffle Returns to Top 12 in Points after Fourth Place Finish at Indy, Currently 11th in Point Standings

Indianapolis, Ind. (July 26, 2009) – With the pressure on to make the Chase, Greg Biffle and the 3M team arrived in Indianapolis for one of the biggest races of the season.  Biffle went to the top of the speed chart in the first practice and qualified 12th on Saturday morning.  He broke into the top 10 on lap eight and remained there for the rest of the race other than during green-flag pit cycles.  He was running third when the field restarted after a caution for the final time on lap 136. Biffle remained there while trying to conserve fuel until he had to let Tony Stewart by with two laps remaining in order to play it safe with the team’s fuel calculations.  The fourth-place finish moved Biffle up two spots to 11th in the point standings.

After three solid practice sessions and a 12th- place qualifying effort, the 3M team was off on the right foot for the 160-lap race at the Brickyard.  Biffle got to business quickly on the track after the drop of the green flag and was quickly running in the top 10.  Despite reporting that the car was loose, he made his way up to ninth before a round of green-flag stops began on lap 28. 

Biffle pitted on lap 31 for four tires, fuel, a wedge adjustment and an air pressure adjustment to try to correct the handling of the 3M Ford Fusion.  Thanks to the pit crew, he was eighth on the board when the green-flag pit stops were complete on lap 34.  Biffle picked up one position when Kyle Busch cut a tire on lap 57 and brought out the second caution of the day.
 
As Biffle was content with the car’s handling, he pitted for fuel and fresh tires only.  The 3M pit crew picked up three positions in the pits and Biffle restarted fourth on lap 62.  He fell back to sixth after reporting that the car was just too loose again.  A second round of green-flag stops began on lap 89 and Biffle pitted for tires, fuel and a minor wedge adjustment on lap 91.  He remained in the sixth position again until a third round of green-flag stops on lap 122.

Biffle pitted for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment on lap 123 which would be his final pit stop of the race.  The team quickly made the fuel calculations and determined that he would have to save quite a bit of fuel to actually make it to the end.  The team had again picked up positions in the pits and moved up to third when bad luck struck Dale Earnhardt, Jr. with engine trouble.  The engine failure caused several laps of caution which played well into the hands of the 3M team.  Biffle conserved as much fuel as he could during the caution as crew chief Greg Erwin continued to try to calculate just how much fuel he would need to save during the final laps.

The field restarted on lap 136 with Biffle in the third position.  With the difficult task of saving fuel while holding off Tony Stewart ahead of him, Biffle had patience and a fast racecar on his side.  He was able to hold off Stewart until there were only two laps remaining when, with the concern of running just short on fuel and losing several positions, he let Stewart pass and took the fourth-place finish.

“I hated to let the 14 go by, especially when we were better than him,” said Biffle.  “It's tough not to be able to show how fast your car really is.  I had to pedal back.  They were telling me in the pits we might not make it on fuel, so we couldn't run the car wide open the whole way.  I think the fans got to see a great race today and we're thankful they came out with a big crowd after what happened last year.  It was nice to see such a great turnout, and hats off to Goodyear for getting the tire right."

Greg Biffle and the 3M team moved up to 11th in the Sprint Cup point standings following their fourth-place finish at Indy.  They are 609 points behind leader Tony Stewart but only 16 points behind Juan Pablo Montoya in 10th.  They hold an 84-point advantage on David Reutimann in the 13th position. The 3M team will return to the track on Sunday, August 2nd at Pocono Raceway.