Monday, February 23, 2009

Is Biffle His Own Worst Enemy?

Greg Biffle may have been driving a winning ride Sunday, but his tragic misstep off the track sent his Victory Lane hopes right down the pits. The #16 car was one of the quickest and most consistent cars of the night. But when Biffle took a long slide into his pit stall and ran over his air hose to boot, his perfect night went kaput.

To Biffle's credit, he took full responsibility for the error. After the race, he even said his mistake almost brought him to tears and that he should be fired. I wouldn't go that far. However, his pit road flub-up was only one of several errors "The Biff" has made since Daytona.

The night before his race-breaking pit stop, you could find Biffle smacking his car into the back of Brad Keselowski during the Nationwide Race at Fontana. The contact ended Brad's night (he was running fifth at the time) and wrecked the ill-fated Jason Leffler in the process. Then, on lap 128, Biffle spun out -- bringing out another caution and more pit stops for the field. He took a fifth-place start and turned it into 34th.

Of course, Biff's "just racing" incident on Saturday could have been a not-so-subtle payback for the Gatorade Duels, in which a tap from Keselowski sent Biffle spinning into the grass and subsequently into the garage. And then there were the four cautions at the Bud Shootout in which Biffle was involved --the last being contact with David Stremme, which again ended his night early.

The man himself summed it all up pretty well in an interview before the Daytona 500. "My thoughts right at this second are hopefully that before Speedweeks is over I get to finish a race is what I'm thinking about right now. We've had a few off-road excursions so far and these cars aren't nearly as good in the grass as they are on the pavement," he said.

The good news is, Biffle finished Daytona and Fontana, and ended his night in Cali with a solid fourth spot. He's even sitting pretty in the top five in points.

But if Biffle can't keep his "user errors" to a minimum, he won't be there for long.

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