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Biffle Finishes 18th in Rain-shortened Race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway; Currently Ninth in Point Standings

Loudon, N.H. (June 28, 2009) – This Sunday at New Hampshire, rain once again caused the cancellation of track activity and played a factor in the outcome of the race.  Greg Biffle and the 3M team believed they had a top-10 racecar for Sunday’s race and in the early laps it seemed that it was more like a top-five racecar.  Contact with the wall on lap 52 while Biffle was racing with Kurt Busch for fifth seemed to be the turning point, however.  Biffle began to lose positions and quickly found himself outside of the top 20.  He and the team fought their way back and were headed for what looked to be a top-10 finish until rain shortened the race at lap 273.  Biffle was credited with an 18th-place finish and dropped one position to ninth in the point standings.

As rain was in the forecast for Friday afternoon and qualifying was set to begin at 3:10 p.m., the 3M team opted to focus on their race setup during the first practice.  The rain did come and qualifying was cancelled, putting Biffle eighth on the grid for the start of the race.  After the two practice sessions on Saturday, he and the team were looking forward to a top-10 run on Sunday.

As soon as the green flag dropped on Sunday, Biffle began to make his way to the front of the field.  By lap eight, he was running in the second position.  When the first caution came out on lap 15, Biffle was in the third position and reported that the car was a little too loose.  He was able to remain in the top five until the competition caution came out on lap 45.  Crew chief Greg Erwin instructed Biffle to come to pit road for right-side tires, fuel and a wedge adjustment.

Biffle restarted fourth on lap 49 and was trying to hold off Kurt Busch three laps later when he struck the outside wall.  There was minor damage to the right side of the 3M Ford but the handling of the car was affected and Biffle began losing positions.  During a caution on lap 60, Biffle pitted for four tires, fuel, a wedge adjustment, a track bar adjustment and damage repair while running in the eighth position.

As most of the frontrunners didn’t pit, Biffle restarted 26th on lap 63.  He picked up five positions before a round of green flag pit stops began on lap 118.  He was still 21st on the board when the green flag stops were complete on lap 136.  Biffle reported that the car was loose just as a yellow flag for debris came out on lap 151.  He was running 20th and pitted for two tires, fuel and adjustments.  The 3M crew sent him out 15th for the restart on lap 158 but he began to lose ground again with an ill-handling racecar. 

Biffle was running 23rd when he narrowly missed a big wreck following a restart on lap 174 and was able to pick up seven positions in the process.  He then made his way up to 14th which is where he was running when a final round of green flag pit stops began on lap 233.  Biffle brought the 3M Ford Fusion to pit road on lap 238 for four tires and fuel.  He was running 18th on lap 266 when the yellow came out for rain as five cars had not yet pitted for fuel including leader Joey Logano.  The red flag soon followed as did the calling of the race.  Biffle was credited with an 18th-place finish.

“We had a pretty good car, we just lost our track position there,” said Biffle. “We decided to pit just for safety, check the fenders and all that, there wasn’t anything wrong with the car, I shouldn’t have pitted, but more importantly, we didn’t have the setup quite right. I moved the track bar with five minutes to go in practice, got a false reading, and it’s kind of unfortunate, you know? This rain just isn’t good.  These rain races – there’s six, eight guys up there that hadn’t pitted yet, we were running 10th, 11th, 12th, in there, and we finished 18th.”

Greg Biffle and the 3M team dropped to ninth in the Sprint Cup point standings following their 18th-place finish in New Hampshire.  They are 418 points behind leader Tony Stewart but 58 points ahead of 13th.  The 3M team will return to the track on Saturday, July 4th at Daytona International Speedway.

About Roush Fenway Racing
Roush Fenway Racing operates nine full-time motorsports teams, five in NASCAR Sprint Cup with drivers Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and David Ragan; Three in the Nationwide Series with Kenseth, Biffle, Edwards, McMurray, Ragan, Erik Darnell, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Colin Braun; and one in the Camping World Truck Series with Braun. For more information on any of the Roush Fenway Racing teams, log onto www.RoushFenway.com. For sponsorship inquiries, please contact Robin Johnson at 704.720.4645.

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