Biffle Takes 25th in Martinsville; 3M Team Drops to Eighth in Standings

Martinsville, Va. (October 26, 2009) – While Greg Biffle will admit that Martinsville is not his best track by far, he did hope for better results than he faced on Sunday at the Virginia short track.  The 3M team worked hard throughout the race to improve the handling of the 3M Ford but as rain had caused the cancellation of both practices on Saturday, they had little to go on.  Biffle finally finished one lap down in the 25th position.  The 25th-place finish moves the 3M team back to eighth in the standings.

As the weather did not look good for Saturday, crew chief Greg Erwin and the team chose to spend all of Friday’s practice working on their race setup.  They made a little progress but the rest would be an educated guess because rain did, in fact, cause the cancellation of practice on Saturday.  As they did not make any qualifying runs on Friday, however, they also went into time trials with little to go on so Biffle didn’t seem terribly disappointed with a 20th-place starting position.

Biffle dropped back early in the race with an ill-handling racecar and was running 33rd when a caution on lap 44 allowed him to pit for wedge and air pressure adjustments.  After green-flag racing resumed Biffle lost one position and eventually lost a lap to the leader on lap 71.  A caution soon followed and after some discussion, Biffle and Erwin opted to stay out to try to get a lap back with the new wave-around rule. 

The leader had just lapped Biffle and a few others, however, when the next caution came out and as they had taken the wave-around, they were not eligible for the lucky dog.  After a caution on lap 157 for debris, however, Biffle was the first car one lap down and did get his lap back.  The team took that opportunity to make their second spring rubber adjustment of the day and Biffle restarted on lap 163 in the 31st position.

The team continued to adjust on the car during the two pit stop opportunities the got over the next 100 laps.  Biffle had made his way up to 25th when a caution on lap 251 allowed him to stay out to try to gain track position.  He restarted in the lead on lap 259 and picked up five bonus points but Jimmie Johnson quickly got by when green-flag racing resumed.  Biffle was running 19th when the next caution came out and he was able to pit for four fresh tires, fuel, a wedge adjustment and a track bar adjustment. 

Biffle restarted 24th on lap 280 and stopped for additional adjustments during every caution for the remainder of the race.  He eventually lost a lap to the leader on lap 360 and would not be able to get that one back.  Following his final pit stop on lap 497, Biffle restarted 26th and was unable to gain any ground before the checkered flag as the caution came out one lap later and the race was concluded.

“We couldn’t really do anything with our car,” said Biffle.  “With practice getting rained out yesterday it really hurt us.  That happened in the spring, so that makes it tough.  Someday when we get to test or practice here we’ll be all right.”

Greg Biffle and the 3M team dropped to eighth in the point standings with their 25th-place finish in Martinsville.  They are currently 350 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson but only 38 points behind Ryan Newman in seventh.  The 3M team will return to the track on Sunday, November 1st at Talladega Superspeedway.

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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