HMS winner Biffle overlooked again

By Mike Harris, The Associated Press
November 19, 2006
09:48 PM EST (02:48 GMT)

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Greg Biffle is getting used to winning and being overlooked at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

On Sunday, for the third consecutive year, Biffle won the season finale and watched the series champion get most of the attention.

This time it was Jimmie Johnson, who finished ninth and wrapped up his first series title, standing in the spotlight while Biffle was mostly ignored. The media horde was mostly interested in drivers involved in the championship battle.

Biffle shrugged off the cold shoulder.

"I still get the check and I still get the trophy and, when we go to Daytona in February, I'm the most recent winner," Biffle said, smiling.

His second victory of the year and the 11th of his career was a big one for Biffle, who has struggled most of this season after being the series runner-up in 2005.

"It does a lot for us," Biffle said. "Everybody knows this has been a tough year for us. It seems like we haven't been in the right place at the right time and then haven't had fast enough racecars and have had mechanical failures."

Biffle has won the Homestead race each of the past three years.

"I'll tell you this Ford Fusion was awesome. This is the same car I've won with three years in a row."

A year ago, Biffle was one of five Roush Racing drivers who made it into the 10-man Chase. This season, only two of the Roush Fords made it into the Chase and only runner-up Matt Kenseth was able to stay in contention to the end.

Team owner Jack Roush announced last week that he will shake things up over the offseason, switching crew chiefs on several cars, including Biffle's.

Pat Tryson will move from the No. 6, which has been driven by Mark Martin, to work with Biffle, while current Biffle crew chief Doug Richert will get another job in the Roush organization.

"I love Doug," Biffle said. "We're good friends. We just didn't hit it off like we needed to this year and we're hoping to bring good things with Pat next year.

"We're going to test [at] Las Vegas the 6th and 7th of December and we're ready to get going on next year already."

Kurt Busch ends disappointing season

Just two years after wrapping up the Cup championship at Homestead for Roush Racing, Kurt Busch ended a disappointing first season with Penske Racing South with an even more disappointing finish.

A blown right-front tire sent his No. 2 Dodge hard into the wall on Lap 7, with Bobby Labonte then slamming into Busch's car. Busch was able to pit and, after quick repairs, drove back onto the track, only to blow another tire and hit the wall even harder, relegating Busch to a last-place finish in the 43-car field.

"They thought it was fixed and sent me back out there," Busch said. "Evidently, there was still something rubbing and we popped another right front. That was a really hard shot. It could have been a really bad deal, happening right there in front of the leaders."

Fortunately, nobody else was involved in the second crash and, other than a headache, Busch was fine. He ended up 16th in the season points.

Labonte has been a major part of a resurgence by Petty Enterprises, but he was just in the wrong place on Sunday.

"That's not the way we wanted to end the season," said Labonte, who finished 42nd. "It's kind of frustrating, but I feel like a lot of good things are going to happen to this team next season."

Spark Plugs

New Cup champion Jimmie Johnson led all the other Chase drivers with seven top-10 finishes in the final 10 races. ... Kasey Kahne, who started from the pole, took fourth. Kahne led the series with six wins and six poles but finished eighth in the points. ... Biffle's winning speed on Sunday was 125.375 mph, slowed by 11 caution flags for 43 of the 268 laps.