Biffle Tests Cup Car at MIS: In preparation for the upcoming Pepsi 400 at Michigan International Speedway (MIS) on Aug. 18, Greg Biffle and the #16 Roush Racing team headed to the two-mile track for a two-day test session. Crew chief Randy Goss and the entire Grainger squad will be making the jump to Winston Cup with Biffle in 2003, so they are working the races and test sessions this season in order to get acquainted with the new program. The team brought two cars to the test session, both of which saw track time either on Monday or Tuesday. Chassis No. JR-03, which is a new car prepared specifically for this race and JR-01, which is a car purchased from the #17 DEWALT team, were present with JR-03 getting the nod to go back next week. Both cars ran extremely well, but JR-03 worked the best on the long runs. With its wide corners and different racing grooves, MIS is historically known to have extended green flag periods and the #16 team hopes the same holds true in this year’s event. Biffle and crew worked on race trim the majority of the test session, but they switched to the qualifying setup for the final few hours. Unofficially, Biffle turned a fast lap of 184.663mph. Last year’s pole position time for the Pepsi 400 was 188.127mph posted by #32-Ricky Craven, and, earlier this season, #88-Dale Jarrett posted a time of 189.071 for the Sirius Satellite Radio 400 at MIS. “We’re fairly pleased with how the test session went,” said Biffle. “We know we’ve got a little more work to do before and when we get there next week, but we’re headed in the right direction. The car was very comfortable and it ran really well on the long run. Michigan is a driver friendly track and there usually aren’t that many cautions, so being good on the long run should be beneficial to us. We were a few tenths off of last year’s pole time, but you can’t really use that as a determining factor for whether or not we were running competitively. There are so many things that come into play like temperature and how much rubber is on the track, so it’s hard to tell. We feel good about how we ran, and Robby Gordon was there and we ran lap times comparable to his, so I think we’ll be good when we unload next week.” If Biffle qualifies for the Pepsi 400 at MIS, it will mark his second career Winston Cup start. His first start came at California Speedway on April 27, 2002, where he qualified 29th and finished 13th. Biffle also has tentative plans to run Winston Cup races this year at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Atlanta, Rockingham and Phoenix (where he supposedly will run the CTS, BGN and Cup races).(Roush Racing PR)(8-8-2002)
