We crowned a Champion, and had an exciting race to boot! Greg Biffle beat Mark Martin to the line by mere inches (actually, it was all of 0.017 seconds!) to take the Ford 400 today at Homestead-Miami Speedway. After passing Dave Blaney on lap 260 coming out of the final caution, Biffle was all-out to hold off Martin in a sweep of the top four spots for Roush Racing.
This was Biffle’s 6th win of 2005 (he tops that category) and second in a row at Homestead. His 9th career win (he’s tied for 52nd on the all-time win list with Paul Goldsmith, Cotton Owens, and Bob Welborn) was the 89th for Roush Racing (15th this season) and was worth $308,675 from the over $5.1M in posted awards.
Tony Stewart struggled most of the day but came home in 15th place to capture his second Championship (he won it all in 2002) and Biffle’s win left him in a tie (which he wins on the first tie-breaker) with teammate Carl Edwards for second in the “Chase”. Jimmie Johnson was eliminated early when he lost a right rear and crashed in turn 3 on lap 124.
Dave Blaney (6th) had his best finish since he was 3rd at Darlington in March of 2003!
Kevin Harvick (8th) had his best finish since he was 6th at Pocono in July.
Jeremy Mayfield (10th) had his best finish since he was 7th at Dover in September.
Scott Wimmer (11th) had his best finish since he was 11th at Pocono in July of 2004!
Mike Bliss (12th) had his best finish since he was 7th at Bristol in August.
Todd Bodine (20th) had his best finish since he was 11th here in November of 2003.
Reed Sorenson (28th) had his career-best finish today. He was 41st in his only previous start at Atlanta last month.
Jimmy Spencer (31st) had his best finish since he was 28th at Bristol in August (only 6 races).
STREAKIN….Carl Edwards has 8 Top-10’s in the last 9 races.
Jeff Gordon has 4 Top-10’s in the last 5 races.
The Rookie Report: Travis Kvapil (32nd) captures the award this week over Kyle Busch (41st). For the season, Busch was the top-finishing rookie 24 times, Kvapil 11 times, and Mike Garvey once.
This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is Robby Gordon (+25), followed by Rusty Wallace (+24), and Dale Earnhardt Jr (+21). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Kyle Busch (-37), followed by Brian Vickers (-25), and David Stremme (-20). The Op of the Season goes to Little E with 5, while we had a tie between Ryan Newman and Elliott Sadler for most BDs on the year.
Jimmy Spencer led a lap tonight for the first time since he led one lap at Talladega in October of 2004. He’s the 51st driver to have led a lap this season, besting last year’s number of 50.
In the final “Classic” Points, Dave Blaney was the only multiple position advancer today (29th to 26th). On the minus side, Jeff Green (27th to 29th) was the only driver to fall more than one spot.
On the “Chase” side of things, Biffle’s six wins make him second over Carl Edwards four (since they had identical totals of 6498 points).(Stock Car Fans)(11-20-2005)
