By: Pete Pistone – MRN
BROOKLYN, Mich. – Greg Biffle won Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway to give Ford its 1,000th career NASCAR victory.
Biffle took the lead on lap 169 and stayed in front the final 32 circuits to capture his first win of the season, 19th of his career and the 13th Roush Fenway Racing victory at MIS.
Biffle’s win on Sunday followed his victory last August at Michigan to give him back-to-back triumphs at the two-mile oval.
“Once my 3M Ford Fusion gets out front the thing really goes,” said Biffle. “It loves clean air and once I could make it past those guys that thing really set sail. I knew (Kevin) Harvick was going to have some trouble and I was taking it easy on the beginning of that run on those tires. I didn’t think he would be able to hang for 25 laps.”
The historic day for Ford was also special for Biffle, who celebrated Father’s Day in Victory Lane.
“It is a pretty special day for us all together,” said Biffle. “It is (daughter) Emma’s first victory lane on Fathers Day. I am thinking about my dad that couldn’t be here who is hopefully watching. We are thinking about little Charlie Leffler that doesn’t have a father today.”
Biffle had to outrun both Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson, who was charging through the field after a day of challenges including losing 20 spots on pit road changing tires. Johnson got as close as third until finally slamming the wall in the closing laps sending him to a 28th place finish despite leading three times for 18 laps.
Jimmie Johnson“We had a great car coming through the pack multiple times,” said Johnson. “We just couldn’t get it right on pit road with the strategy. Chad (Knaus, crew chief) is being a little hard on himself about that right now. The good news is we had an awesome racecar.
Johnson’s problems in addition to teammates Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. having struggles had all four Hendrick cars finish outside of the top 25 for the first time since 2005. (Read More)
“Yeah, I hadn’t thought about it, but everybody did have some form of trouble,” said Johnson. “I think all of our cars were fast. There is a silver lining in it. At least we weren’t running 25th with problems that makes it all the worse. We have fast race cars and I’m proud of everybody at Hendrick.”
Despite saying on his radio communication “he loves it when the 48 crashes trying to catch us,” Biffle said he would never wish any driver ill will. But he was proud to come out on top in his battle with the five-time series champion.
“You know, we beat the 48 today and that says a lot,” said Biffle. “He was really, really fast. Once we got out in clean air we could match up fairly well with the 48. He made a small mistake trying to catch us.”
Harvick, Martin Truex, Jr., Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart rounded out the top five.
“So it’s just one of those days where you had to survive,” Harvick said of the day that featured a great deal of attrition. “You had to try to keep your track position the best that you could. You had to manage tires and get them on the car because people were having a lot of trouble. So it’s definitely one of those races where you had to manage numerous amounts of things to keep yourself in it.”
Truex Jr. had the best finishing Toyota as the manufacturer continues to deal with engine issues and limiting horsepower in hopes of finding more reliability.
“It was definitely better than last week, I mean, based on what they told us they were running package wise,” said Truex Jr. “So yeah, I mean, it was definitely better than last week. It wasn’t quite back to what we had a few weeks ago at Dover, but again, they’re working on that, and hoping to have back what we had there by the next two weeks…”
Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, pole sitter Carl Edwards, Joey Logano and Jeff Burton completed the top ten finishers.
There were 22 lead changes among 13 different drivers in a race slowed eight times by caution for 38 laps. Biffle averaged 139.278 mph in his win.
Johnson’s lead over Edwards shrunk to 31 in the Sprint Cup standings with Bowyer, Harvick and Kenseth the top five.
The Sprint Cup Series now heads to Sonoma Raceway next Sunday for the first road course race of the season.