BIFFLE WINS SAM’S TOWN 300, SNAPS LOSING STREAK
February 28, 2009 - 3:42 pm
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Greg Biffle was caught speeding on pit road, had another bad stop, and ran out of gas while leading — twice.
He overcame all of the miscues today at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to snap his 76-race winless streak, partly because almost every other driver had similar issues while leading. "It was definitely not short of action," said Biffle, who last won a Nationwide race at California in February of last year.
Biffle ran out of gas while leading with 54 laps to go, re-claimed the lead after other drivers had their own issues, and then lost his fuel pressure on the final restart. Carl Edwards, his teammate, surged into the lead for a two-lap overtime sprint to the finish, but Biffle was able to regain the gas pressure and snatch the lead back from Edwards.
Edwards, who nearly lost control of his car as Biffle passed him, finished second despite losing a tire earlier in the race and speeding off of pit road on a late pit stop.
"Man it was a wild day from the beginning," Edwards said. "We had a great race car. There were a lot of wrecks. We had that tire go down and we had a speeding penalty, all sorts of things happened and luck was on our side and we had a chance to race up there for the win."
Brian Vickers, who was penalized for a missing lug nut after a pit stop while he was leading, finished third.
"All the fast cars were having problems," Vickers said. "You are out here on this track trying to run wide open, and that’s going to lead to problems. But it seemed like everybody that got in the lead had a problem."
Jason Leffler, who ran out of gas on the final restart, finished fourth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fifth. He was followed by Michael McDowell, Brendan Gaughan and Justin Allgaier. Scott Lagasse and Jeff Burton rounded out the top 10.