Obstacles don’t bother Biffle

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Cars crashed, were caught speeding down pit road and ran out of gas.

With all of the mishaps that resulted in 12 cautions, two red flags and 12 cars that crashed out, the Sam’s Town 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race might still be going.

Or so it seems.

It finally did end, nine laps over the scheduled 200, with a winner, Greg Biffle, who didn’t exactly have a smooth ride, either. He twice had fuel problems while leading, was penalized for speeding on pit road and nearly wrecked his Ford on the second lap.

“You could not relax inside that car today,” said Biffle, who didn’t feel well on top of everything else. “There was no easy thing about it.”

The win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway snapped a 76-race Nationwide drought for Biffle, who last won in the series in 2006. He said it felt like it had been 76 years, but Biffle chalked up the cold spell to being a full-time Sprint Cup driver and part-time Nationwide competitor.

He has come close at Las Vegas, finishing second last year and in 2001. He also continued Roush Fenway Racing’s dominance here, giving the owners their fifth series victory at the track, where they also have won six Cup races.

The race in front of an estimated 90,000 fans was a survival test, beginning with a three-car accident on lap eight. On lap 23, Las Vegas native Kyle Busch took himself out while battling Kevin Harvick for the lead, getting loose and going into the wall at turn four to cause a 10-minute stoppage.

“It was 100 percent my fault for racing for the lead that early in the race,” Busch said.

Busch appeared to have a strong enough car to win, but in the end, there was little doubt Biffle had the best wheels.

Leading by about 11/2 seconds with less than 10 laps to go, just about all that stood in the way of an easy victory was another caution. Then Denny Hamlin and Mike Bliss crashed three laps from the finish, and Biffle knew he had to work for the victory.

The 12 cautions were one short of the race record set last year, and the 60 laps under the yellow flag broke the mark of 58, established in 2007.

“Man it was a wild day from the beginning,” runner-up Carl Edwards said. “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.”

Edwards almost did after the race went into overtime. Biffle ran into immediate problems on the two-lap restart when he lost fuel pressure.

That allowed Edwards to make a charge, and he quickly caught Biffle. The lead change didn’t last long; Biffle went back ahead on turn four and held it over the final lap.

“I knew my car could run across the top (of the track), and I felt I could beat (Edwards) being on the top side,” Biffle said. “There’s not a lot of room when you’re two-wide here anyway, but he got loose underneath me.

“Once the (engine) got going again, it was really, really fast. We had it set up perfect in practice, and we executed our practice very well, and that’s why we’re here today.”

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914.