Biffle, Ciccarelli crash in Busch practice

LAS VEGAS -- One practice, two wrecks at Las Vegas on Friday morning.

			Greg Biffle. Credit: Action Sports

When the Busch Series took to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for its only practice session before qualifying, two drivers ended it in different cars.

Greg Biffle and Dion Ciccarelli made contact with the wall, in separate incidents, and were forced to backup cars.

Biffle, driver of the No. 60 Grainger Ford, backed into the Turn 2 wall just a few laps into the session. Ciccarelli, driver of the No. 84 Shamrock Relocation Ford, flattened the right side of his car in Turn 3.

Biffle’s car had heavy damage to the rear end, mostly on the left side.

Temperatures were in the 40s when practice began at 8:15 a.m. PT with a steady wind blowing toward Turns 1 and 2. Track crews were jet blowing off some of the desert sand that had settled on the track from steady winds overnight.

“I don’t think the sand and dust had anything to do with my spin,” Biffle said. “It may have contributed a little bit, but I was running right down near the bottom going into the corner and the car just got away from me.

“The wind was gusting real hard, too. I didn’t factor that in when I crashed. I just made a mistake; everyone makes a mistake once in awhile. Now that I got out and looked at some of the guys running, I could have gotten loose and the wind could have contributed.”

Luckily for Biffle, the backup car is already a proven car having finished second here last year. Unfortunately, the primary car was a brand new one.

“The new one I crashed was new and really, really good,” Biffle said. “I’m not sure anyone - I hate to speculate -- anyone was going to beat that car this weekend.

“(Car owner Jack Roush) wasn’t too upset about me wrecking the new car. He said he liked to see a guy who digs hard to go fast and told me to keep going.

“He did say to be careful with the backup, though. If we wreck this one we have to put red decals on a green car because we’ll be using Jeff Burton’s backup Busch car.”