Biffle sees red at Dover

DOVER, Del. -- Greg Biffle held off Jeff Green in a wild three-lap shootout and won his first NASCAR Busch Series event of the season in the MBNA Platinum 200 Saturday at Dover International Speedway.

Credit: Autostock

Biffle, who won five times in his 2001 rookie of the year season, had endured a ragged start in 2002 and was only sixth in points coming into Dover. But he had a dominant No. 60 Grainger Ford all day, leading 131 of 200 laps on the high-banked concrete oval.

"The guys at the shop have been building awesome cars all year," Biffle said. "We've been having runs like this all year but we haven't been able to close the deal."

Biffle's win was set up when the race's fifth caution flew with six laps remaining. Hank Parker Jr. spun his No. 36 GNC Dodge in Turn 3 and collected Busch Series point leader Jason Keller's No. 57 Albertson's Ford.

The caution wiped out Biffle's 2.137-second lead, accomplished in only 10 laps when he opted to take no tires during a caution with 20 laps remaining. The red flag was displayed with 195 laps completed, setting up a restart two laps later.

On the final restart, Biffle opened a .539-second margin over Green's No. 21 Rockwell Automation Chevrolet in one lap and was .657 seconds ahead at the end. Green won last fall's Dover Busch race and led 60 laps Saturday.

"My hat's off to Goodyear," Green said. "It just shows how good the tires are. Greg stayed out and we felt ours would be better on four tires. He outfoxed me a little bit on tires and on that one restart he got ahead of me and I never could get back by him."

Biffle, who took the lead for the final time on lap 70, said the restart with 20 laps to go worried him, but he learned enough to put his mind at ease.

"I was concerned when I knew Jeff was third behind us with tires," Biffle said, "but I knew our tires would cool off under caution and I knew we'd be able to make it on tires. The tires Goodyear has on this concrete track just don't fall off at all."

Bobby Hamilton Jr.,; Scott Wimmer and Jack Sprague rounded out the top five.

"The decision to take tires paid off," Hamilton said. "We were tight right before we came in and if we didn't do something like that we would have ended up worse than we did."

Ron Hornaday, Kenny Wallace, Mike McLaughlin,Randy LaJoie and Kevin Grubb completed the top 10. Biffle, who only two weeks ago escaped serious injury in a violent crash at Nazareth Speedway, made a couple of escapes in the race's last 30 laps. With about 28 laps remaining, he had opened a lead over Green of nearly five seconds when he nearly wrecked in Turn 2.

Credit: Autostock

"I think I was getting tired," Biffle said. "I haven't worked out since my crash (and) I have been struggling inside the car a little bit. Since I haven't been working out my neck was starting to give out."

It turned out a bigger worry was an electrical fault that had shown itself on the fifth caution. His helmet blower also broke for the second straight week.

"When the caution comes out, you have a chance to look at your gauges," Biffle said. "It was only showing 11.5 volts (and) I knew we were doomed. I was wondering if it was gonna start (after the red flag), but it was OK."

Sprague regained the points lead by 41 over Scott Riggs after Keller's misfortune.

It was the 10th change in the Busch points this season, after only 14 races, and the sixth time Sprague and Keller had swapped the lead.

Defending race winner Jimmy Spencer suffered a violent accident when fellow Winston Cup driver Todd Bodine hit Spencer's No. 1 Yellow Chevrolet in the rear. It smashed into the outside wall entering Turn 3 and ended up facing driver's side toward oncoming traffic.

Spencer emerged from the track's infield care center swathed in bandages and on crutches, but whipped the disguise off as he revealed a joke on the media.

"We made some adjustments on the car and got out there in the lead," Spencer said. "I bumped into the wall and I think I knocked the front fender in and got the car pushing, but I still felt like I had a top-five car."

Spencer was running eighth when he had his mishap.

"Todd Bodine just didn't see what was happening up there or whatever," Spencer said. "But he just swung right into me -- wasn't paying attention or staying focused or whatever he was supposed to be doing. He just spun me out and really ruined our whole day."

Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate Johnny Sauter's troubles continued one day after car owner Richard Childress said he feared the driver of the No. 2 ACDelco Chevrolet might be suffering from post concussion syndrome. Sauter also wrecked his primary car in practice before qualifying and raced the back up.

Sauter brought out the race's second caution on lap 65, when he spun coming off Turn 2 while running nose-to-tail with fellow rookie Shane Hmiel. Sauter made heavy contact with the inside wall and was out on the spot. He was released from the track's infield care center without injury.