Biffle extends points lead with win at Gateway

MADISON, Ill. -- Greg Biffle used a lightning fast green flag pit stop to set up his win in Saturday night's NASCAR Busch Series Charter Pipeline 250 at Gateway International Raceway.

It was Biffle's third win of the year in the No. 60 Grainger Ford, all of which have come in the last seven Busch events.

Greg Biffle heads down the long straightaway at Gateway. Biffle became the first Ford driver to win a Busch race at the 1.25-mile track.

Biffle took the lead under caution when the last car that hadn't pitted under green hit the service alley. He stretched his lead after the final restart and ended up beating Ron Hornaday to the line by a margin of 1.945 seconds.

After Biffle and Hornaday had pitted under green, Biffle was two seconds ahead of Hornaday, who was leading when he pitted several laps after Biffle did.

"I ended up gaining a lot on pit road for that last stop," Biffle said. "The guys just ripped off a good pit stop and I got out of there really well.

"I probably picked up more time when I got on the track and it turned out to get us the lead. The car was actually better during the race than it was at the end at one point."

Biffle expounded on what was taking place in the car as he made his way around the egg-shaped track. It looked as though he was about to brush the wall at times, especially coming off Turn 4.

"I was trying to get the nose down," Biffle said. "If I put the power to the car, it would kind of hang the back out a little bit. I could drive it off the corner like that.

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"Then, it just kind of got away from me and I probably let it go out there too far and it really started to go. I would let up on the gas and it wouldn't respond.

"I was kind of driving my butt off there trying to get it back."

Hornaday finished second for easily his best finish of the year in the No. 26 Dr Pepper Chevrolet. He led a race-high 141 laps.

"You have to be happy for this whole team," said Hornaday. "You have to finish in the top five before you can win one, but Biffle was tough tonight.

Ron Hornaday led 141 laps but couldn't catch Biffle in the closing laps.

"I was just real loose on that last run up off the corner. We beat them out of the pits the first time. I don't know if I could have held him off because we just started slipping and sliding there at the end."

Kevin Grubb finished third after starting 20th. This was his best finish of the year since joining Team Bristol in March.

"All we need is a little more time," Grubb said. "That's our biggest thing. We have a great team with Tony Lambert as my crew chief and all the guys on the team.

"We just need to the time to build the team and the cars, too."

Jack Sprague got the monkey off his back after two weeks of non-productive runs. After starting 26th, he drove to a fourth-place finish.

Todd Bodine brought out the race's first caution with a spin on the backstretch. He finished 32nd.

"I'll tell you, it's great to be back in the top five and finish a race unscathed," Sprague said. "The guys gave me some great pit stops and we had a car that was decent. It was a little too tight to deal with those guys up front.

"After the last few weeks we've had, I'll take this run."

Rounding out the top 10 was Tony Raines, Jason Keller, Mike McLaughlin, Jamie McMurray, Kevin Lepage and Tim Sauter.

There were five cautions for 25 laps and 13 lead changes among eight drivers.