Biffle wins for fourth time in nine races

Kroger 200 Results | Busch Series Standings

CLERMONT, Ind. -- It might be time to starting shining the championship trophy for Greg Biffle.

PHOTO GALLERY • Kroger 200

Biffle defied multiple cautions, hot temperatures and a valiant effort by Jason Keller to win the Kroger 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Saturday night.

Biffle took the lead from Scott Riggs with less than 10 laps to go.

	Scott Riggs led 93 laps, but a cut tire sent him to an 11th-place finish. Credit: Autostock

Biffle then held off Keller, who also took on four tires while the rest of the leaders stayed out with 29 laps to go.

For Biffle, it was his series-high fourth victory and widened his points lead over Keller to 82 points.

Biffle beat Keller by just 0.147 seconds.

Biffle and the No. 60 Grainger Ford team decided to pit and take on fresh tires, despite others in the top 10 who opted to stay out. Keller and the No. 57 Albertson's Ford team also took on four tires on that pit stop.

"I figured three or four of those other guys would come behind us and our car was terrible there," Biffle said. "I couldn't catch the No. 10 (Riggs) and I didn't think I was going to be able to hold the No. 57 (Keller) off when it went green.

"I had nothing lose and saw the No. 57 coming in, so he kind of influenced us. I just got really lucky and got the right breaks with lap traffic there.

	Credit: Autostock

"It was pretty unfair when I had four fresh tires and the others were on 120-lap tires. I had to drive my race and not block Keller there at the end."

Keller felt he could have been there at the end.

"We had a fast race car tonight," Keller said. "We just came up a little short and that was some good hard racing, but I liked it.

"You try to put yourself in a position to win the race. Steve Addington (crew chief) made a good decision, we just need to get pit road fine-tuned."

Scott Wimmer came from 32nd to finish third. His team was one that decided to stay out and gamble for the win.

"We just ran out of tires and Greg (Biffle) came in and put four (tires) on," Wimmer said. "We elected to stay out. Track position means everything here, but tires do, too.

"Between the guys running here and our attempt to qualify for the Brickyard 400 over at the big track kept the guys busy this weekend. I felt like I let them all down over there. Hopefully, this finish will make up for it."

Rounding out the top 10 finishers was Johnny Sauter, Kenny Wallace, Jon Wood, Ricky Hendrick, Jamie McMurray, Tony Raines and Ron Hornaday.

It was Wood's first career Busch Series start.

Things got a little dicey at times on the .686-mile track.

The red flag came out on lap 62 for a seven-car accident. There was a 15-minute delay, but no injuries.

Two cautions came out in the next 24 laps, prompting NASCAR to ask the team's spotters to calm the drivers down just before the halfway point of the race.

The race had seven lead changes among five leaders as there were six cautions for 36 laps. Race time was 1 hour and 40 minutes, and Biffle averaged 81.78 mph.