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"And then it was Grainger Race Day, because Grainger's headquarters are in Chicago, so I was scheduled to be there all day Thursday for that event already. So, winning Saturday night certainly put a twist on it. I've been super busy, and I can't complain, that's for sure."
Biffle did get a chance to sit back and take it all in, however.
"I had a chance to enjoy it on Sunday," Biffle said. "I went out to my mountain property and kind of took it easy. It was quiet. I had that planned already and I figured, 'Ah, I'm just going to go ahead with my plan. What else am I going to do?'
"And it was nice, really nice. It gave me a chance to reflect on the win and think about everything that we were able to accomplish as a team. So I was really excited about it."
Kerry Earnhardt was taken to Provena St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet after getting T-boned by Ashton Lewis Jr. early in the Tropicana Twister 300.
Earnhardt lost control of his car off Turn 2 and slid in front of the field. Lewis tried to go low to miss Earnhardt but ran out of room and hit the driver's door of Earnhardt's No. 12 just behind the left-front wheel.
Lewis crawled out unhurt, but Earnhardt remained in his car for several minutes. The roof of his car had to be cut before Earnhardt could get out. He walked to an awaiting stretcher, wearing a neck brace. Earnhardt waved to the crowd before being loaded on to an ambulance.
Earnhardt was alert and stable and was taken to the hospital for further evaluation.
What kind of a race should we expect Sunday? Will it be a single-file affair, will every driver gunning for the preferred inside groove? Or will the two-year-old racetrack develop a raceable second groove?
"Unfortunately, with it being a newer racetrack, the bottom groove is still really fresh and has a lot of grip in it, and that doesn't give you any reason to move up and run outside of that and a longer way around the racetrack where it doesn't have a lot of rubber," polesitter Tony Stewart said.
"But even last the groove started moving up a little bit. For a track that only had a year on it, going from the first year to the second year, it had changed quite a bit.
"Hopefully, after we run a Busch race tomorrow and an IROC race, it will wear the track a little more and by Sunday it will have moved up to two grooves.
"Any time you can throw a couple of variables in like (a bumpy surface) that it also will get the cars to move around and create a second groove. I anticipate having a two- and three- groove race track by the end of the weekend."
Passing is always at a premium at any track, but it's not impossible at Chicago.
"The thing here is you get tight up off the corners, and if somebody slides the tires you need to be right on him so that you can get up underneath," two-time defending race champion Kevin Harvick said. "But we came from 32nd to fourth here last year under green, and then spun out, but the fuel mileage worked our way."
You know you're having a good day when a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner gives you a congratulatory call.
Of course, it helps that he's your uncle.
Rick Mears, uncle to Casey Mears, gave Casey a call Friday after Casey won the pole for the Busch Series race and qualified fourth for the Winston Cup event.
"My uncle left me a message yesterday," Casey said. "He was all fired up, and it was really cool. He was all excited because I had such a good day. I called him back this morning and left him a voice mail."
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| Casey Mears was a hot topic Friday at Chicagoland Speedway. Credit: Getty Images |
Rick wasn't the only family to be happy for Casey. Casey's father, Roger, was happy for his son, too, of course.
"Dad is always here, and it feels good to have him here," Casey said. "Every time I go to buckle in he's there. It's great to know he's there watching. He always has something to say to me at the end of the day. It's just good to have some family around."
Casey Mears said he would take a conservative approach to Sunday's Tropicana 400.
Yeah, right.
"I think right now for us, a good goal for Sunday would be a top-15 or a top-10," Mears said. "However, this team is capable of winning. We're going to approach it conservatively, but if we're in the top five at the end, you'd better believe I'm going to be standing on the gas trying to win that race."
Jeff Gordon has been fighting a bug of some kind this week that left him sick as a dog before he got to Chicago.
"I'm on the upslope of getting better," Gordon said. "I don't know what I caught, but I was in bad shape Tuesday and Wednesday. Today's a lot better. I had a high fever. I'm on a decongestant and an antibiotic."
The sickness didn't hinder Gordon's sense of humor. Asked about what he'd like to drive in next month's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Gordon responded that he'd like to use Juan Montoya's Williams-BMW, the one he drove in an exhibition on Indy's road course last month.
"I'd like to have Montoya's car," Gordon said. "That would be a breeze. I could win that race with one hand."
Remember the car driven by Ryan Newman that exploded in flames at Michigan on June 15? It's back and will start 14th in Sunday's race.
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| Ryan Newman says he has no fear about getting back in the car that caught on fire at Michigan. Credit: Autostock |
"We put a new skin on the car and rewired it," Newman said. "It should be pretty good for this track because it's a lot like Michigan. We were battling for the win at Michigan, and it was a brand-new car at Dover when we won there earlier this year. You try to bring the car with the most downforce, and this has been a good car for us.
"It didn't melt down the metal at Michigan, but it melted down the fiberglass and the wiring and stuff like that, so we had to rebuild it a little bit."
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