Double-duty no deterrent to Biffle's title goals

CONCORD, N.C. -- Kasey Kahne has already said he'll skip two Busch Series races later this year. Johnny Sauter won't do the Nextel Cup races at Pocono this weekend, or the road course in Sonoma, Calif.

But Greg Biffle and Roush Racing remain committed to doing both Nextel Cup and Busch Series schedules for the rest of the season.

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Things will get a little hectic this weekend, as Biffle will have to fly back and forth from Pocono, Pa. -- the site of this weekend's Nextel Cup race -- to Nashville, Tenn., where the Busch Series runs the Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway.

And there are conflicts the next two weekends when the Nextel Cup Series visits Michigan and Sonoma, while the Busch Series is in Kentucky and Milwaukee, respectively.

So until further notice, Biffle will still do both.

"I'm still committed," Biffle said. "We've talked about maybe not doing it. The reason why we're doing it is to win the championship, and I'm the guy who wanted to do it. I didn't want to run all but six races and not win the points."

Biffle is seventh in the Busch Series points standings, 317 points behind leader Kyle Busch. The season has been feast or famine for Biffle, who has won three times and has three DNFs.

Perhaps -- perhaps -- Biffle would get out of the car later in the year, but not right now.

"We're kind of out of the championship right now with the oil pump belt coming off and all of the motors blowing up and all of those things happening to us," Biffle said. "At that point, not saying we're going to quit; we'd still certainly run the car maybe with a different driver or something, but the championship is kind of out of touch, and for us, it's kinda win or nothing.

"We're not shooting for third in points, or fifth. We want to win the championship, and if not, we're going to win as many races as we can and run the entire season with the 60 car. No decisions have been made not to do that.

"I'm running at Nashville (this) week, from Pocono to Nashville. If that tells you anything, we're still on."

One big reason Biffle is so far behind in the points has been a rash of engine problems. He's blown three engines and had one oil pump failure in 14 races. Those four failures has left him with four finishes of 32nd or worse.

In the other 10 races, he's finished 11th or better 10 times.

It's been really good or really bad.

"It certainly has," Biffle said. "It's kind of funny, one weekend we'll run good in the Busch car and the next weekend we'll run good in the Nextel Cup car and not run good in the Busch car, and vice-versa. It kinda keeps you going. It keeps your hopes up that some day you'll get them both right in the same weekend and win both of the them, or win one and run real good in the other."

And the inability to get both programs running well at the same time has been frustrating.

"It's been real good or horrible," Biffle said. "We've run really good, and we've had stupid stuff happen. A lot of people said for a long that we were having bad luck, but I don't think it's luck. It's stuff not being done the way it should be.

	Greg Biffle has three wins in the Busch Series so far this year. Credit: Autostock

"If you leave a wheel loose and you go two laps down and have to make up two and finish seventh and have the fastest car by two tenths, that's not bad luck, in my opinion."

Part of the problem has been because Biffle's No. 60 team is essentially brand new. Yes, Roush has run a No. 60 in the past for Mark Martin, and Biffle won the championship in a No. 60 two years ago, but that was then.

"How many people think the 60 has been racing for 10 years in the Busch Series?" Biffle said. "It's really a brand new team this year. All of the cars got wrecked last year. There weren't any cars left really. We started from scratch and (crew chief) Brad (Parrott) came over there with a new group of guys, and half of the guys never worked on a Busch car before, at least two or three of them. There is going to be a learning curve there."

And the learning curve struck the engine department hardest.

"We had more than a tremendous amount of engine failure this season," Biffle said. "I can't believe that we've had as many problems as we've had. It kind of shocks me, but that's the new-race-team-blues right there. That's what that's caused from."

Still, Biffle said that's no excuse.

"There is no reason they should be off their game," Biffle said. "I expressed to Jack (Roush) that I was pretty unhappy about that, and Jack really stepped up and responded to that and brought some guys down from Michigan that did all of (Matt Kenseth's) motors last year when they were making the championship run. He brought those guys down to straighten out the engine shop.

"I think we're still down on power a little bit. They may not be as good as they need to be, but maybe they are. Maybe it's just the way our cars are handling. I think there are big improvements from the beginning of the season, and I can't be happier right now because it seems like those problems are behind us."

That could be bad news for the rest of the Busch Series competitors -- if Biffle remains in the car for the rest of the season.

This weekend, Mike McLaughlin will be Biffle's backup, practicing and qualifying the car at Nashville. Biffle hopes to complete Nextel Cup qualifying at Pocono in time to make it to Nashville for Happy Hour, but if not, he has confidence in his team.

"Nashville is going to be tough this week because there is a possibility I won't get any track time prior to the race," said Biffle, who won the first Busch race on Nashville's new track in 2001. "I plan on trying to make it there for Happy Hour on Friday, but it depends on how things go in Pocono first. I really want to get some time in the Busch car so I don't have to start the race on Saturday blind so to speak. If I can't, I know Brad, Mike (McLaughlin) and the Charter crew will do a good job setting up the race car."