Crew chief Doug Richert (left) and Greg Biffle made great strides in 2004. Credit: Autostock

Biffle caps inconsistent year with dominant win

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Roush Racing won its second consecutive championship, but Ford 400 winner Greg Biffle forecast a possible run at a third straight in 2005.

Biffle, whose second Nextel Cup season has been largely marked by unfulfilled promise, took advantage of a green-white-checkered finish to hold off Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon after 271 laps.

Biffle (left) congraulates champion Kurt Busch Credit: Autostock

"I wasn't worried about running out of fuel on the green-white-checkered because we had stopped with 47 to go -- a lot later than those guys up front," Biffle said. "But with 34 (laps) to go I was starting about 24th (so) I've got to pass a whole lot of cars in a short amount of time."

Two cautions in the last 20 laps set up the dramatic finish, when Gordon, Johnson and Kurt Busch -- who constantly swapped positions in the race and the championship standings all day -- were lined up behind leader Tony Stewart and Biffle.

Biffle, who nearly made contact with Stewart when the final green flag flew before squirting to the outside to take his fourth lead in the race, won for the third time in his Nextel Cup career and second in this season's second half.

Ford 400 Videos The Champ Kurt Busch receives the 2004 Nextel Cup trophy Victory Lane Greg Biffle celebrates after winning the season-ending Ford 400 Final laps Two late wrecks set up a mad dash for the Nextel Cup Runner up Jimmie Johnson reflects on an emotional season Holding at four Jeff Gordon finishes third in the NNC standings Coming up short Dale Earnhardt Jr. assesses his championship run Down and out Mayfield cuts a tire and slams into the wall Close call Busch loses a front wheel but stays on the lead lap Avoiding disaster Johnson avoids two early wrecks after starting in the back

Biffle said that while he was focusing on the final restart, he heard some chatter on his in-car radio saying Stewart's crew had pulled out a fuel can on pit road; and when he looked up, Stewart's car had hesitated.

"Right then, the 20 car just stopped right in front of me," Biffle said. "I got off the gas, touched the brakes and jerked the wheel to the right to try not to hit him.

"I got back in the gas and looked around me, thinking the 24 (Gordon) or the 48 (Johnson) might be alongside me. I didn't want to wreck them or run into anybody and wreck my car.

"Once I realized I was clear of everybody, I knew it was going to be clean sailing after that because that sucker just marched off all day."

Biffle led a race-high 117 laps. He said said there was no pre-race deal in effect to allowed Busch to lead the first lap.

But Biffle proved his strength when he took the lead at lap five and led the next 110 circuits of the high-banked 1.5-mile oval.

Later, he struggled to get track position before a meteoric late-race run saw him move to second, behind Stewart, when leader Ryan Newman hit the wall when a tire deflated at Lap 266.

"It's unfortunate that Ryan Newman had trouble, but that was the determining factor that gave me the opportunity to win today," Biffle said. "There was no way we were going to catch them, even though we were a lot faster than those guys.

Greg Biffle Driver Page 2004 Stats Ford Driver's Eye Merchandise

"I felt like I pretty much had a better racecar than everybody's, it was just track position and having the opportunity to pass them."

Biffle's finish moved him up four spots and into 17th in the final Nextel Cup standings.

Sunday's win made up for a stretch run in which his finishes have nowhere near proven how strong his team has been.

Ford 400 •   Results •   Standings

"It's been a long year (and) this 16 team and me as a driver have something to prove next year," Biffle said. "This does a lot for us, because our team has been strong the second half of the season and all of the Chase races.

"There again, we just haven't had some of the finishes we thought we should have, but this is what this team is capable of and what I'm capable of as a driver if I've got the right racecars on the racetrack and the aero balance is correct."

Biffle's earlier 2004 victory came in August at Michigan, and the Ford 400 win was only his fourth top-five and eighth top-10 of the season.

"That car is so easy to drive," Biffle said. "I won Michigan in that car and should have won at Kansas except fuel mileage is an issue with us.

"We're trying to build some more like it and to understand it better (but) this certainly does a lot for our momentum."

Biffle was one of three Roush drivers to score two wins in 2004. Credit: Autostock

Biffle feels like his team has a legitimate shot at the 2005 title, and to facilitate that, Biffle will run only a convenient number of Busch Series races, after running the entire Cup and Busch Series schedules this season.

He confirmed owner Jack Roush's support.

"I feel that we've got our spot secured in the Chase, right now, as a driver and with Doug (Richert) as the crew chief," Biffle said. "We'll probably do 15 to 20 Busch races, probably.

"The reason I'm still there is because of what happened today," Biffle said. "He (Roush) knows that that's what I'm capable of and what Doug (crew chief Richert) is capable of -- that we're a team capable of winning races if put in the right equipment with the proper balance.

"This is the fulfillment of the promise we've shown down the stretch, without getting the results to prove it. We're hoping next year to turn that around, and that our finishes reflect how we're running.