 | | Greg Biffle enters Michigan's large pit box. Credit: CIA Stock Photo |
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
June 20, 2005
02:05 PM EDT (18:05 GMT)
Pit Story of the Race Tire strategy has literally become an annual, monthly and weekly guessing-game, and Greg Biffle is starting to become much better at it. Biffle lost at Bristol earlier this year when he famously stayed out on old tires. He did the same thing at Michigan, but it worked on Sunday because he had seven cars between him and Tony Stewart, who pitted on Lap 171 for tires. Biffle had 12 more laps on his tires than Stewart, but it took Stewart 25 laps to even get close to Biffle. By that time, it was too late. "I felt like if we took tires we had enough laps to get back," said Stewart, who was looking for his first win since Aug. 15, 2004, at Watkins Glen. "We should have been able to get up to the front." Bigger tracks, better chance with old tires?  |  | | Casey Mears Credit: Autostock |
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In 2005, older tires seem to work better on the bigger tracks like Michigan and Texas, where the new rules have made passing very difficult. Casey Mears got a career-best fourth when he stayed out on old tires at Texas, and Biffle knew that Stewart would have a hard time winning if he was mired in traffic. "It's going to take them four or five laps to clear the traffic, so they've run their tires harder than they had to," said Biffle. Biffle knows he was fortunate to have a long green-flag run at the end. "I thought there were going to be a couple more cautions," he said. That's more like it |  | | Matt Kenseth Credit: Autostock |
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Was this 2003? Matt Kenseth didn't lead a lap on Sunday, but he was in the top-10 for the last 170 laps. He finished fourth, easily a season high, and his pit stops were crisp all day. Like Biffle, Kenseth remained on the track during the last caution. "It's been frustrating the last six months or so, but the guys did a good job on pit road," Kenseth said. "Robbie [Reiser] made the right call not getting tires there at the end. It was a little bit of a gamble, but it paid off and we ran pretty competitively." The top-five run was Kenseth's first in 23 races. Pit trouble for Mears Speaking of Mears ... he had a sure top-10 going, but his green-flag stop on Lap 135 was a disaster. "They left a lugnut off so we had to come back in and went a lap down," Mears said. "We rode around a lap down the rest of the day. We probably had the best car out there. I think we could have won the race." Quotable "It just amazes me that four tires can't beat a car that's got 12 laps on it."
-- Tony Stewart, who restarted eighth with four tires with 26 laps to go | 
