Greg Biffle had trouble with a loose car, causing him to lose control and spin. Credit: Autostock

Biffle's title hopes go up in puff of smoke at Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas -- For the three weeks leading up to Sunday's Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, life had been good for drivers going for season sweeps, as Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson all completed the feat.

Not so for Greg Biffle. Not at all.

Inside the Chase Standings after Texas Rank Driver Pts. Behind 1. T. Stewart 6,255 -- 2. J. Johnson 6,217 -38 3. C. Edwards 6,178 -77 4. G. Biffle 6,133 -122 5. M. Martin 6,132 -123 6. M. Kenseth 6,120 -135 7. R. Newman 6,081 -174 8. Ku. Busch 5,974 -281 9. R. Wallace 5,940 -315 10. J. Mayfield 5,848 -407 • Race Results, click here • Series Standings, click here Greg Biffle's Chase results Race Start Finish Loudon 26 4 Dover 18 13 Talladega 8 27 Kansas 8 2 Charlotte 21 3 Martinsville 22 20 Atlanta 16 7 Texas 7 20 Averages 15.7 12.0 Round and roundGreg Biffle talks about a day full of spins Front to backRace-leader Greg Biffle pits under green for a vibration Whale of a saveGreg Biffle saves a loose race car down the fronstretch Texas showdownCatch all the highlights from TMS with TrackPass Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

The No. 16 Ford looked strong early, taking the lead from Matt Kenseth on Lap 37. Twelve laps later, while leading, Biffle pitted after radioing his crew to complain about a possible loose wheel. Turns out, Biffle was right, as the right-rear tire was loose.

From there, the best Biffle could hope for was to get back on the lead lap.

"We had to fight back to get to the front," Biffle said. "And we never really got back there.

"Our car would run well for about 15 laps, and then, being down with that coil with the bad spring in it -- I'm saying, we haven't inspected it yet, but I think that's what's wrong -- it just started sliding that left-front tire across the track and it just wouldn't do anything."

As Biffle was trying to get his lap back, things got worse. He got loose as Dale Earnhardt Jr. was closing on him on Lap 83. Biffle went for a wild ride, but never hit anything and moved on. Then there was the contact with the No. 22 of Scott Wimmer, then the single-car spin on Lap 293.

Biffle said he blames the latter on himself.

"I made a little mistake there, trying to dig," he said. "The 49 [Ken Schrader] was catching me a little bit and I got my tire caught on the apron and spun out there, but who knows. We didn't know when there was going to be a caution, anyway."

It didn't help that the race was loaded with long, green-flag runs that prevented him from being the "Lucky Dog."

"The race had to be boring as can be for the fans on TV," Biffle said. "I don't know what they talked about the whole time. Nobody bunched up. Nobody racin'."

Which Biffle said made him more aggressive and may have caused the earlier problems.

"I thought, 'Gosh, if we can't be the lucky dog, maybe I'll have to be in front of 'em,'" he said.

And that worked, temporarily.

"Our car wasn't perfect, but we really had to make some wholesale changes there to try and get it better, and we were in traffic and stuck three-wide back there, and had to use up a lot of tire trying to get to be the Lucky Dog because we kept working on it on pit road.

"It's unfortunate when you're trying to race to be the Lucky Dog. It changes the whole systematic deal of the race -- when your racing for the Lucky Dog versus racing for positions."

The position Biffle is really racing for these days -- the lead in the Chase for the Nextel Cup -- may have went by the boards Sunday. With two races remaining, Biffle is now 122 points behind leader Tony Stewart, 47 points farther back than when the day started.

Perhaps more importantly, Biffle dropped from third to fourth in the standings.

"We won't give up until the end," Biffle said. "But, big picture, a loose wheel could cost us the championship. That's tough."