Q&A: Greg Biffle (cont'd)

Q: What are the issues about the height and the foam that you said need to be addressed coming out of that meeting?

Biffle: I guess it's a lot more technical stuff. There's something in the exhaust called a boom tube, and I think it's a pipe that equalizes the exhaust or something like that. They put that in years ago because it takes some vibration out of the exhaust pipes, and I think that exhaust pipes were breaking on these cars.

They're paying attention and being receptive to what the teams think of this car going forward.

No rule to penalize 16 for COT failure

Crew chief Pat Tryson was relieved to find that the No. 16 car of his driver, Greg Biffle, was not penalized by NASCAR for being too low in post-race inspection at Bristol. "When we went through [inspection] right after the race, it was low -- and to me, it was no big deal because there's no rule against it," Tryson said. Darby confirmed Tryson's original assessment was correct. There is no rule pertaining to a car being too low. But he said there soon will be. "There's obviously not a rule in the rulebook or we would have reacted with a penalty. What we're working on, though, is a procedure that will ultimately encompass a maximum and a minimum height," Darby said.

Q. Can you explain which door, exactly what the foam looked like and from your perspective what it was like to be inside that cockpit while that foam was burning or melting?

Biffle: I didn't. I smelled some -- my foam wasn't as distorted as bad as Matt's [Kenseth] foam -- Matt's foam, I say distorted because it's a square block and it was kind of dished out like that in the middle where it had melted, and when it melted, it kind of condenses, I guess, if you will, it gets kind of smaller because it sucks together or whatever it does.

But Matt's pipes were broken. Matt's pipes were too thin and then it had a hole in it. It was blowing exhaust up inside the car or against the bottom of that tin, and that's what got the foam so hot, and I'm sure that's what happened to the 29. I've got to think that's what happened to their car.

I think with the proper heat shield and the pipes not failing that the foam is going to be OK. That's just what we made sure of going to Martinsville, that that wasn't going to be a problem. But the other thing is there's also a deal with being on the edge or having a little safety built in. Let's say you do have a problem.

I think there's still some work to be done, maybe some safety to be built in, an extra layer so that that doesn't happen. But I'm sure that that's been handled now. The thing that you have to remember, there's so many smells inside the car already. There's burning rubber and there's burning paint, there's exhaust, there's sweat, there's -- you know, there's so much to smell, and your brain is focused on not crashing, not -- you know. You're not smelling cookies cooking over there."

Q: What is the reason for the foam on the passenger side of the car? Has anybody questioned that need given the issues?

Biffle: Well, the thing about it is most of our wrecks are on the right side of the car. Most of our crashes -- we've plotted the black box where all the impacts take place -- a large percentage of the impacts are over in this category, if you will.

You know, that foam on that side is going to help absorb some energy from that impact. The other thing is it's so easy to get spun out at Talladega, Daytona, Texas, even [Richmond] and be sitting on the racetrack and have somebody hit you right square in the smacker on the right-hand side. That possibility exists easily.

Or if they go down and hit the inside wall and come back across the racetrack, man, we can T-bone them so easy. They're trying to absorb some of that energy from that impact. (Continued)