Biffle expects to remain at Roush, drive No. 16 Ford

The longest-tenured driver at Roush Fenway Racing expects to remain with the Nextel Cup organization a little longer.

Greg Biffle said Monday before a test session at Lowe's Motor Speedway that he believes he'll successfully negotiate a contract extension with the Roush team, where he's been a fixture since 1998. Biffle's current contract expires after next season, and Roush officials are also searching for a new primary car sponsor to replace financially troubled Ameriquest, which asked out of the final two years of its deal.

Lagging behind

When it comes to getting up to speed in the COT, Tom McCarthy writes Roush Fenway Racing has some work to do.

• Complete story, click here

"I don't have any reason to believe that we're not going to be able to do a deal with them," said Biffle, who this Saturday night will bid to join Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon as the only drivers to win three consecutive events at Darlington Raceway.

Biffle said negotiations are in a very early stage, although he's already received interest from other teams. Roush president Geoff Smith and Biffle's representative began exchanging proposals last week on a deal that could keep the driver in the Roush Fenway stable through 2012. Biffle, 37, won championships in both the Busch and Craftsman Truck series with Roush, and has made all but six of his 160 career Nextel Cup starts in Roush cars.

"We're negotiating with Roush on getting the extension done. We've got a couple of sponsors that want to come over and be on our racecar, and there are other teams that have shown interest in me coming over to drive their car," he said. "I'm pretty sure I'm staying at Roush. The negotiations are going well. I don't see any reason why I'd be out talking to anybody else at this point, or at least entertaining those ideas until I feel like I've gone as far as I can with Roush and we can't come to terms."

Biffle hopes to have the deal completed in 60 days, and doesn't want negotiations to drag on into next season. "If we don't get it done this year," he said, "I'm going to be announcing where I'm going to be driving in the future."

Biffle won six races for Roush in 2005, a breakthrough season that also saw him finish second to Tony Stewart in final championship points. He took a step backward last year, missing the Chase for the Nextel Cup, and team officials reacted by splitting up Biffle and longtime crew chief Doug Richert, now making the calls for Brian Vickers at struggling Team Red Bull. Biffle and current crew chief Pat Tryson stand 15th in Nextel Cup points.

"It's not about money. It's about being competitive. It's about being with an organization that realizes their weaknesses and works to fix them," Biffle said.

"We just want to win. Give us a car that we can win in. That's all we care about. That being said, yeah, you have to be compensated average-wise across the board. But the most important thing is winning and being competitive every week and having good pit stops and having a team that you think is focused on doing that."