Picturesque New England could turn ugly for some (cont'd)

"With the corners being so tight, you've got to put a lot of gear in the car to get it up off the corner. Forward bite is always an issue there, too -- trying to get the car to go forward. So, it's hard to get up off the corners. Then you've got long straightaways where you can kind of relax a little bit. Coming into the corners, you use a lot of brake, and it's hard to not only get the car stopped, but to get it to turn. Then you go through that challenge all over again."

And again, and again, and again.

I have always felt that as a fan, New Hampshire is a good place to root hard for your favorite driver but always have a T-shirt or cap of your next favorite guy with you. Some days you "hit it" at New Hampshire and others you well, almost "hit it".

"If you miss on something it can be a miserable day," Stewart said.

"It seems like you don't see but three or four guys during the day that really hit it. That's what makes a day there miserable when you miss. It's just a matter of keeping a well-balanced car all day. And it seems like you can have bad track position, but if you have a car that drives well, you can drive your way to the front. It's not a situation you cringe at if you have a good driving car."

Greg Biffle finished fifth at Sonoma. That's his first top-five finish since Bristol, 10 races ago if you're counting, and ties his best finish of the year, which was fifth at Bristol. He finished 14th at New Hampshire this past September but in the three races there prior, "The Biff" had three consecutive top-five finishes. Nice.

"I always enjoy racing at New Hampshire," Biffle said.

Enjoys it. What did I tell you?

"It's a flat track and those are always fun for a driver because it requires a lot of throttle and brake input. The keys to New Hampshire are getting the car to rotate in the corner and have lots of forward bite exiting. If you can hit both of those things with the setup then it's generally a good day. This will be our first race with Aflac on the car and it would be cool to get the duck up front on its debut."

Yeah, watch out for the duck. I don't think we've ever had a duck in a race before. Well, maybe Daffy Duck was in one of those Richmond races. There might have been an Anaheim Duck in a race at Fontana. You know, I think I recall the Oregon Ducks in a race a couple of years ago. Just goes to show, you can see almost anything at a Nextel Cup race.

Almost.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.