Biffle feels vindicated with Chase spot on the horizon

FONTANA, Calif. -- Greg Biffle may have lost the race to Jimmie Johnson at Auto Club Speedway, but he won the battle in the pits.

Dropped lug nuts, speeding penalties and tangled air hoses are among some of the self-inflicted mistakes on pit road the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing team has paid for this season.

Greg Biffle

Since 2005

Year	W	T-5	T-10	Rank
2005	6	15	21	2
2006	2	8	15	13
2007	1	5	11	14
2008	0	8	11	6

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That wasn't the case Sunday, when Biffle repeatedly won the race off pit road and had near-flawless pit stops all night long due to extra pit practice back at the shop in Concord, N.C., and a few positions shifts on the crew.

"They were the fastest guys on pit road [Sunday night] and I've never had that before in my life," said Biffle, who all but locked himself into the Chase after finishing second in the Pepsi 500. "It feels pretty good to beat everybody off of pit road time and time again. I wish we could have got the 3M Ford Fusion car in Victory Lane."

After being shut out of the Chase in 2006 and 2007, Biffle is feeling vindicated this season after he said he has found the speed his team was missing last season.

"Ironically enough in 2006, if the point system was like it is today, [top-12 qualify as opposed to top-10] we would have made it. We missed it in 2007 by a little bit," he said.

There's one more race before the Chase, which determine the champion, and Biffle said he's confident he and his crew can put together 10 flawless races to equal their flawless pit stops.

"I feel like I can as a driver," Biffle said. " I don't know if our 10 flawless races is going to be enough to win the title or not, as of right now it doesn't look like it is because [Kyle Busch] and [Carl Edwards] are a little bit faster than we are, but they're going to have to put together 10 flawless races also. Hopefully, our 10 best races we can put together are going to be good enough."

It would be a nice change of events for Biffle who in 2005 won six Cup Series events. Since then, he's flown under the radar.

"I don't necessarily say I like to, but that's the way it is and I'm certainly OK with that because right now it looks like we've got ourselves a good spot in the Chase," he said.

Still, it's a spot that could be better.

"I think we could be third in points or fourth in points if we just got some of those finishes. There are a handful of them that are just such dumb things," said Biffle, who has two 43rd-place finishes and 14 finishes outside the top 10.

"I said the exact same thing Denny Hamlin said two weeks ago word for word. 'We don't deserve a Chase spot,' because we weren't running good enough to get it. We just weren't. We were just going to take up space ... take up oxygen being one of the 12 and that's exactly how I felt the last two years," Biffle said.

This year has been different as the team came out strong early and has put together consistent and competitive runs, much like they did Sunday night.

"So I feel good about getting in the Chase and that we can do something when we get there," he said. "But, yeah, this year feels a lot different."