Biffle likes his chances to win third race in a row (cont'd)

Call it peaking at the right time. Biffle is especially strong on intermediate tracks, five of which are in the Chase. The other competitors realize that. "They're a dangerous team," Jeff Burton said.

"Every year somebody, I don't want to say comes out of the woods, but surprises people and puts themselves in a position to win when nobody picked them," he added. "That's what they've done this year. Whether they can do it for eight more weeks or not, I don't know. They could, they look really strong. There's five 1.5-mile tracks coming up. That's where I think the 16 has been their best, at the big racetracks. But there are a lot of variables."

But Biffle has been here before, narrowly missing out on a championship in 2005. He finished 35 points behind Tony Stewart that year, and spent a lot of time ruing the loose lug nuts that had doomed him to a 20th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway in the year's third-to-last event. This is his first Chase appearance since that season, when he led the series with six victories.

"In some ways I'm surprised, and in other ways I'm not," Johnson said, when asked about Biffle's sudden rise. "Greg has been so solid through the Truck Series and the [Nationwide] Series, and I've always looked up to his hard-nosed driving and aggression on track and getting everything he can out of a car. The last two years have been more of a shock to me that he hasn't been in contention, than seeing him where he is right now. I think in '05 he won the most races in that season, and we thought going into '06 he was going to be the guy, and he wasn't around. So, I was more shocked by that than what I see now. We all know that Roush has the equipment. Once you get all the right people together and they get some time together, it's hard to stop them."

For Biffle, there's no playing it safe, even this close to the lead with eight races to go. His team is "on kill every week right now," he said. "I feel like we don't have anything to lose. I felt like that starting out, I still feel like that. This is our opportunity to gain."

To the competition, those are frightening words.