Runner-up showing at Charlotte is first top five of season for the No. 16 Ford
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CONCORD, N.C. -- It's been a while since Greg Biffle has felt like this -- according to him, about a year. But the driver of the Roush Fenway Racing No. 16 Ford was pleased, albeit in a bittersweet way, with his second-place finish in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Biffle netted his first top five of the season in what he said has been a well-documented slow start for him and his RFR teammates. So forgive Biffle if he felt like the monkey was finally off his back -- even if it meant losing to former teammate Carl Edwards in the process.
"It's kind of funny because I decided if I finished in the top 10 tonight I was gonna stand on the door top and be all excited and cheer," Biffle said, "and I finished second and I'm not happy. The thing is we ran in the top 10 all night. The car was good and had a lot of speed. That was a huge improvement."
Improvement was good for a driver with an average finish of 20.5 in 2015, his worst mark since becoming a full-time driver in the Sprint Cup Series in 2003.
To get Biffle's last top-five finish, you'd have to go back to the 2014 GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway. And in the 26 races between Pocono and Charlotte, Biffle managed only six top-10 finishes.
Sunday was a bit of the old Biffle, the driver who has won 19 times on the premier level. He even showed some spunk while engaging in a fuel-mileage battle with Edwards in the final laps.
"You know, I was putting a lot of pressure on Carl there," Biffle said. "I started going with about 10 laps to go. The crew chief (Matt Puccia) told me 'save all you can, just stay in front of the 88,' and I made a decision that I was going to try to beat Carl."
With two laps to go, the fuel light came on indicating the fuel pressure was low, so Biffle said he had to preserve the rest of way. Luckily for Biffle, his desire to beat Carl didn't come back to haunt him.
"Yeah, well, we knew that Carl was going to try and make it, and certainly nobody knows whether you've got enough gas," Biffle said. "I was sure hoping and praying that he would be about a lap short because, you know, we've lost a few -- everybody has lost a few -- like that."
As far as whether Sunday's showing proved that the slow start was behind him, Biffle refused to go that far. But he was feeling optimistic about the road ahead.
"I've got a couple of trophies from (Dover)," Biffle said. "We run good there. ... You know Michigan is kind of -- I've got it circled now on my calendar -- because if we've got speed on these kind of tracks back again, that's a good race track for us. So we'll see how we stack up."