This weekend, Biffle and his No. 16 team bring a new car to New Hampshire, one that he raced to a ninth-place showing two weeks ago in the regular-season finale at Richmond.
Greg Biffle is looking for his third win of the season and first since Michigan in August.Following a dismal opening to the 2012 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Greg Biffle hopes to race his way back into championship contention this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The Roush Fenway Racing driver was the points leader for several weeks during the 26-race "regular season" and entered last week's Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway in fifth place. However, a 13th-place finish in Sunday's Geico 400 dropped "The Biff" to eighth with nine races left in the Chase.
This weekend, Biffle and his No. 16 team bring a new car to New Hampshire, one that he raced to a ninth-place showing two weeks ago in the regular-season finale at Richmond.
"We are taking that car to Loudon this weekend. We feel like we are going to be definitely a factor, certainly a top-five car this weekend at Loudon. We are just going to have to wait and see how it plays out," Biffle said Tuesday on NASCAR's weekly media conference call.
Biffle wasn't the only Chase contender to suffer bad luck at Chicagoland. Teammate Matt Kenseth broke a shock, Jeff Gordon slammed the wall after his throttle stuck, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had to start from the back due to an engine change and Denny Hamlin ran out of gas in the final laps.
History shows that, while early success in the Chase is good, it's not necessarily a required item on a championship resume. Since the Chase began in 2004, only Tony Stewart in 2005 and Jimmie Johnson two years later led the standings after the first race.
Four eventual champions, though, were second after one Chase race: Kurt Busch (2004), Johnson (2008, 2009) and Stewart last year.
"We all know that minimizing the bad days, that's the most important thing, because when you have a good day, you have a good day," Biffle said. "You run up front, challenge for the win, you finish third. Those days are almost like normal days, if you will."
In 20 NHMS starts, Biffle has one win, five top-5's, eight top-10's and a 16.2 average finish. He was ninth in July's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 and third in this race a year ago.
"That's a great track for us," Biffle said. "Fall seems to be a better race for us than the spring, and like you said, a win there in the Chase (2008) so hopefully we can back it up there with another win there this weekend."