NASCAR Capsules: Biffle focused on winning

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Greg Biffle is a firm believer in momentum. So the winner of two straight races is feeling pretty good heading into Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway.

``It's right in our wheelhouse,'' Biffle said. ``We won here last year, we're good on mile-and-a-half tracks, and we had a great Charlotte test (earlier this week). Man, I feel good about it.''

The Roush Fenway Racing driver, hoping to add a Cup title to the championships he won earlier in his career in the second-tier Nationwide - then Busch - series and the third-tier truck series, is the first driver to win the first two races of the 10-race Chase for the championship since NASCAR introduced the format in 2004.

``Anything that you do that nobody else has done is kind of cool,'' Biffle said.

But Biffle is more concerned with keeping his momentum than basking in his historic feat.

``I don't want to say I want to win more, but I'm more focused on how we can keep it going more than reflect back on what we've been able to do so far,'' he said. ``I think maybe at the end of the season I could look back easier, and say, 'That was pretty neat to win the first two Chase races.'

``But other than focusing on that, I'm focusing on the first three. I don't want to sound arrogant, but that's really what I'm concentrating on - is winning here versus we made history the first two weeks.''

To get that third win, Biffle will have to make up some ground after qualifying 18th for Sunday's Camping World RV 400.

And he's not alone.

Ten of the 12 Chase drivers qualified outside the top 10, with six of them - including points leader Carl Edwards - starting in the back half of the 43-car field.

Jimmie Johnson, the Cup champion the past two years, had no such problem.

He qualified second to Juan Pablo Montoya on Friday, but was quickly elevated to the pole when Montoya's fast lap was disallowed because of a technical violation.

That gave Johnson, who goes into the race tied with Biffle for second 10 points behind Edwards, the first pick for pit position in the race, a definite edge.

``A lot of the Chasers seemed to have difficulty qualifying ... and, hopefully, we can take advantage of the good track position and get a good pit stall pick and turn that into getting some momentum going on Sunday,'' Johnson said.

``Every little bit helps,' he added. ``The clean air that we will have starting up on the front row is something you can't emphasize enough as drivers know how important that is and how helpful that is. And if we can stay up there all day long and make the fine adjustments to the car to race for the win, we'll be in great shape.''

With only 10th-place Matt Kenseth - starting third - up front to keep him company, Johnson sympathized a bit with the other Chase drivers.

``What's tough is when you start that deep in the pack, the balance of the car changes a lot and what you need as far as your setup,'' he said. ``The closer you get to the front, the more it changes. And if you get to the front with 100 (laps) to go or 50 (laps) to go, I have found I'm usually two or three changes behind the fast guys. And it takes us a while to close that gap.

``So, if you can start up front and run there all day long, you're fine-tuning. If you start in the back, once you get up there you've got to readjust your car and find the balance and then close that gap.''

Kenseth, Biffle and Edwards' Roush Fenway teammate, was the only other Chase driver to get through qualifying without a problem. The 2003 series champion will start third and felt lucky to be that high on the grid.

``It just feels so slow compared to what we usually have here,'' Kenseth said. ``So, I think, overall, everybody's just low on grip, and our group at Roush Fenway seemed to be off since we got here, and (crew chief) Chip (Bolin) made some really good changes and that was, by far, the best we've been.''

Biffle, Edwards and several other Chasers apparently found some answers in Saturday's two practices on the 1.5-mile oval, with Edwards topping the speed chart in the first session and Biffle on top in the second. Other Chase drivers who ran in the top 10 in one or both practices were Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart and Jeff Burton.

That left Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch all struggling to figure out the track heading into the 267-lap event.

Despite the qualifying ills he and the other Chase drivers experienced, Biffle expects a wide-open race on Sunday. And he's not concerned if people still consider him a dark horse or have moved him into the role of favorite.

``Other than winning these couple of weeks, how they changed their mind or what they're kind of predicting now, I haven't really gotten caught up in that,'' Biffle said. ``I'm still focused on how am I going to win here, right now? That's what I'm thinking about.''

Hamlin wins in Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Denny Hamlin's pit crew gave him the lead, rushing him out just ahead of Kevin Harvick near the race's halfway point.

Once out in front, Hamlin knew he'd be tough to catch. His car was just too good, even with the horsepower-sapping restrictions NASCAR aimed at Toyota teams.

Hamlin used a fast pit stop to get the lead and lost it only briefly over the final half of the race, holding off Nationwide Series points leader Clint Bowyer to win the Kansas Lottery 300 on Saturday.

"With restrictor plates on these cars, it's hard for anyone to get a run on you," Hamlin said of the spacer in his engine that all Toyota's have been forced to use since late July.

"I had a heck of a time getting around the 64 (David Stremme), which was a lap down. It's tough. I knew once I got in front of (Harvick), he was going to have to be significantly faster than I was."

Hamlin started 19th and gradually worked through the field, moving in behind Harvick, the pole sitter, for second. Hamlin got out of the pits faster than Harvick after Bobby Hillin Jr. spun out on the 93rd lap and led 99 of the final 107 laps en route to his fourth Nationwide victory of the year and ninth overall.

Hamlin gave Joe Gibbs Racing its 17th victory in 30 Nationwide races, and clinched the series manufacturer's championship for Toyota in just its second season competing in NASCAR's top two series.

Hamlin also became the eighth driver to win in eight Nationwide races at 1½-mile Kansas Speedway, and the first to lead the most laps.

"We didn't have a good qualifying spot, but we definitely made the best of it," Hamlin said. "Our car was not so great at the beginning, probably a mid top-10 car for the first 75 laps, then we had one adjustment and the car really took off."

Bowyer tried to put the pressure on Hamlin.

He started 17th and worked his way toward the front, moving in behind the leader with just over 30 laps left. Though he never could catch Hamlin, Bowyer still increased his series lead to 196 points over Carl Edwards, who finished fourth. David Ragan was third, Matt Kenseth fifth.

"We want to win more races," Bowyer said. "You don't travel across the country and be gone that much from home and not want to win. That's what we're here for: we're racers and we want to win. But we want to win a championship. If I don't win another race and we have that championship trophy on the mantel, I won't be a bit sorry and I won't feel bad about it."

Harvick ran strong early on, leading 88 of the first 93 laps after earning the pole.

Then things went bad.

A slow pit stop during a caution on Lap 93 gave Hamlin the lead and Harvick spent the next 45 or so laps trying to catch him. Still running second, Harvick told his pit crew with about 60 laps left that he had a dead battery. He had to slow his car for several laps before heading into pit row, then fell a lap behind while the crew changed out the battery. He finished 13th.

Harvick's day still wasn't as bad as Kyle Busch's. It seems his bad luck in Sprint Cup has transferred to the Nationwide Series.

Starting 18th, Busch made a push to the front, positioning himself for a possible run at a ninth Nationwide win this season. Instead, last week's Nationwide winner stormed off to his hauler after being spun into the wall on Lap 153.

And it was all because of a lug nut. He had one come loose during a pit stop and started slowing his car coming around Turn 4 to go back onto to pit road. Mike Bliss rammed him from behind and car spun into the wall nearly head-on, crumpling the front end, ending his day.

"I had a lug nut come loose and got run over by the 1," Busch said in typically blunt fashion.

It's hard to blame him for being sour after the stretch he's gone through.

The regular-season points leader after winning eight Cup races, Busch dropped 210 points behind Edwards after mechanical failures in New Hampshire and Dover. He proclaimed his Sprint Cup season over after the mishap in Dover and now has a big hill to climb in the Nationwide Series, too, falling 656 points behind Bowyer with five races left.

Mark Martin had some problems of his own.

He was running second when his left rear tire appeared to blow out and spun his car around into the wall on Lap 45. He sat down on the track in obvious pain after getting out of the car, but was able to limp over to a waiting ambulance. Martin was later evaluated and released from the on-track medical center.

"I'm OK - I just took a whipping," Martin said. "It was a hard lick, but I'm all right."

>> John Marshall