Rookie Greg Biffle played the fuel strategy game and won Saturday night in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Biffle ducked into the pits to top off his gas tank under caution on lap 79 of the 160-lap race. That gave him just enough to make it the rest of the way on one more stop and cost favorites Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip a shot at another restrictor-plate victory.
PHOTO: AP
The former Busch Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck champion was being pressured by former series champion Bobby Labonte at the end, but Labonte suddenly slowed coming through turn 2 on the final lap, out of gas.
Jeff Burton, Biffle's Roush Racing teammate, running the same fuel strategy, finished second, 4.102 seconds -- about 20 car-lengths -- behind the winner's Ford Taurus.
"Just before it went back to green [on lap 79], I saw a bunch of guys going in and I told [crew chief Randy Goss] and he said, `Come on in.' That's what won us the race," Biffle said.
The winner also gave a lot of the credit to series points leader Matt Kenseth, another Roush entry, who ran second and kept Labonte behind him until Kenseth had to pit for a splash of gas at the end of lap 156.
Kenseth got back out fast enough to finish sixth, just behind Labonte, who coasted to the finish line. Ricky Rudd finished third.
Biffle got the opportunity to try a fuel economy run because the race was slowed by only two cautions for a total of 10 laps and none in the last 81 laps.
"I figured Bobby was going to get me there at the end," Biffle said. "He's got a lot of experience at these superspeedways. This is my first year in these cars and this thing was really loose. He just didn't have anybody to help him."
Dale Earnhardt Inc, teammates Earnhardt and Waltrip came into the race as heavy favorites, having won eight of the last 10 races at Daytona and Talladega, the two big tracks where NASCAR requires the carburetor restrictor plates to keep the cars under 320kph.
But both of them stayed on the track when the other cars ducked in to top off for fuel and had to make an extra stop. Earnhardt, who appeared to have the strongest car in the field and led two times for 43 laps, finished seventh, while Waltrip, coming up well short of his third straight Daytona win, wound up 11th.
Kevin Harvick, who started from the front row and led three times for 54 laps, also got caught by the fuel strategy and finished ninth, as did four-time Daytona winner Jeff Gordon, who was 14th.
Biffle's first Winston Cup win came in his 23rd Cup start and is only his second top-10 finish. His best previous result was fifth at Bristol in March.
The winner, who led the last 21 laps after taking the lead when most of the fastest cars pitted, averaged 257.615kph.
With the cars running in big packs, there is usually at least one big crash in every plate race. The big one Saturday night, involving seven cars, came on lap 74 when Kurt Busch cut down his right rear tire and slid sideways coming off turn 2 in the middle of the field.
Robby Gordon, winner of the road race two weeks ago in Sonoma, California, hit the brakes hard, but got hit in the rear by Mike Wallace and slammed nose-first into the wall. Pole-winner Steve Park, Joe Nemechek, Ricky Craven and Jamie McMurray also got caught up in the melee.
"We were a victim. Four times a year we race on these restrictor-plate tracks, and you have to expect it when you least expect it, and that was the case here," Craven said. "I really didn't expect that to happen on new tires among the leaders."
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