Greg Biffle Tames Wild Darlington Finish

Darlington is a tough race track any time, but add in the smaller spoiler that NASCAR has mandated for 2005 and the reduced downforce make the cars a real challenge. The cars were slipping and sliding around even more than usual and the narrow egg-shaped oval known as "The Track Too Tough To Tame" earned her nickname during the Dodge Charger 500 under the lights in Darlington Raceway on Mother's Day eve.

Qualifying

It was an all-Dodge Charger front row for the Dodge Charger 500 as Kasey Kahne put his Ray Evernham owned #9 on the pole. Ryan Newman put his Dodge on the outside of the front row. The sponsor has to be happy when their product sweeps the front row of the race thay they bought the naming rights to. They'd be even happier if they can put a Dodge Charger in victory lane of the Dodge Charger 500.

Drop The Green Flag

The race got off to a bit of a slow start as Kurt Busch wrecked by himself before he even completed one full lap. Then right after they went back to green flag racing Michael Waltrip wrecked off of the front bumper of Jeff Green. Both Busch and Waltrip went behind the wall for repairs within the first ten laps of the race and came back many laps down. This was quite a blow for Kurt Busch as he was second in the points coming into the race.

Finally they settled down to race for a while with Greg Biffle, Elliott Sadler and Ryan Newman leading the way. The sun set and the track started to cool off and get tighter about 1/4 of the way into the race. At that time the guy that swept both races here in 2004, Jimmie Johnson, made his pass for the lead and drove off.

Storylines

One ongoing story of the night was that Michael Waltrip and Jeff Green were beating and banging all night long. Whenever Green got to Waltrip's battered race car there was sure to be contact as Michael was not happy about the early incident and wanted to make sure that Jeff knew it.

Finally Michael took it too far and wrecked Green. As a result, NASCAR dusted off the penalty box and parked Waltrip for one lap for rough driving. The feud between these two drivers has been going on all year long with multiple incidents. Apparently NASCAR has had enough as they invited both frivers in for a visit after the race to discuss their on-track actions.

Chasing The Checkers

As we closed in on 100 laps to go Kasey Kahne had flexed his muscle and enjoyed a 2 second lead of Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle. Johnson had a tire problem and was forced to make a green flag pitstop putting him a lap down and dropping him from contention.

The caution flew with 51 laps to go and set up final pit stops. Greg Biffle beat everyone off pit road and continued to lead with Ryan Newman chasing. Shortly after the green flag flew Newman took over the lead and set sail, stretching his lead out over three seconds.

Mark Martin spun with just four laps to go. First car off pit lane would have a good shot at winning this one as it would be a two lap green-white-checkers finish and an interesting dilema. Ryan Newman stayed out on 40-lap old tires while everyone else pitted for fresh tires. The restart looked like this. Newman, Kenny Schrader on old tires then Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle on two tires and Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne with four fresh tires. This was to be a shootout.

It sure was exciting as Ryan Newman stacked everybody up on the restart which casued a massive scramble. Greg Biffle passed three cars in less than one lap to take the lead. Jeff Gordon followed him through the same holes for second. Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin and Ryan Newman finished out the top five.

Just when it looked like a runaway snoozer of a race the late yellow really made it interesting as different tire strategies made the two lap green-white-checkers shootout a real scramble.

Top Ten

1. Greg Biffle
2. Jeff Gordon
3. Kasey Kahne
4. Mark Martin
5. Ryan Newman
6. Jamie McMurray
7. Jimmie Johnson
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr
9. Carl Edwards
10. Tony Stewart

The Points

Jimmie Johnson recovered from his troubles to score a top ten and maintain his healthy point lead. Kurt Busch falls all the way to fourth after his troubles early in the race and Mark Martin, 11th coming into the race, is now back up to 6th.over Greg Biffle.

1. Jimmie Johnson 0
2. Jeff Gordon -127
3. Greg Biffle -148
4. Kurt Busch - 229
5. Elliott Sadler -252
6. Mark Martin -293
7. Tony Stewart -297
8. Jamie McMurray -302
9. Dale Earnhardt Jr -307
10. Ryan Newman -314

Next Week

We return to racing under the lights next Saturday night as the NEXTEL Cup series visits "The Short Track that Drives Like a Superspeedway" at Richmond International Raceway. The 3/4 mile d-shaped oval hosts some truly great racing as there are two good grooves for side-by-side battling.