Greg Biffle finally turned back luck into good and came away with his first top-five finish of the year. Credit: Autostock

Biffle falls, then rallies to post best finish of year

Places fourth; Newman eighth as both move up in point standings

RICHMOND, Va. -- Greg Biffle hasn't given up on making the 2006 Chase for the Nextel Cup -- but he'd lost hope of a top-10 finish Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway when an ill-timed caution put him two laps down halfway through the Crown Royal 400.

In the end, three cautions in the race's last 54 laps enabled Bud Pole winner Biffle to advance from 12th place to fourth. And that boosted Biffle three positions in the Nextel Cup standings, to 20th after 10 races.

Credit: Autostock

Crown Royal 400 Official Results Pos. Driver Make 1. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevy 2. Denny Hamlin Chevy 3. Kevin Harvick Chevy 4. Greg Biffle Ford 5. Kyle Busch Chevy • Complete results, click here • Driver standings, click here Victory LaneDale Earnhardt Jr. celebrates his first victory of the year Final lapsJunior holds off Denny Hamlin on the final laps at Richmond Top finishersGreg Biffle and Denny Hamlin talk about their runs Early CautionsFive cautions in the first 100 laps at Richmond Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

"I'll tell you what, man -- I'm celebrating a win -- I don't care if it was fourth," Biffle crowed after changing clothes and exiting his hauler. "We just fought and fought to get back [so] I'm just pretty excited to finish in the top five."

Ryan Newman also needed to drastically reverse his ill fortune through the season's first nine races that had knocked him to 26th in the standings, the worst he's been since his 2003 rookie season.

Biffle and Newman are two of seven drivers that have made both prior editions of the Chase. And they're among a trio -- also including Jeremy Mayfield -- whose Chase participation has been in question up until now.

Newman started 14th and never fell lower than that. His car was consistent enough to run in the top 10 for the race's final 240 laps, before he opted not to take tires on the next-to-last caution, at Lap 387. He finished eighth.

As it did with Biffle, that moved Newman up three spots in the standings, to 23rd.

By far, Biffle's night was the more dramatic of the two. He made a green-flag pit stop a short time before Roush Racing teammate Carl Edwards spun in Turn 4, bringing out the sixth of 11 cautions. That caught Biffle two laps down.

"Oh, I thought it was all over," Biffle said, making a face. "And then, when [leader Kevin Harvick] got by me, I thought we were still alive, even when he started putting more people laps down.

"But when he lapped more people and I wasn't the lucky dog any more, I thought, 'Shoot, what am I going to do?'

"I figured all I could do was keep my head down and go as hard as I could -- and even if he lapped everybody up to sixth or eighth, maybe I'd still be the first car a lap down."

Biffle had good reason to be optimistic. He'd led 54 of the first 72 laps and was scored either first or second at every 20-lap interval in the race's first 140 laps. He said his car was as consistently good as it looked.

"Oh yeah," Biffle said. "And I was running 'er at the end, man. I was out for blood. I ran it just a little too hard, but it was danged good."

The critical moment for Biffle came when he took four tires with 14 laps to go.

"It paid off -- there was no question in my mind," Biffle said. "There were 15 cars on the lead lap and we were seventh, so you do the math. We were gonna be able to pass at least four or five cars to get back to where we were."

Newman stayed on the racetrack and restarted in sixth.

Ryan Newman has three top-10s in 2006. Credit: Autostock

"Obviously, it probably would have been nice to get tires there at the end," Newman said. "But Matt [Borland, crew chief] and everybody on the team did a great job [Saturday].

"We had a winning car at times and at times we had a 10th-place car so finishing eighth wasn't out of our league. We were just a little off on balance [Saturday night] and we needed track position.

"I think track position could have won us the race or at least got us a top-three [but] I'm just happy to be moving up in points instead of moving back."

Biffle was even more emphatic.

"I hate to say it, because I hate to speculate, but if there had been a green-white-checkered, I may have won that thing," Biffle said. "Because it would have been bunched up and I had brand-new tires, sitting fourth.

"So it might have been big. Eight more laps and I would have won the race -- but that's because I had new tires, not just because I was faster than those guys. But I was real happy that I had a consistent car all day."

Biffle and Newman, who spend a lot of time together outside the garage area working on projects to aid animals, said they'd never discussed their dismal seasons, which include five finishes worst than 30th and three DNFs for Biffle and four and three, respectively, for Newman.

"It seems like once you get a run like this ..." Biffle said. "It's over. It's like, clean house. Move on. And God, I want to win at Darlington so badly."

2006 MERCHANDISE •   Greg Biffle •   Ryan Newman

Biffle is defending champion of next Saturday night's Dodge Charger 500 and he's ready for more.

"We needed [this finish] a lot," Biffle said. "We've got a great car for Darlington and we're excited about going there and trying to defend our win last year -- but we'll see what happens.

"We certainly needed this. We've been running like this all season, but we finally made it to the checkered flag."

Newman, with similar poor luck in his first nine races, had his first top-10 finish since he was ninth at Bristol in March. Newman said the key to his evening was simple.

"It was just getting to the end -- that was it," Newman said. "It was nice to actually finish one after getting crashed out of the last two. Getting to the end and having a decent finish was something that our team needed."

"We both needed this, no doubt," Newman said, but added that he and his fellow pet ally hadn't really discussed their bad luck. "It's just racing, and I've been on this end of it and I've been on the other end of it.

"There's no need."