DARLINGTON, S.C. -- The Lady in Black received a new facelift during the winter but it did nothing to improve her personality. If anything, Darlington Raceway is proving to be meaner and nastier than ever.

And according to pole-sitter Greg Biffle, the winner of Saturday night's Dodge Challenger 500 better be courteous and careful in order to court her favor.

"Certainly everybody's talked about the track [being] really fast," Biffle said. "It's the same old Darlington. It will bite you just the second you let your guard down and even faster now with the speeds being two seconds a lap faster than we're normally going.

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When that green flag flies, it's going to be the first time that we've gone around here at speed, side-by-side, 10 deep or 20 deep. Track position is super-important, I think.

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GREG BIFFLE

"You can get in trouble in a hurry. I've been close a couple times to having that [Darlington] stripe. The stripe has gotten a lot meaner because of the speed we're running. It's knocking the bumpers off and flattening the right side a little bit."

Nearly every car in the garage showed signs of tangles with the outside wall. Jimmie Johnson went to a backup car after crashing in the first practice session, then damaged the backup when he spun in the second. Reed Sorenson and Paul Menard qualified in backups -- and Kasey Kahne failed to finish his qualifying lap after flattening the right side of his car.

Of the 44 cars which posted a speed in Friday's qualifying, 41 broke the existing track record -- including Johnny Sauter and Jeff Green, who failed to make the field. Biffle said the biggest unknown will be how hard it will be to race on the new surface.

"One thing that's going to be interesting and exciting is that none of these cars have been side-by-side yet, in a group of cars," Biffle said. "When that green flag flies, it's going to be the first time that we've gone around here at speed, side-by-side, 10 deep or 20 deep. Track position is super-important, I think. I'm thankful I was able to get my car at the front of the field to start this race."

Biffle said cars may be able to close quickly, but making passes could be a challenge.

"I think you're going to see some passing but it is going to be difficult to get side-by-side," he said. "And you're going to see cars slow down a bunch when they do get side-by-side, and you may see a guy close in a half a straightaway in a lap or two if you're having to get beside another car."

Biffle admitted that participating in a Goodyear tire test earlier this season gave the No. 16 Ford team a head start. But it didn't take long for the competition to catch up.

"It certainly was helpful getting up to speed," Biffle said. "We recognized that in the first and second practice sessions, when we were near the top of the sheet. But we're really surprised to see some of those other cars faster than us. All of the Gibbs cars were faster than we were, so it didn't take them long to get the track under their belt."

Biffle's pole-winning effort came without the benefit of a dress rehearsal.

"We really didn't get a good crack at a qualifying effort," Biffle said. "We had all of that practice and still came up short because we switched over with about 30 minutes to go and a lot of people had accidents. They closed the track two or three times and never got going again.

"So that was my first attempt at a qualifying run since we've been here. I was a little nervous going off into [Turn] 1 but I knew I had a great car and I knew it was going to stick. Once I got the feel of it, I knew 3 and 4 were going to be good corners as well."

But that's one lap, and it will take 367 of those to win on Saturday night -- just another reason why Darlington truly is too tough to tame.

"You know it's tough when [Jimmie Johnson] wrecks twice," Biffle said. "This place is tough. It's always going to be tough. And it'll never get any easier."