Biffle heading to Cali looking to make waves

In racing as in love, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and boy did Greg Biffle have a fond heart after coming within two tires of getting his first Sprint Cup victory of the season last weekend at Kansas Speedway.

The question now for Biffle is this: Can he and his heart maintain their elevated conditions this weekend at Auto Club Speedway -- and then for six more weekends after that?

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Thanks to Kansas and a third-place finish that pushed him to 114 points of the Chase lead -- and a revamped car that led a race-best 113 laps -- Biffle has reason to think almost everything is possible.

"I am sure excited right now because we've been working really hard on this car, trying to figure out what we needed to have setup-wise to be competitive, and I feel like we're starting to make some headway," Biffle said.

Headway has come in fits and starts for Biffle and his Roush Fenway Racing team this season.

There have been top-five finishes (nine) and a lot of laps led (545), but no victories. In fact, his 545 laps led heading into Sunday's Pepsi 500 at Fontana would stand as the ninth most in the modern era for a non-winner.

But most of Biffle's top-fives and laps led came before the road race at Infineon in June. Since then, he has led races for more than a single lap twice, and his third-place finish at Kansas -- which might have been a victory had he taken two tires instead of four during the race-deciding pit stop -- was only his fourth top-five in that stretch.

"It felt good to run back up front again," Biffle said at Kansas. "Yeah, it's quite a bit of emotion for us because we really, truly have not been running up to standard this year."

So, considering how things have gone post-Infineon and pre-Kansas, what's with the optimism in the Biffle race shop?

The answer can be found in what has taken place in that shop in recent weeks.

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Biffle said his crew chief, Greg Erwin, and his team have gone crazy on making improvements to his Roush Fords. Most of those improvements are to the front ends of the Fusions.

"This front-end geometry combination that we've been trying to get worked out is something that I've never run in this car before," Biffle said. "This is all new territory for me.

"I basically fired off at Kansas with stuff I've run in practice and Happy Hour before trying to get it right and adjusting it. And on Sunday morning, we looked at it and made some more adjustments and said, 'Here we go.' I'm telling you what, that thing was awesome, and I'm looking forward to working with it more."

The first stop for "more" will be the 2-mile Auto Club oval. The track is not only a half-mile longer than Kansas, but also has different turns, angles and surface ingredients. And you can bet it will be just a tad warmer in Southern California this week than it was in Kansas City.

Will the new geometry work there?

"That's what we're gonna try," Biffle said. "That's our science project for this week. What we did at Kansas and the way we ran the bump-stop configurations and the A-frames -- is that going to provide us with the same speed that it did at Kansas?

"We're going there committed to that program. We can switch it. It takes about 20 minutes for us to switch back to what I'll call a more conventional setup, but we've got a long road ahead of us. We were a bit behind, and this is like the first time we've really been able to make it work."

Neither Biffle nor Erwin mentioned the word "championship" after Kansas. There were no references to the Chase or their points position or the number of points they need, want or have.

Comments were restricted to more emotional matters. Matters of the heart.

"We're sure excited to be running good again and especially going to some tracks we like, like California and some other places," Biffle said. "I'm having the time of my life. I know that."

FIVE TO WATCH

Martin

Mark Martin, No. 5 -- Martin took a stutter-step in Kansas. He appeared headed for a victory but then did something he has not done often in 2009: He faded late. Those who believe Martin is jinxed had to be covering their eyes late in Sunday's race.

Tony Stewart, No. 14 -- Huge victory for Stewart last weekend. Big for his championship hopes and big for the confidence of his team. Has he shaken free of the slump he was in pre-Kansas or was Kansas a short burst of energy?

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 -- This is shaping up as Gordon's pivotal weekend. He is 103 points off the Chase lead, but he must climb over a stack of six drivers in front of him if he is going to get championship No. 5.

Jamie McMurray, No. 26 -- No, he's not going to win the race or even finish the season in the top 20, but he ran really well at Kansas using the same changes to his car that Biffle used to finish third. Another good run might cause people to wonder about the decision by Roush Fenway to let him go and keep David Ragan.

Juan Montoya, No. 42 -- This guy needs to win a race this season. For a lot of reasons. He has an average finish of 22nd at Auto Club, but in February he finished 11th. The Montoya oval watch is on and heating up.

TRACK CHATTER

Darian Grubb, crew chief for Tony Stewart: "We've got some good cars. We made a lot of changes to our entire fleet over the last few months trying to get things more acclimated to what Tony needs in a racecar. We finished eighth there in the spring in our second race together, so I feel like we learned a lot of lessons through the year. Hopefully, we'll be able to go back and improve on that."

Brian Vickers: "We were one of the best teams leading up to the Chase. Now we're struggling in the Chase. It's frustrating. You beat your head against the wall and try to figure out why. Maybe we blew on the dice one too many times going into the Chase and we're out of luck now."

Carl Edwards: "We ran really well at Kansas. Greg was fast, I was fast, Jamie was fast, and Matt was fast. I guess all of us were fast. ... If we can apply some of what we learned there, we're going to go to California and be aggressive. It couldn't come at a better time."