Michigan is Biffle's best shot for a win, Chase berth

Aug 15, 2014 - 9:15 PM Brooklyn, MI (SportsNetwork.com) - Time is running out for Greg Biffle to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

With four races remaining in the regular season, Biffle is ranked 12th in the Sprint Cup point standings, but he's on the outside of NASCAR's 16-member "Chase Grid."

The driver of the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford has yet to win a race this season. In fact, he has been winless in the last 43 races.

Biffle, who's in his 12th season of competition in Sprint Cup for Roush Fenway, has made the Chase six times (2005, '08, '09, '10, '12 and '13).

Clint Bowyer currently holds the 16th and final provisional spot in the Chase, while Biffle sits 17th on the playoff grid, just eight points behind Bowyer.

The series is at Michigan International Speedway this weekend. Sunday's race here is 400 miles in length. After Michigan, the series heads to Bristol (Aug. 23) and then Atlanta (Aug. 31) before the Chase-cutoff race at Richmond (Sept. 6).

"We feel like we can win one of these last four races, so that's what we're focusing on is winning one of these last four and getting our way into the Chase that way," Biffle said. "But certainly, we're hanging on by a shoestring to make it in on points if it comes down to that."

Biffle leads all active drivers with four Sprint Cup wins at Michigan. His most recent victory in the series came at this two-mile oval on June 16, 2013. He gave Ford its 1,000th race win in NASCAR that day.

Roush Fenway has accumulated 13 Sprint Cup victories at Michigan, a track record. Five drivers have won here for the racing organization: Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin and Biffle.

"It's just been one of those racetracks like Homestead or Darlington for us that I really like," Biffle said. "I like the layout. I love the way it races, and we've just been super successful there."

Biffle had the eighth fastest lap in Friday's lone practice for Sprint Cup at Michigan. His lap was clocked at 202.817 mph.

"We've been doing a tremendous amount of testing and working very hard at Roush Fenway to catch up with some of the other teams, so our most recent week off [third week in July], we tested at Michigan and felt like we found a lot of speed that we were missing," he said. "We didn't really carry it through to Indy [July 27] like we thought, but some of it carried through to Pocono [Aug. 3], and as we look at that and improve on that, we're pretty optimistic going to Michigan that we're gonna be one of the competitive cars and challenging for the win."

Joey Logano, driving the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, led the way in practice with a lap at 204.545 mph. Edwards, who is Biffle's teammate, was second quickest at 204.111 mph.

In addition to his four wins, Biffle has 10 top-five finishes, 14 top-10s and one pole in 23 Sprint Cup starts at Michigan. He placed 20th in the most recent race here on June 15.

Forty-three teams are on the entry list for the Pure Michigan 400.

Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup. Date: Sunday, Aug. 17. Race: Pure Michigan 400. Site: Michigan International Speedway. Track: 2-mile oval. Start time: 1 p.m. ET. Laps: 200. Miles: 400. 2013 Winner: Joey Logano. Television: ESPN. Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Radio.