Biffle Pulls Away From Martin for MIS NEXCUP Win

BROOKLYN, Mich. August 22, 2004; Mike Harris writing for the AP reported that Greg Biffle drove to an easy victory, pulling away from gambling teammate Mark Martin at the end of the NASCAR Nextel Cup race Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.

Biffle, the only driver to win both the Busch and Craftsman Truck series championships, took the GFS Marketplace 400 for his second career Cup win. He has struggled through much of his second full season in the series.

To get his first win since the July race at Daytona last year, Biffle had to hold off longtime Cup star Martin, who overcame a mistake in the pits to get back to the runner-up spot.

Martin and crew chief Pat Tryson chose to take only two tires on their final pit stop, while Biffle and the rest of the leaders took four. That gave Martin track position, but he was unable to come close to chasing down Biffle's Ford.

Biffle pulled steadily away from Martin's Taurus in the closing laps, beating his Roush Racing teammate to the finish line by 8.216 seconds -- nearly half the front straightaway on the 2-mile oval.

"I was a little bit concerned because you never know what Mark Martin has up his sleeve," Biffle said. "He's always an aggressive race-car driver. ... Thank goodness he took two tires. I knew it was over then."

The driver from Vancouver, Wash., led a race-high 73 of the 200 laps and averaged 139.063 mph, slowed by a track-record nine caution flags.

Martin, who won earlier this year in Dover, Del., and is making a strong run at a spot in NASCAR's new 10-race championship playoff, lost ground when he was penalized after a crewman failed to get a lugnut tightened on his left rear tire during a pit stop on the 130th lap.

The four-time series runner-up, leading before that stop, fell to 23rd for the ensuing restart after being penalized by NASCAR for the loose lugnut.

Martin refused to blame his team for losing the race.

"Everybody has problems and mistakes, including the driver," he said. "I pile this thing into the concrete once in a while, too."

There are only three more races remaining before the field is set for the "Chase for the Cup," with the top 10 drivers in the standings racing over the last 10 events for the title. After the race Sept. 11 in Richmond, Va., NASCAR will reset the points, with the leader only five ahead of the runner-up and 45 in front of the 10th-place driver.

The whole points race tightened up Sunday when Jimmie Johnson -- who took the lead with a fourth-place run here in June and led by 232 just three weeks ago -- had an engine failure for the third straight week and finished 40th. Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon moved to the top.

The four-time series champion, who last led the points at the end of his championship run in 2001, is now 68 ahead of Johnson. Dale Earnhardt Jr., a disappointing 21st Sunday, is 139 behind.

"It doesn't matter if you're in the points lead right now," said Gordon, who led early but finished seventh. "I just hate it for Jimmie and those guys that had trouble today."

In the battle for the bottom of the top 10, Martin moved to 12th in the standings, just 33 points behind rookie Kasey Kahne. His fifth-place finish Sunday moved Kahne ahead of Evernham Motorsports teammate Jeremy Mayfield an into 10th.

Martin made his two-tire gamble on lap 175, during a series of green-flag stops by the leaders, and found himself in second, less than 2 seconds behind, when rookie Scott Riggs made his final stop, giving the lead back to Biffle on lap 183.

"We had a great enough car to run second," Martin said. "There was two ways we could run second, take four tires and know we couldn't win, or take two and try to win. We just didn't have the left-side tires to get the job done.

"But I didn't know that, and neither did Pat. So I applaud this whole team. We gave it our best shot to try to come back from the back of the pack."