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Michigan: Greg Biffle NASCAR Sprint Cup Race Quotes, Recap - P5
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (finished 5th)
“We had to save that whole round. We were a couple of laps short. We would’ve made it, but the 48 came up there and put pressure on us. I felt like I had a faster car than the 48, but I knew running that pace we weren’t going to make it, so I backed it off a little bit and I saw the 48 was a little loose, and I asked [Greg] Erwin if I could run him down, because I think I can beat him, and he said, ‘Go for it.’ There was only three laps, but if I would’ve let the 48 go – if I would’ve stayed with my program, I would’ve made it, no problem. I don’t know if I would’ve beat the 5, though, because I would’ve had to pick it up when he came along. But, overall, it was a good run for us. I’m really excited about our Ford cars ran up here at Michigan. It’s unfortunate that it came down to that; I think we had a really good car for today.”
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WHAT IS THAT LIKE, BECAUSE IT’S LIKE THE POLAR OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOUR PROGRAM CAN DO. “Yeah, I know it. I was just backing it off way early – then the 48’s coming, he’s coming, he’s coming, and I’m like, ‘There’s no way I can run that pace and not run out of gas,’ so I picked it up a little bit, and I could hold him off there. I was kind of tricking him, I was slowing down getting into the corner, but finally he got in front of us. I saw he was really, really loose, and I thought, ‘Well, maybe I can mess with him,’ and get back beside him, but I just ran out a half a lap short.”
HOW FRUSTRATING WAS THAT? “Pretty frustrating. It was our first win for the season; I watched it slip away there. Fuel mileage, two weeks in a row. Last week I was running third and finished 11th, and this week I was leading and finished fifth. So, we’ll keep working at it.”
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING AS THAT WAS ALL UNFOLDING? “I was doing best. But, here’s the thing: I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it with the pace the 48 was running. I could run a lot faster than I was running – in fact, I picked it up a half a second to run his lap times, but I thought to myself, ‘There’s no way we’re going to make it.’ I think he drafted behind the 5 to try and save his gas, and obviously that didn’t work for him, either. He just came up there and put pressure on me, gave Mark Martin the win – put pressure on me to run the car hard. He ran his car hard, and we both ran out of gas and the 5 won. That’s what will happen when you do that.”
HE WAS GETTING READY TO GO, BUT HIS CREW CHIEF TOLD HIM TO GO. “Yeah. They miscalculated a little bit there, because they were way over a lap short. We ran out going down the back. I shut it off and just kind of nursed it to the line to try to get a top five, but that’s unfortunate; we had a great car.”
YOUR CAR RAN WELL IN CLEAN AIR, BUT YOU WENT RIGHT TOWARD THE FRONT EARLY, SO IT WAS GOOD IN TRAFFIC, TOO. “Yeah, the guys did a great job. I’m so happy about the way we have our Ford Fusion running. And the engines are running good, and pretty dang good fuel mileage – it looked a little better than the 48, the 5 sat back there and nursed his stuff, so anytime you run it like that, you can save a lot of gas. But, we think we’ve got a pretty good program, and we’re going to be tough through the summer.”
PaddockTalk Perspective
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