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Greg Biffle won the Samsung Mobile 500 last Saturday night… but then, you already knew that. He also broke a 49 race drought of being in Victory Lane… but that’s just about all you heard about his victory all week, too. So, what else is there to talk about when it comes to the race at Texas Motor Speedway? Well… I guess that depends.
You see, Greg Biffle not only has the points lead, but he has a victory to go with it. Some would say he is on a tear (while others may say “on a roll”) and that’s okay because either one fits. Compared to last year, he is doing great and is running consistently up front. Even if he runs into some rough races in the weeks ahead, that victory will carry some weight along the way for him, but, he will probably need more than one if the bottom does drop out for him. Add to all that the fact that Roush teams have a tendency to run well at 1 ½ mile tracks and it is very possible he could win at least one more (and probably more than that.)
Some have already crowned him the Cup Champion for the year and they could be right. Even with the new points system, he really needs to stumble for most of the field to even stay close to him, but this fan thinks it is way to soon to be naming someone to take the Cup Championship.
Yeah, it’s true he has looked unstoppable so far and all of his finishes are in the top fifteen but that doesn’t always mean he will continue with his present stats. Admittedly, it does look like he is going to continue with his strong showing but, this is not quite 1/3 of the way into the season.
From this point on, anything can happen even if it is someone (or several someones) hitting a hot streak and the #16 team just having decent finishes outside the top ten. If that does happen, there is always the possibility Biffle and his team could start trying to press their own envelope to try and regain the performance levels they’ve enjoyed in this early part of the year and begin to fall backwards in the points. Of course you know this is just speculation from this fan’s view but it could happen.
Once again, the Hendrick teams didn’t score the 200th victory for their boss, Rick Hendrick but all of them did have a good day at TMS. (I hate to state the obvious, but two of them, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon, really needed it.) It did appear that Jimmie Johnson was going to take home the trophy and the honors for scoring number two hundred for Hendrick MotorSports, but Biffle’s power slide past him as they dealt with lap traffic late in the race put an end to that possibility.
Michael Waltrip Racing had a very good showing with two from that camp finishing in the top ten. Mark Martin lead the way for MWR finishing third and Martin Truex Jr finishing sixth. It is very obvious that MWR has turned a corner on performance issues of the past and all three teams are showing up every weekend with fast cars and good race-day runs. That doesn’t mean they are perfect yet, but it does mean they could be in Victory Lane at any time in the near future.
From this fan’s view, Texas proved just how close the main teams are running these days and how important track position is every week. It also showed that Roush Racing has a strong grip performance-wise on the 1 ½ mile tracks and that could prove to be a good thing, in particular for Greg Biffle and the #16 team. It just may mean that Greg Biffle does have a chance at staying at the top of the points, at least up to Chase time. Then again, it could mean absolutely nothing at all for him or Roush Racing when the Chase begins.
Can anyone say, “Carl Edwards…?”
See ya next time…
All views expressed are strictly the opinion of the writer
© April 18, 2012 – all rights reserved
Rusty Norman, Nascarfansview.com and Justafansview.com
All audio productions by www.podcastnorm.com and PodCastNorm Productions