Ahead of Michigan, Biffle's Chase hopes hinge on a win

The 46-year-old Roush Fenway Racing veteran is currently 22nd in the Sprint Cup standings with three races remaining before the playoffs begin. The driver of the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford trails series leader Kevin Harvick by 306 points. 

Chase hopes dwindling

Biffle is 120 points behind 14th-place Ryan Newman, who currently holds the final transfer position into the Chase among drivers without a win.

A tour stop at Michigan International Speedway could not have come at a better time for Biffle, who leads all active drivers with four wins at the two-mile track nestled in the Irish Hills. 

“I feel good about it, I really do,” Biffle said. “And I feel really good about Darlington, they’re two of my best tracks right here in front of us.”

In need of some luck

Biffle could use a little good fortune. His season started with a 34th-place finish in the Daytona 500, and he’s attempted to climb out of the hole ever since. In 23 starts this season, he’s suffered through five DNFs. 

Although the second half of the year started with a pole in the July Daytona race, which resulted in his first top 10 of 2016 — followed by a sixth at Kentucky and his sole top-five at Loudon — it’s been a rough ride for Biffle ever since.

“A lot of racing is about luck,” Biffle said. “In the same sentence, I say, a lot of times you create your own luck but it is about luck. It’s not excuses, it’s just the facts — a blown tire at Indy. I was leading at Pocono, then I was dead last when it started to rain. Go figure? I didn’t have an 18th-place car. Then I have a top-10 car at Watkins Glen and my teammate spins and I get collected. 

“Then we go to Bristol. I pass the 20 car for 11th, thinking I’m going to have a great day. Then we pit, the 20 beats us out and on the restart they have this big accordion on the backstretch. Everyone stops, the 20 slams on his brakes, I run into the back of the 20 and it separates the nose from the splitter to the front bumper cover. That’s all the downforce the car makes. So I go from passing Matt (Kenseth) for 11th to hanging on by the skin of my teeth to finish 16th.

“I’m like, ‘what gives?’”

2016 still an improvement

If there’s a silver lining, it’s simply that he’s moved on from 2015. Biffle scored just three top fives and four top 10s. His average finish of 20th was a career-low. 

"What was frustrating about last year, everyone was working so damn hard…and we had nothing to show for our efforts.”

Biffle finished 20th in the standings — which matched his worst position in the points since 2003, his rookie year. His RFR teammates Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne finished 25th and 29th, respectively. At the end of the year, Roush recruited veteran crew chief Brian Pattie to replace Matt Puccia. While Puccia and Biffle finished fifth in the standings in 2012, the pair fell further in the points with each passing year.

Still, after 14 seasons in the Cup series, Biffle has learned not to dwell on the past. 

“You have to look at that opportunity at Michigan and say, ‘I can win there and go with full concentration on best qualifying, best practice and executing a flawless race,” Biffle says with conviction. “And if something happens there, something happens. It’s not in my control. That’s just the way I look at it.”

Excited to return to MIS

Biffle is encouraged by what he experienced in June with the low-drag aerodynamic package at Michigan. Despite finishing 19th after the team was burned by the timing of a pit stop, Biffle believes the new car promotes better racing.

“The reason I like Michigan is it’s a wide race track,” Biffle said. “We can easily get four, five, six-wide on the restart. It’s not like Indy where the corner funnels down to one lane. So we can drive down in the corner, four or five-wide and still be relatively effective about getting into the corner. Ultimately, we have to be two-wide but a lot of times you come off of (Turn) 2 three-wide down the backstretch. 

“This reduced downforce package allows us to race a little closer together. It makes the car a little harder to drive — a little skatier. But it slows the corner speeds down a little bit and that’s why were able to race each other better. All of the things make up the recipe — so to speak — for what you see. That creates good racing.”