NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II: Biffle, Busch post-race interview

GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus KURT BUSCH - No. 97 IRWIN Taurus Post-Race Press Conferences GREG BIFFLE: "It was kind of a different night. This is the first kind of racing I've done like this. It's sort of like restrictor ...

Published: Oct 19, 2005, 6:04 AM

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GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus
KURT BUSCH - No. 97 IRWIN Taurus

Post-Race Press Conferences

GREG BIFFLE: "It was kind of a different night. This is the first kind of racing I've done like this. It's sort of like restrictor plate racing where you just kind of hang out and wait. That's what we did. We waited around and drove our car 75-80 percent. I had an ultra-fast race car. There at the end running 28.60s, that was unbelievable how fast the thing would go. We just didn't need that last caution. I was really coming on Kurt and the 48 and felt like I had a good enough car to get by maybe one or both of them, but we had a lot of cautions tonight. It was just unfortunate that sucker had to come out the end. I thought we had a good run making ground forward and just kind of ran out of time. It seems weird you drive 80 percent all night and then when you do run 100 percent you run out of time. It's kind of ironic, but it was a good night for us overall. Third place, we can't complain. Second last week, third this week."

KURT BUSCH: "I was just rolling through most of the night worried about which tire was gonna blow out - the right-front or right-rear. We just had to set a pace. We had a good game plan and at the end we saw the yellows start to come towards our direction of strategy, whether it was two tires or four tires. The time when we made up the most distance tonight was when we were on two tires, but then when we took that right-rear off it had about 18 blisters on it, so it was a tough night to know when to go hard. We did that when we needed to and I thought it all turned out well. We just came up a bit short racing Jimmie Johnson, but he's strong here. He's the guy to beat. It's like when we go to Bristol we have fun just racing hard and that's the way you'd like every race to end up - 500 miles of strategy and then to have a shot at the win."

SHOULD THE NEW MOTTO BE ARRIVE ALIVE? SO MANY PEOPLE WRECKED TONIGHT IT WAS LIKE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

BIFFLE: "I have to tell you that a lot of us were concerned about the speed of the race track and all that jazz. I think, to be perfectly honest and you can ask Kurt, I think he'll agree, the racing itself was pretty good or it could have been pretty good if we could have drove like we normally drive. Like there at the end when we were running flat out, if we could run like that and if the tire wouldn't have blistered, I think it would have been a good race. It's like one of those new race tracks where the things got a ton of grip and then it breaks loose like it did on the 20, the 38. It did to me twice, I almost crashed. Kurt was right behind me. I had to gather it back up and he gave me room to get that done, but, other than that, I think it was pretty good racing. We could run side-by-side a little bit and top and bottom groove, but the tire was a problem. We just couldn't keep the gas down. We had to baby-foot the throttle and lift early and just kind of run it medium to not abuse the right-rear tire. For us it was the right-rear we were having problems with. If the tire issue wasn't there, I'm not complaining about the race track at all. I think it put on a good race, really."

BUSCH: "I'll just add a couple comments. I'm looking at a black-and-white picture of probably when the track began existence in the sixties when asphalt was coming up and tearing apart everybody's radiator. There are some days when you just put that mindset and go. 'Well, I've got to survive today. I don't have to race hard until it's time and if my radiator is still in it and if my right side is still pretty straight and I'm in position I'm gonna go for the win at the end,' and today we were pretty close."

DID YOU FEEL THE CHASE WAS GETTING AWAY? IS IT A NEW CHASE?

BIFFLE: "You've got to be confident and I felt like I was gonna be able to make up the 88-point deficit, I really did. I know we run good at Atlanta. I know we run good at Phoenix. I know that I won at Homestead last year. I won at Texas earlier. So I knew 88 points with four or five races anything can happen. I was being optimistic. I was trying to be excited about being able to catch him. Of course there is doubt when you see him leading or he qualifies third. Of course it's a big deal, but it seems like it's getting closer."

DO YOU STILL HAVE SOME HOPE IN THIS THING?

BUSCH: "We've got some hope because we didn't have a blowout tonight and we dodged some wrecks and ended up with an OK finish. That's the first chase race where you could say nothing went wrong, so it gives us optimism about the next few. We hate to see guys have trouble, especially Tony. There are guys like Biffle that we still have to race against, Mark, Kenseth. After Talladega, we survived and finished eighth and I asked my fiance, 'Where did we jump up in points?' She looked at me and laughed because we were still 10th and we were still about 200 out. So we're now 140. It's still a long ways to go. We just still have to do our job and hope for some good fortune for our own team."

-ford racing-

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