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Phoenix: Series race report
Biffle Holds On For Phoenix Victory AVONDALE, Ariz. -- A spate of late caution periods played into Greg Biffle's hands Friday night, as the driver of the No. 16 Ford held off Jason Leffler to win the Bashas' Supermarkets 200 NASCAR Nationwide ...
Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:51 PM
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Biffle Holds On For Phoenix Victory
AVONDALE, Ariz. -- A spate of late caution periods played into Greg Biffle's hands Friday night, as the driver of the No. 16 Ford held off Jason Leffler to win the Bashas' Supermarkets 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Phoenix International Raceway, team owner Jack Roush's 100th victory in the series.
Biffle beat Leffler to the stripe by .339 seconds in a green-white-checkered-flag finish to win his second Nationwide race of the season and the 20th of his career. Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick completed the top five.
Biffle and Leffler finished 1-2 on old tires after 14 of 17 lead-lap cars came to the pits for at least two tires under caution on Lap 181.
In a dramatic reversal, Kyle Busch, who finished 10th, wrested the series points lead from Carl Edwards, who came home 33rd. Busch leads Edwards by 47 points as the series heads for Talladega on April 25.
The fortunes of Busch and Edwards turned radically near the midpoint of the race. Busch had lost two laps during a green-flap pit stop on Lap 50 because of a slow leak in the right front tire of the No. 18 Toyota.
Busch regained one lap under green, passing Edwards on Lap 95. At that juncture, Edwards reported a skip in his engine, which his team was unable to repair under caution. Busch regained his lost lap with a free pass as the first car one lap down under the fourth caution of the race on Lap 109.
Moments after the restart on Lap 114, Edwards brought his car to the garage where the crew diagnosed a problem with a valve spring on the No. 60 Ford. Edwards lost 25 laps while the team, led by Roush, rigged a makeshift repair for the broken part.
While Edwards languished in the garage, Busch took advantage of his free pass, working his way back to eighth before NASCAR called the fifth caution of the race for debris on Lap 149. He restarted eighth on Lap 154 after a pit stop and gained two more spots on that circuit, before John Wes Townley's crash caused the sixth caution.
Busch faded in the closing laps to post his 10th-place finish.
-credit: nascar
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