Biffle claims fourth career victory at MIS

Biffle claims fourth career victory at MIS

June 16, 2013

By Scott Held

Special to NASCAR Wire Service

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Greg Biffle feels right at home at Michigan International Speedway.

He took the lead for good on a late restart and ran away from the field to win Sunday's Quicken Loans 400. The No. 16 Ford driver won his second straight race here and the 19th of his career. Four of those have come at MIS.

Biffle, second a week ago at Pocono, led the pack to the restart on lap 173 and outran Martin Truex Jr. to stay out front. He led a race-best 48 laps.

Sprint Cup Series points leader Jimmie Johnson was chasing Biffle in the final laps but a cut left front tire took him off the track with two laps to go.

Kevin Harvick finished second and Truex, Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart rounded out the top five.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead shortly after the halfway point and appeared strong, but a blown engine ended his race on lap 131.

"It made a lot of damage there when it broke," he said after leading 34 laps at the track where he ended his 143-race dry spell a year ago. "I'm not sure they're going to be able to figure out what happened."

Jamie McMurray led 21 laps but fell out of contention when he blew a right front tire on lap 167.

The day's worst-looking wreck came shortly after the midway point when Kasey Kahne struck the wall near turn 2. The car caught fire as Kahne was getting out, but he stuck his arm back inside to trigger the fire-suppression system. He was not hurt.

Kurt Busch started on the outside of the front row and led the first 21 laps but spun and smacked the turn 2 wall two laps later.

There were showers after Saturday's Nationwide Series race and NASCAR gave crews a competition caution 20 laps in to assess tire wear on the clean surface.

The Sprint Cup Series continues next Sunday when drivers run the first road course of the season at the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.