Right Place, Right Seat For Greg Biffle

Right Place, Right Seat For Greg Biffle

Greg Biffle’s most recent top-five finish was a victory in June’s race at Michigan International Speedway.

Welcome home, Greg.

Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 (1 p.m. ET on ESPN, MRN Radio, SiriusXM Radio) sets up quite nicely for the driver of the No. 16 Roush Fenway Ford. Biffle, the defending winner of the two-mile track’s August event, is in pursuit of his third consecutive victory at MIS and fourth win overall.

Convergence is a wonderful thing. Biffle re-visits one of his best tracks when he most could use some momentum. Ninth in current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings, the Vancouver, Wash. native effectively is hanging on to a provisional Chase berth by his fingernails.

Biffle is “in” – but just barely. He’s just four points ahead of 11th-place Kurt Busch, a former Roush Fenway Racing teammate. Provisional Wild Card holder Kasey Kahne, dumped from the top 10 last Sunday by a late-race accident at Watkins Glen International, is another marker back in 12th.

Biffle has insurance. His Michigan victory could translate into a Chase Wild Card entry.

Still, 10th-place Martin Truex Jr., Kahne and Indianapolis winner Ryan Newman aren’t far enough behind to make a Wild Card a sure thing. Another victory, perhaps, would be Biffle’s guarantee of punching his post-season ticket.

Biffle is at the right place at the right time – and in the right seat.

Roush Fenway Racing is the dominant organization in Michigan’s Irish Hills. Biffle’s June victory was the 13th for principal owner Jack Roush, whose headquarters lie less than 100 miles east in the Detroit suburb of Livonia. Roush previously shared the all-time NASCAR Sprint Cup victory record with NASCAR Hall of Fame member Glen Wood and the Wood Brothers before breaking it with Biffle’s win last August.

Biffle, whose 110.0 Driver Rating is tops at the track, isn’t the only contemporary RFR driver with success at MIS. Teammate Carl Edwards owns a pair of victories, in 2007-08 and boasts a series-high average finish of 8.1.

Edwards ranks third in NASCAR Sprint Cup standings finishing eighth in June’s Michigan stop.

RFR’s third driver, Sunoco Rookie of the Year leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished 16th in June. Stenhouse continues to chase his first top-10 finish in NASCAR’s premier series.