Michigan Notebook
Notebook Items:
- Needing a win, Greg Biffle feeling positive about return to Michigan
- It's win or bust for Tyler Reddick
- Alex Bowman grateful for opportunity to drive
August 26, 2016
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
NEEDING A WIN, BIFFLE FEELING POSITIVE ABOUT RETURN TO MICHIGAN
BROOKLYN,
Mich. – No doubt about it—Greg Biffle needs a win in the next three
weeks if he wants to make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint
Cup.
Biffle’s
2016 season has all but defined Murphy’s Law. Just about everything
that could go wrong for the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing
team has gone wrong. From catastrophic crashes to ill-timed pit stops,
Biffle has suffered through a campaign that currently finds him in 22nd
place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings.
Though
Biffle has finished 39th in a 40-car field three times this season,
after crashes at Texas, Indianapolis and Watkins Glen, there
is a saving grace. Though the record doesn’t show it, Biffle and his
Roush Fenway Racing teammates had shown significantly more speed than
they did a year ago, when Biffle finished 20th in points.
Before
last year, Biffle had qualified for the Chase in six of the previous
seven seasons, but he won’t be able to make the playoff
on points this year. With three races left before the Chase cutoff,
Biffle trails Ryan Newman by 120 points. Newman, who also is winless, is
14th in the standings and currently in the last Chase-eligible
position.
But
Biffle comes to Michigan, historically one of his strongest tracks,
with a much better handle on NASCAR’s lower-downforce configuration
than he had when the package debuted at MIS in June.
“We
feel good about going back there,” said Biffle of Sunday’s Pure
Michigan 400 (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN). “We were way off when we got
there (in June), and by the end of the weekend, we felt like we were
running where we want to run.
“So
now that we’ve got that stuff out of the way, we can go back now and
hone in closer on what we feel like we need. So I feel good
about it.”
IT’S WIN OR BUST FOR TYLER REDDICK
After
finishing second in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings
last year, Tyler Reddick has suffered through a disappointing
2016 campaign that has seen him fall to 10th in points and outside the
current cutoff for the inaugural Camping World Truck Series Chase.
The
only antidote? A victory in one of the next three races. But Reddick,
who won twice last year driving for owner Brad Keselowski,
says he doesn’t feel added pressure because of the dire circumstances.
“I
have really tried to have the win-or-bust mentality all year long,
understanding that if we win, it’s easier than worrying about
points all year long,” Reddick told the NASCAR Wire Service on Friday
at Michigan International Speedway. “We’ve had opportunities to win but
not had things fall our way. It seems like we have had things go against
us every way they can, getting wrecked or
having a caution come out or whatever it may be.
“I
feel like there’s not a lot of pressure on us. This is something our
team knows how to do. We have done it before. We did it last
year twice. There is really no pressure. We just have to go out and do
what we normally do and have a good weekend and make no mistakes. We’ve
done that before. It’s no pressure. We’re doing something we know how to
do—we just go out and do our normal deal.”
ALEX BOWMAN GRATEFUL FOR OPPORTUNITY TO DRIVE
Though
he would prefer to be in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car under other
circumstances, Alex Bowman hopes to make the most of his
second chance to drive the No. 88 Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who
is still awaiting medical clearance after suffering concussion-like
symptoms that have kept him out of the car.
Bowman
subbed for Earnhardt at New Hampshire in July, running in the top 10
for much of the race, before a crash relegated him to 26th.
Jeff Gordon took over the seat for the next four races, but a
scheduling conflict kept Gordon out of the car at Michigan and gave
Bowman his second shot.
“Honestly,
for me being as close of friends as I am with Dale, I have just been
hoping he gets to feeling better more than anything,”
Bowman said Friday at Michigan. “Obviously, I’m more than happy to fill
in whenever I can. New Hampshire was a lot of fun. Obviously, we ran a
lot better than we finished. I hated that the race team didn’t get the
finish they deserved.
“Everybody
at Hendrick Motorsports and Chevy and everybody—they have been so
welcoming and easy to work with. It’s just been fun. Off
the truck today we were really fast (14th in opening practice) and
didn’t really get the qualifying run speed that we really wanted. But I
feel like we have a good shot at it this weekend. It’s just so much fun
to be able to come to a (Sprint) Cup race and
be able to say that. I’m just really enjoying it and trying to make the
most out of it.”
--30--
No comments:
Post a Comment