Notebook: Biffle, Harvick trade shots and insults

Notebook: Biffle, Harvick trade shots and insults

 

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

 

(October 29, 2011)

 

MARTINSVILLE, Va.—Kevin Harvick apparently didn’t like the shot his No. 29 Chevrolet took from Greg Biffle’s No. 16 Ford during Sprint Cup practice on Saturday afternoon at Martinsville Speedway.

 

Biffle and Harvick traded bumps on the racetrack, then stopped beside each other at the bottom of the backstretch, apparently expressing displeasure with each other.

 

Later, as Biffle’s crew was pushing his car in the garage, Harvick blocked their progress with his car.

 

After climbing from his car, Biffle strode to Harvick’s garage stall, and, surrounded by crew members and NASCAR officials, the drivers had an animated discussion about the incidents. The discussion did not get physical.

 

Biffle and Harvick have a history. In 2002, Harvick was placed on probation for an altercation with Biffle at Bristol Motor Speedway that did get physical. Less than a month later, while still on probation, Harvick was parked for the Cup race at Martinsville for retaliating against Coy Gibbs in a truck series race at Martinsville.

 

Harvick is fifth in the Sprint Cup Series standings going into Sunday’s Tums Fast Relief 500. Biffle didn’t make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and is 15th in the standings with four races remaining in the season.

 

 

 

Cup practice portends wild scramble

 

It’s always best to take practice speeds with a grain of salt, but if Saturday’s only Cup practice is an indicator, there’s a wide disparity between the cars that will start Sunday’s Tums Fast Relief 500 at the front of the field and some of the cars that are behind them.

 

The problem is that the cars at the front are slower. At least they were during a practice session in which drivers ran as many as 107 laps.

 

When inclement weather forced cancellation of Saturday’s Cup qualifying session at Martinsville Speedway, the field was ordered according to owner points, putting Chase leader Carl Edwards on the pole, with his closest pursuer, Roush Fenway racing teammate Matt Kenseth, beside him.

 

Neither Edwards nor Kenseth was particularly fast in practice. Edwards posted the 29th best time, and Kenseth was 24th fastest. Brad Keselowski, who will start third, was 28th quickest. If form holds—and that’s a big “if”—slower cars will start the race at the front of the field, with faster cars deeper in the field and eager to move forward.

 

That’s a recipe for action at a track where battered racecars and bruised egos are commonplace.

 

 

 

Earnhardt won’t be riding at the back again at Talladega

 

So much for riding around at the back at Talladega Superspeedway and trying to stay out of trouble.

 

Less than a week after getting skunked by that strategy, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he and his Hendrick Motorsports teammates had learned their lessons. With no time to improve their positions in a two-lap dash at the end of last Sunday’s Good Sam Club 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, drafting partners Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson finished 25th and 26th, respectively.

 

Jeff Gordon, who lost his help when Trevor Bayne left his bumper to work with Matt Kenseth, finished 27th.

 

Earnhardt was asked Friday at Martinsville Speedway what his father, 10-time Talladega winner Dale Earnhardt, would have thought about drivers riding around at the back of the field.

 

“Well, I don’t really want to answer that because I think you know the answer,” Earnhardt said. “So, I was part of that team decision. I wasn’t a victim of it. I bought into the same idea that the two crew chiefs and Jimmie had, and we all did that together; and we all made the choices that got us our poor finish together. And no one person outruled or overruled the other. Everybody sort of collectively sunk the ship as the race went on.”

 

It didn’t take Earnhardt and the Hendrick brain trust long to reevaluate the approach to the race.

 

“At the end of the race, we collectively decided that we learned our lesson and that we won’t do that again. Given the opportunity to run that race over, we would have just thrown ourselves into the fight and tried to run as hard as we could and taken whatever risks needed to be taken to stay toward the front. Hindsight is 20-20, but when we get that opportunity again, I don’t think that’s a strategy we’ll ever use again.

 

“But I’m certain that a lot of things would be different if the old man was still around. We might not even be having to ask that question of guys riding around in the back.”