Saturday Daytona Notebook

Saturday Daytona Notebook

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Greg Biffle is happy with Saturday shakedown

Born too soon? Or too late?

Feb. 20, 2016

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

Greg Biffle is happy with Saturday shakedown

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In Saturday’s final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice for the Daytona 500 (on FOX at 1 p.m. ET), it was time for Greg Biffle to turn a few laps with his new race engine.

Biffle and new crew chief Brian Pattie opted out of Friday’s two practice sessions, preferring to wait until Saturday for their final shakedown.

“This is our first laps on our race engine and race gear and race driveshaft – all of our driveline components – so we needed to check for leaks, make sure the temperatures are correct and give the guys a chance to check everything over,” said Biffle, who was seventh fastest among 25 drivers in happy Hour. 

“No vibrations. We needed to do all those things in this practice because we didn’t go out (on Friday). We just elected to wait until today to get everything checked and make sure that everything is good. We gave the guys a lot of time yesterday to check over the car and prep it for the 500, so this was a necessity for us. We just ran a few laps and went out twice to make sure everything is good, and we’re real happy with it.”

As a group, the Fords have shown excellent pace throughout Speedweeks.

“We’re going to try to run up front most of the day and keep out of trouble,” Biffle said of his strategy for the Sunday’s Daytona 500. “That’s the most important thing, because we have to be there at the end, and working with your teammates is important. 

“A lot of the Fords are fast down here. The 2 (Brad Keselowski), 22 (Joey Logano) and 21 (Ryan Blaney) are fast, and so are the 17 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) and the 6 (Trevor Bayne), so we’ll work with those guys when the opportunity presents itself, and I think when it comes down to the end, it’s going to be every man for himself.”

BORN TOO SOON? OR TOO LATE?

Ryan Truex and Parker Kligerman both got last-minute rides for Friday night’s NextEra Energy Resources 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

The respective finishes in the race made their stories unusual. When caution froze the field after a wild last-lap wreck and made a winner of Johnny Sauter, Truex was second and Kligerman third.

In one of the most entertaining post-race press conferences in recent memory, Truex and Kligerman commiserated about hard economic times that hurt their chances as full-time drivers.

“It's easy to get down on yourself,” said the 23-year-old Truex, whose NASCAR racing activity was confined to four XFINITY Series starts last year. “With the truck rule changing to 16 (minimum age), after we were 18, it's like me and him just came at the absolute wrong time. It's like we should have been born five years earlier or five years later.”

“The recession hit in the midst of us getting into NASCAR,” added Kligerman, 25, whose only NASCAR national series start last year came in an XFINITY car at Darlington. “We laugh about that a lot.  We’re recession kids, recession racers. We’re just riding the coattails of the end of the recession here now.”

“But you just can't give up,” Truex rejoined. “It's easy to get down on yourself. It's easy to give up. It's easy to quit. You just keep going. I know I see him at the track every weekend. I'm at the track every weekend talking to whoever will talk to you, and you don't say ‘no’ to an opportunity. That's what we did this weekend, and it worked out for us.”

Kligerman has a fallback position. When he’s not racing, he’s a television analyst—and a good one.

Truex has another option, too, but not one he plans to pursue. His father is one of the foremost suppliers of clams in the United States.

“My option is go work on a clam boat for my dad, and I refuse to do that,” Truex said. “So that's why you see me at the race track every weekend.”