Pit strategy earns Biffle record victory

Friday, Sept. 24, 1999 | 9:30 a.m.

Greg Biffle continued his dominance of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, capturing his record ninth victory of the season in the Orleans 250 Friday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Biffle's pit strategy late in the race allowed the 29-year-old to steal the victory from defending race winner Jack Sprague and two-time series champion Ron Hornaday Jr.

Biffle was running third behind Hornaday and Sprague when Biffle pitted under green on lap 120 and took on four tires, while Hornaday and Sprague made two-tire stops.

With 27 laps remaining, Hornaday and Sprague pitted under caution while Biffle elected to stay out, allowing him to assume the race lead. Biffle held off Sprague for the remainder of the race, beating him to the checkered flag by .299 seconds.

"It was a great strategy by the whole Grainger team when we did that four-tire stop and then elected not to come in on that last stop," Biffle said. "I can't believe the other teams didn't do four tires under green there at the end.

"It was clear that the team got me the win again with pit strategy."

Biffle, the series points leader going into the race, increased his lead to a commanding 130 points over Sprague with three races remaining. Biffle also clinched Ford's first NCTS manufacturers' championship in the process. Through 22 races this season, Ford has 12 wins to Chevy's six and Dodge's four.

Biffle broke Mike Skinner's series record of eight wins in a season, which Skinner accomplished in 1995 and 1996.

Sprague finished second for the second time in four truck races on the LVMS 1.5-mile D-shaped oval; his other two starts in Las Vegas (in 1996 and 1998) resulted in wins.

Hornaday finished third, followed by Dennis Setzer and Jay Sauter. Pole-sitter Stacy Compton, Jimmy Hensley, Rick Crawford, Kevin Harvick and Terry Cook rounded out the top 10.

Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan, who qualified 12th in only his fifth career start in the Truck Series, blew a right rear tire early in the race and battled an ill-running car the rest of the way and finished 24th.

Hornaday led four times for a race-high 83 laps. The average speed was 127.229 mph and the race was slowed by seven caution periods for 26 laps.