Biffle has help to get victory

Monday, Nov. 22, 2004 | 9:21 a.m.

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Greg Biffle had the dominant car all afternoon, but he still needed some help to win Sunday's Ford 400 at Miami-Homestead Speedway.

Biffle led 117 of the 271 laps but still found himself running fourth with 10 laps remaining. Race leader Ryan Newman then suffered a blown tire and hit the wall in Turn 2 with one lap to go, bringing out a caution period and forcing a green-white-checkered finish that extended the race from 267 to 271 laps.

On the final restart, race leader Tony Stewart ran out of fuel, handing the lead and the win to Biffle.

"I tell you, it's unfortunate that the 12 car (Newman) had trouble, but that was the determining factor to give me the opportunity to win today," Biffle said. "There was no way we were going to catch him. We were a lot faster than those guys, but four laps wasn't going to be enough.

"I felt like I was better than the 20 (Stewart); I pretty much had a better racecar than everybody, it's just that track position and having the opportunity to pass them. I felt like I'd be able to get the 20 fairly easy. I mean, I had two laps and four corners to work our way around him, whether it was going to be the top or the bottom, my racecar was really fast on both spots."

Stewart led championship contenders Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon to the finish line for his second victory of the season and third of his Nextel Cup career. Stewart limped home to a fourth-place finish and Biffle's Roush Racing teammate, Kurt Busch, finished fifth and clinched the Nextel Cup championship and $5.2 million bonus.

In addition to coming up short in the race, Johnson finished 8 points behind Busch in the Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship.

"We're definitely disappointed that we didn't win the championship but if you look back four or five weeks ago, we weren't even in the Chase," he said.

Gordon, who also drives for team owner Rick Hendrick, finished third in the championship, 16 points behind Busch.

"I don't think we could have done much more," said Gordon, who overcame a cut tire midway through the race.