Biffle finds luck at LVMS

Sam Morris

Greg Biffle takes the checkered flag at the the Nationwide Series Sam’s Town 300 Saturday, February 28, 2009 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

By Andy Samuelson

Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009 | 8 p.m.

Sam's Town 300

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Greg Biffle had some bad breaks Saturday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He was caught speeding, heck Biffle even ran out of gas, not once, but twice — while leading the Sam’s Town 300.

But the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford overcame all of those problems and got lucky at just the right time as he held off teammate Carl Edwards down the home stretch of a green-white-checkered-flag finish.

"It feels great to get back in Victory Lane," said Biffle, who snapped a 76-race winless streak by crossing the finish line .391 seconds ahead of Edwards in a race that was plagued by 12 cautions, one short of the race record.

“The fans got to see a great race today. It was definitely not short of action."

Or destruction.

Eighteen of the 43 cars that started the race didn’t finish, including a fiery crash three laps from the finish when Mike Bliss couldn’t avoid slamming into Denny Hamlin’s already-damaged car.

“I guess it just ends a day that I don't understand," said Bliss, shaking his head. "I can't wait to go home."

Biffle, of course, wanted to stay and celebrate after picking up his first victory in a Nationwide race since February 2006.

"Man, it was a wild day from the beginning," said Edwards, who was inches away from Biffle on the backstretch before he pulled away for good.

“We had a great race car. There were a lot of wrecks. We had that tire go down and we had a speeding penalty -- all sorts of things happened and luck was on our side and we had a chance to race up there for the win."

Brian Vickers, who was penalized for a missing lug nut after a pit stop while he was leading, finished third.

"All the fast cars were having problems," Vickers said. "You are out here on this track trying to run wide open, and that's going to lead to problems. But it seemed like everybody that got in the lead had a problem."

Jason Leffler finished fourth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fifth. Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan, who got tangled up a couple of times on Saturday, managed to stay out of trouble long enough for a seventh-place finish.

But that was a lot better than Kyle Busch, who wrecked on the 22nd lap and took himself out of contention, as well as pole-sitter Scott Speed.

"It was just 100 percent my fault for racing for the lead that early in the race," said Busch, who was gunning for his first career win on his home track.

"I shouldn't have been doing that that early in the race. I should have just rode around in second place all day and waited to make the move on the last lap."