Too much drama for Greg Biffle in final practice for Sunday's 500; Stewart & Newman change engines

  Can Greg Biffle win from the back of the pack? Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman will be back there too for the 1 p.m. start (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

   By Mike Mulhern

   mikemulhern.net

   ATLANTA
   When Greg Biffle's luck turns, it should be something to watch. He's had one of the best Fords on the Sprint Cup tour so far, but his luck, well, just hasn't been all that good.
   And in Saturday's final round of practice for Sunday's Atlanta 500 Biffle slapped the wall, and crew chief Greg Erwin was forced to unload the backup.
   At least Biffle got a few minutes of practice with the second car. However instead of starting in the seventh row, Biffle will have to start the 500 at the rear of the field. Biffle won't be alone back there for the 1 p.m. ET start Sunday: Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman both changed engines Sunday morning after their crews saw some issues, and the two will also have to start at the back. While the four official Hendrick teams are doing just fine, Stewart has been rather mediocre so far, with finishes of 22nd, 9th, and 7th, and Newman has had even more trouble, blowing an engine at California and logging a 34th at Daytona and an 18th at Las Vegas.
   "To be honest with you, it couldn't have gone better," Biffle said of the switch-out. "I got out (on the track again) with six minutes to go."
   The prognosis for the race now? 
    "The car drove really, really well -- it drove better than my old car for that short run," Biffle said. "I think we're going to be pretty good."
    With speeds up some five mph over last year, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the pole at nearly 193 – the fastest qualifying lap anywhere in quite some time – there are questions about the 500.
    Even though race speeds drop off considerably from qualifying speeds, Jeff Gordon points out drivers in race trim are running as fast as Mark Martin ran when he won the pole here a year ago. And nearly this entire field is faster than Martin's 187 pole run.
    So what happened to Biffle?
    "I just got a little bit loose running the top, the back-end touched the wall and sucked the nose over, right where they stopped the SAFER barrier," he said.  "I hit right in the worst spot -- where the wall was kinked out...jutting out. And it just killed the car."
    Between the faster speeds and the bumps in the corner (the track was last repaved in 1997), and this track's penchant for eating tires early in the race, Sunday's 500 could be quite interesting.
    "It is fast, and then the loads are pretty substantial when you drop it in these corners and get into the banking," Gordon points out. "You really load the car up, and have to put a lot of wheel into it.
    "Then you factor in the bumps. We've really been struggling with the bumps through (turns) three and four. There is a lot of wave in the bumps down through three and four; it is not like riding a wave, it is like the wake of a boat.
    "It's trick -- You get into a cycle of bumps, and it is hard to get the car to ride over those well and go fast."
     At these speeds, keeping the front bumper as low to the track as possible dramatically improves a car's aerodynamics....however when that car hits the bumps, it may start bottoming out.

   

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