The Biff! With a solid win over Jimmie Johnson in the Texas 500, padding his NASCAR tour championship lead

  Greg Biffle: hot irons! (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   (Updated)

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   The race was virtually incident free. There were only two yellows, a track record for Texas Motor Speedway, one for debris and one for Trevor Bayne slapping the wall. There were a record 234 consecutive green flag laps, leading to a race record speed of 160 mph.
    "Leading the points is good, but we really care about winning," Biffle said after snapping an 0-for-49 dry streak.
  
   Johnson and Biffle were evenly matched, and no one else could really touch them. But traffic foiled Johnson while he was leading with 30 miles to go, and Biffle charged past him to the lead, never giving it up.
  

  

  
Weird weather all week, and high winds. But no rain (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   Johnson then slapped the wall in the final miles. "At that point I just needed to make sure I brought it home," Johnson said, with some ripping comments at lapped traffic.
   "Maybe a little more respect from lapped traffic and it might have been different," Johnson said, pointing at Ryan Newman, who was two laps down at the time.
   "Then I just ran out of grip going into turn three and slapped the fence. But everyone knew we were here, and we're close to a win."
    A Biffle-versus-Johnson duel was not a surprise. But two others were a bit of a surprise, third-place finisher Mark Martin and pole winner Martin Truex Jr., who had a bad pit stop late and finished a disappointed sixth. Martin and Truex both run for the rejuvenated Michael Waltrip operation.
   "At times we were the best car, at times second or third," Truex said. "Don't know if I had anything at the end for Greg, though."
  
    Championship? Biffle came close five years ago; and he looks strong enough so far this season.
    Kansas, next weekend's stop, is also a good track for Biffle, in fact the place where he last won, in the fall of 2010.    
   This season Biffle has not only been fast, as usual, but consistent. "We ran -- by our standards -- fairly well at Martinsville, top-10 most of the day," Biffle said. "Unfortunately there at the end the way the cautions fell we ended up 13th.
    "But with this track and Kansas, we have a great lineup of tracks all the way through Darlington and Dover that we think we can win at.
   

   

   
Matt Puccia's crew takes care of Greg Biffle (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

    "It is important for us to win.
     "We were a little off at Vegas. But it gives me great confidence when we go to Martinsville -- a place that is a bit of a nemesis for us as a company, and me as a driver -- and we ran respectable there. That is one race out of the 10 chase races; and you have to be good at all 10 to win the title.
    "We can be pretty competitive at eight or nine of them, and that (Martinsville) has always been an Achilles heel for me.
    "But the last few trips to Martinsville have been pretty good for us. That is the key in me winning a championship. I need to run good there, and get through Talladega (the following week this fall).
     "I have thought about it (the championship), and it would be something special for me. And I think that we have the team that can do it.
    "Whether this year is the year, we will just have to wait and see."
   

   

    
Greg Biffle at the finish line (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

    All three Jack Roush Fords were tough here. Matt Kenseth wound up fifth, Carl Edwards eighth.
   Edwards might have finished better if not for a loose lug nut on his last stop, which forced him to the rear of the field: "A caution would have helped us. We had a very fast race car. An eighth-place finish, after having to go to the end of the field, from the back to eighth under green, I am proud of that."
  
    Johnson was not a bit happy with Newman, who remember won at Martinsville the last time out in a race that Johnson also figured he could have won.
   "The last two or three runs Greg and I were pretty equal, ran pretty similar lap times," Johnson said. "Then right before the last pit stop I got caught in some traffic, and he got to me. When we came out of the pits and I was pacing him and had a 1-1/2-second lead. Then we caught traffic, some guys multiple laps down who didn't show much respect to me, the leader. And before I knew it, Greg was there on the side of me and got by.
    "We ran with him for the next eight or 10 laps… and then I made a mistake into turn three and hit the fence.
   " My issue was with Ryan. He was already a lap down, and proceeded to race me and cost me the lead.
    "Once I hit the wall and was wrecked, Kurt (Busch) was a couple laps down or a lap down, and I was just asking them to get off me and leave me be on the track.  Neither one of us had anything to gain there. And he got a little hyper because I had just put the car in the fence.  That was just normal stuff."

     One of the only incidents during the three-hour race: Trevor Bayne slapping the wall. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)