Biffle's bruised ribs: the real story?

  

  
Don't go near the water (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   BRISTOL, Tenn.
   So Greg Biffle has bruised ribs?
   Hope it wasn't from falling off the top of a golf cart while fooling around.
   "I wish I had a better story, I really do: But me and a couple buddies went out fishing Tuesday night, and we were messing around in our cove, and we came back to the dock," Biffle says of the Tuesday evening accident that will keep him out of Saturday's Nationwide race, though not Sunday's 500. 
   "I jumped over to the dock, and the boat was drifting out a little bit.  One guy had the front corner, and I said 'I'm going to jump back over and grab a rope and then jump back again.' 
    "It was about 11:30, so there was a little bit of dew in the air, and the platform must have been wet -- and when I jumped over, it just shot my foot out from underneath me. 
    "It turned me around backwards and put me right on my side and on my back on the edge of the boat. 
    "It's not a normal boat; it's got a sharp edge.
    "So it's just one of those freak, stupid accidents -- where you take a fall and you have no way to stop it or brace it or grab.
    "You're going to land on your ribs with all your weight.
     "It was a stupid deal.  If I had to do it over….I didn't do anything out of the ordinary.  Everybody's jumped onto a boat before. I just lost my footing."
    But now he faces a torture test of 500 laps Sunday.
    "And it's my right side," Biffle said.
   At least his car seat is custom-molded: "It doesn't create any pressure points. This is hard and rigid, and it fits your body."
   And Biffle says his injury is getting better. "Remarkably, I cannot believe how much better I feel in three days.
   "I was really hurting Tuesday night. 
    "I felt a fair amount better by the end of the day Wednesday, and yesterday I was up and doing all kinds of stuff -- stretching and getting ready to go. So I feel pretty good now."