Biffle Outlasts All Obstacles To Win Sam’s Town 300

It took 76 starts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, but Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 CitiFinancial Ford, won it Saturday and celebrated by posing with the trophies in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series Sam's Town 300 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway

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It looked more like a demolition derby at Islip (N.Y.) Speedway than a marquee race in NASCAR's Nationwide Series.

With cars slipping, sliding, spinning and crashing, Greg Biffle won the Sam's Town 300 race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for one primary reason: His No. 16 Ford survived the trouble that quashed the winning hopes of most other top contenders — and survived his own misfortune.

Despite running out of fuel on Lap 147 and incurring a speeding penalty on pit road early in the race, Biffle crossed the finish line .391 seconds ahead of Roush Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards in a green-white-checkered-flag finish. Denny Hamlin cut a tire on Lap 197, smacked the outside wall and collected defenseless Mike Bliss in the process.

The two-lap dash to the finish took the race nine laps beyond its posted distance of 200. Brian Vickers ran third, followed by Jason Leffler and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Four rookies — Michael McDowell, Brendan Gaughan, Justin Allgaier and Scott Lagasse Jr. — and Jeff Burton completed the top 10 in a race that saw only 10 cars on the lead lap at the end.

So thorough was the destruction of the field that 18 of the 43 cars that started the race weren’t running at the finish, and another five were more than 26 laps down when the race finally ended more than three hours after it started, with the help of two stoppages totaling nearly 20 minutes.

After the 12th caution of the race, one short of the race record, Biffle's Ford sputtered on the restart on Lap 208.

"I ran out of gas on that restart going into (Turn) 1," said Biffle, who won his first Nationwide race since February 2006. "I kept it down on the bottom and the fuel pressure came back."

Just in time, as it turned out. Edwards nosed his No. 60 Ford under Biffle as the cars entered Turn 3 on Lap 208, but Biffle kept his teammate pinned to the inside through the corner, and Edwards had to back off.

"I drove it in there as deep as I thought was reasonable," said Edwards, who rallied from a pit road speeding penalty to take the series lead by 48 points over Vickers. "I wanted to keep my leg in, but I thought I'd wreck him.

"Great points day for us — that's the only consolation."

Bliss, who joined previous points leader Kyle Busch, Hamlin and polesitter Scott Speed in the garage before the end of the race, had a different perspective.

"It's unbelievable," Bliss said. "I just want to go home."

Notes: The victory, Biffle's 19th in the 223 starts in the series, broke a 76-race drought dating to Feb. 25, 2006 at Fontana, Calif… Sixty of the 209 laps were run under caution, a race record. The previous mark was 58 laps in 2007.

Results

* Denotes Rookie