Forth Worth (AP) - Roush Fenway Racing's Greg Biffle denied Jimmie
Johnson his first Sprint Cup victory of the season and once again
thwarted Rick Hendrick's bid for a 200th victory as a Sprint Cup owner.
Biffle,
who had been stalking Johnson for much of the second half of the race,
slid his No. 16 Ford past the five-time NASCAR champion on the inside
for first with 31 laps remaining and cruised away to snap a 49-race
winless streak with a victory in Saturday night's Samsung Mobile 500 at
Texas Motor Speedway.
Biffle extended his lead in the Cup
standings by 19 points over teammate Matt Kenseth. It was Roush Fenway's
fourth victory in the last nine Cup races at Texas and the team's
record win on the 1.5-mile oval.
"It means a lot," said Biffle,
who led 90 laps in his 17th win in 337 starts in NASCAR's premier
series. "I'm so excited for my first win as a dad.
"I just dug
deep. I knew I had to do it, and I kept trying and trying and trying. I
knew the team would forgive me if I wrecked it trying to beat him so I
just gave it all I had."
The triumph qualified Biffle, whose
daughter, Emma, was born last July, for the Sprint All-Star Race on May
19 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Johnson clipped the wall with 15
laps remaining but hung on for second ahead of Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon
(who recovered after starting 34th ) and Kenseth.
Martin Truex Jr., Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top 10.
Earnhardt
has finished in the top 15 in all seven races this year and fell one
spot to third in points (tied with Kenseth at 19 back, but in third
because he has fewer bonus points).
Johnson led a race-high 156
of 334 laps in coming up just short for a second consecutive race in
trying to deliver the 200th win for Hendrick, which held the top three
positions at Martinsville Speedway before a late caution negated a duel
between Johnson and Gordon.
"Definitely disappointed," Johnson
said of his second runner-up finish this season, which moved him from
10th to eighth in points. "Our pit stops were amazing. Just got tangled
up in some lapped traffic, and (Biffle) made a great move."
Truex
led the first 31 laps after starting on pole, and Biffle, who started
third, led 45 of the next 50 before Johnson took command. He built a 3.4
second lead by lap 192 and set a blistering pace that lapped much of
the field during a historically clean race at Texas.
Despite
winds gusting at 30 mph, the 334-lap race was free of major incidents.
The last 234 laps were run under green as the race set Texas records for
fewest yellow flags (two) and caution laps (10).
"That is kind
of fun racing like that," said Edwards, who rebounded from a lug-nut
problem on his No. 99 Ford. "I don't know what it is like to watch, but
as a race car driver, that is neat to run the whole race."
Despite
the lack of crashes, there still was trouble for some Chase for the Cup
contenders. Bristol winner Brad Keselowski finished 36th after several
unscheduled pit stops for mechanical problems on his No. 2 Dodge. The
Penske Racing driver fell three spots in the standings to 15th.
It
also was a tough night for defending series champion Tony Stewart, who
fell four spots to seventh in the points after finishing 24th in a
backup car.
Biffle, the sixth winner in seven races this year, last won a Cup race at Kansas Speedway in Oct. 3, 2010.
Hendrick Motorsports' last victory also occurred at Kansas, where Johnson notched the team's 199th win on Oct. 9, 2011.
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