Biffle wins at Lowe's Motor Speedway
CONCORD, N.C. -- Greg Biffle began an 800-mile day by winning the rain-postponed Busch Series race at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Saturday with the season's largest margin of victory.
The Little Trees 300 was scheduled for Friday night, but was delayed by bad weather. So it started eight hours before the Winston Cup race -- and Biffle was one of 11 drivers entered in both.
Biffle, the Busch champion last season, beat Michael Waltrip to the finish by 12.628 seconds.
It was his 10th career Busch win and first since August 2002.
"These guys do a fantastic job. We've just really started to get ourselves going here lately," said Biffle, who has been substituting frequently in Evans Motorsports' No. 7 Chevrolet since the team released driver Randy LaJoie in June. "This car was on the rail all day."
Despite the final margin, Biffle did have trying moments.
He gave a nudge to Jason Keller while attempting to put him a lap down and had several other close calls with lapped traffic.
Biffle "drives right on the edge," Waltrip said. "It wasn't surprising to me when I drove up alongside of him to see scrapes on the right side of his car. That's a testament to how hard he goes after it."
Mike Bliss finished third, Brian Vickers fourth, and Jamie McMurray fifth. Everyone in the top five except Bliss was scheduled to run in the Cup event, including Vickers, who was to make his Winston Cup debut.
Series points leader David Green was sixth and holds a 36-point advantage over Vickers with five of 34 races remaining.
Pole winner Kevin Harvick, who shares driving duties with Johnny Sauter in Richard Childress Racing's No. 21 team, finished ninth. The No. 21 team holds a 156-point advantage in the chase for the series' car owner championship.
Of the 11 Winston Cup drivers scheduled to compete in both races, only series points leader Matt Kenseth opted out.
Kenseth, who has lost 177 points the past two weeks and now leads Harvick by just 259, decided Saturday morning to let Jeff Burton drive in his place.
"We just decided that it's best to concentrate on the (Cup) team right now with where we are in the points," Kenseth said. "Eight hundred miles in one day is a lot, and I want to make sure I'm fresh at the end of the Cup race if I need to be."
CART
In Mexico City, rookie Tiago Monteiro topped the second day of qualifying for today's Mexico Grand Prix to join pole-sitter Paul Tracy on the front row of the race.
None of the 20 drivers was able to beat Tracy's performance from Friday: a 112.893 mph average speed around the 2.786-mile Hermanos Rodriguez circuit in Mexico City.
Monteiro, running for Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing, averaged 112.639 mph Saturday, bumping Tracy's rival for the series crown, Bruno Junqueira, to the second row.
Monteiro, who raced in Formula 3000 last year, had never before qualified higher than fifth (at Denver on Aug. 31). His top finish in a race is seventh.
Rookie of the Year leader Sebastian Bourdais joined Junqueira on the second row.
Moving up to the third row were rookies Ryan Hunter-Rea and David Manning.
FORMULA ONE
In Suzuka, Japan, Michael Schumacher will start from the seventh row and Kimi Raikkonen will be in the fourth when the two race for the Formula One title in the Japanese Grand Prix.
Schumacher leads Raikkonen 92-83 in the overall standings and will be bidding for a sixth world driving title today.
The only way the German can lose the title is if Raikkonen wins the race and Schumacher fails to score a point -- either by not finishing or finishing worse than eighth.
"Raikkonen's situation is difficult because he has to stay out of trouble," Schumacher said.
Schumacher has won the Japanese Grand Prix five times and come in second three times. He is seeking his fourth consecutive Formula One title with Ferrari. He also won with Benetton in 1994 and 1995.
Raikkonen finished well ahead of Schumacher in yesterday's qualifying. Raikkonen, in a McLaren Mercedes, finished eighth in 1 minute, 33.272 seconds. Schumacher's Ferrari was 14th in 1:34.302.
Rubens Barrichello, Schumacher's Ferrari teammate, won his ninth pole, finishing in 1:31.713. A sudden rain shower affected the qualifying.
"Track conditions were inconsistent," Schumacher said. "The session could have been much worse for me, and I think Kimi was also affected by the rain."
Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia finished second in 1:32.412 and Cristiano Da Matta of Brazil was third in 1:32.419.
