Biffle Bounces Back at Texas

It took Greg Biffle a little while to overcome the mental and physical discomfort of a crash during practice at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

It took almost no time for the NASCAR driver to make the rest of the field feel his pain Sunday in the Nextel Cup’s Samsung/Radio Shack 500 race.

“I’m still sore,” said Biffle, who ran over debris on the track during practice Saturday, cutting down the right front tire and slamming into the wall on the fast 1 1/2 -mile oval. “It’s been in the back of my head thinking about it ever since, but it hasn’t slowed me down.”

After charging from the rear of the 43-car field in his backup No. 16 Ford, the Roush Racing driver was overpowering Sunday, leading 219 of 334 laps to grab his second victory of the season and the fifth of his career.

“It was a good thing we still had some practice time left, because I was a little nervous when I went back out there, a little intimidated thinking about that tire going down and hitting the fence,” Biffle said. “But I was confident we’d have a good car in the race.”

Fortunately for Biffle, his backup was the same car in which he won this season at California Speedway in Fontana, so he wasn’t too concerned about being competitive.

Biffle kept pulling away from the rest of the pack, but the race was slowed by 11 caution flags, keeping him from turning it into a rout. The leaders made their final pit stops on Lap 298 after Tony Stewart’s engine blew, setting his Chevrolet on fire and bringing out the yellow flag. Stewart sustained minor burns to his right leg and right arm and was treated and released at the infield medical center.

Casey Mears, who had been running a distant second to Biffle, took only two tires during his stop and beat Biffle out of the pits to grab the lead. There was an aborted restart on Lap 304 when Dave Blaney spun between the first and second turns, but the green flag was displayed for the final time on Lap 309. It took Biffle only three laps to work to the inside of Mears’ Dodge and regain the lead.

Series points leader Jimmie Johnson was third, with Mears fading to fourth but matching his career best. Johnson will go into Saturday’s race at Phoenix 135 points ahead of Biffle.

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Larry Dixon gave team owner Don “the Snake” Prudhomme his 100th victory, beating Doug Kalitta in the NHRA Summit- Racing.com Nationals at Las Vegas. Dixon raced to his 36th top fuel victory with a quarter-mile run of 4.59 seconds at a top speed of 326 mph. Kalitta finished in 4.64 seconds at 319 mph.

“One hundred is great, it’s wonderful, but it’s not like we’re going to retire,” said Prudhomme, who has 49 NHRA victories as a driver and 51 as a team owner.

Whit Bazemore and Dave Connolly also won their divisions to top the season standings. Bazemore beat Tony Bartone in the funny car final to retake the lead from John Force, and Connolly edged Greg Anderson to top Warren Johnson in the pro stock standings.

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Alex Barros of Brazil, riding a Honda, won the Portuguese Grand Prix motorcycle race at Estoril, Portugal, in 47 minutes 14.053 seconds.

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Suzuki’s Ricky Carmichael wrapped up his first THQ World Supercross GP championship with two races to go Saturday night, finishing third at Seattle.

Kawasaki’s James Stewart won the race, and Honda’s Kevin Windham was second.

Kawasaki’s Ivan Tedesco won his second consecutive 125cc Western Regional THQ AMA Supercross Series title with a third-place finish. KTM’s Nathan Ramsey won the race.