Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle earn final Chase berths
RICHMOND, Va. — Greg Biffle had nothing left when he wearily climbed from his No. 16 Ford on Saturday night and chugged a bottle of water.
Fortunately for him, what he gave in driving to a 19th-place result at Richmond International Raceway was enough.
Biffle and Ryan Newman took the final two spots in the 16-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup, with Biffle edging Clint Bowyer by seven points for the last position. Newman's ninth-place run moved him up to eighth in points; he cleared the final spot by a comfortable 36 points.
"That's all I had," Biffle said. "I drove my heart out. It was all I could do. We were so far off.
"Man, it's frustrating. We've run way better than this at Richmond every time, but right here tonight, we really struggled for some reason. I don't know why. It was good enough to put us in, I guess. It wasn't pretty."
Bowyer was within four points of Biffle at one point in the race. The Roush Fenway Racing driver had fallen a lap down and was running in 22nd place while Bowyer had moved up to second place. Suddenly, his 23-point margin entering Richmond seemed shaky.
But Biffle told himself a top-20 finish would probably be enough, and it turned out to be true.
"Technically I had to finish 25th or 26th, but I just targeted the top 20 and I said, 'If I finish there, I'll be safe no matter what he does – unless he wins, and then it doesn't matter where I finish,' " Biffle said.
A couple cars up pit road from Biffle, a smiling Newman leaned against his car with crew chief Luke Lambert and celebrated a Chase berth in his first year at Richard Childress Racing.
One year ago, a stunned and angry Newman walked off the same pit road after Bowyer's late-race spin caused a caution and denied him what seemed like a certain victory. Newman initially missed the Chase but was later installed in the playoff when NASCAR penalized Bowyer's Michael Waltrip Racing team for manipulating the race.
"This is a lot better ending a year later than we had last year," he said, grinning. "It changed (after Richmond), but this is the better way of doing it."
Like Biffle, Newman said he set a target running position and just worried about what he needed to do. The only way he would have fallen out of the Chase was if Bowyer or another new winner ended up in victory lane while Biffle passed Newman in points.
"If somebody else won, that's fine," Newman said. "But as long as I was in the top 18, we were all to the good."
Newman has been a top-10 driver on 10 occasions this season but hasn't run up front much. He has just two top-five finishes and hasn't won.
But that top-10 consistency, he said, will "pay off at times in the Chase."
"We've got to show them what we're capable of," he said. "We're not proving to be the best car in top-fives and leading laps, but we're in the top 10 at the end. If we can keep ourselves in contention, we can surprise some people."
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