Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 National Guard/Post-It Taurus, hit the wall during the first practice session and will be forced to a back-up car for tomorrow's race. As a result, he will have to start from the rear of the field after qualifying fifth.
GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 National Guard/Post-It Taurus - WHAT HAPPENED? "I just blew a right-front tire. I don't know if maybe there are tire problems to come or not, but we just blew a right-front tire. I couldn't speculate whether I ran something over or not. I was right behind Junior and on the same line I had been on for a while. I just felt it role under and then it was all over. I headed for the wall." HOW MANY LAPS DID YOU HAVE ON THOSE TIRES? "I'd have to say whatever is on the board right now (29) -- probably 25 laps -- and I mean it was hauling the mail. It was unbelievable. I could have won with that car, but I think I can win with this car. We'll see. This is the car I won California with (the backup car) and that's the car I almost won Atlanta with, so I think I'm gonna have a pretty good car."
Ricky Rudd, driver of the No. 21 Rent-A-Center/Motorcraft Taurus, qualified fourth for tomorrow's Samsung RadioShack 500. Rudd, who is coming off a season-best seventh-place finish in last week's Advance Auto Parts 500 at Martinsville, spoke about his chances of winning tomorrow despite having only one top-10 effort in the first six events.
RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Rent-A-Center/Motorcraft Taurus - DRIVERS ARE FOND OF SAYING THAT BEFORE YOU CAN WIN A RACE YOU HAVE TO LOG CONSISTENT TOP 10 FINISHES AND THEN CONSISTENT TOP 5 FINISHES. WITH THE SEASON YOU'VE HAD SO FAR, DO YOU FEEL YOU CAN WIN TOMORROW AND NOT BE SURPRISED? "I think the answer is yes. I've been one that has probably always said you don't really win until you start logging top 15's and then you need to get to the top 10 and then you get your act together a little bit better and you start finishing in the top 5. If you do that consistent enough and do it regularly enough, then the opportunity presents itself and you end up winning some races. That's usually how it goes. Our situation this year is a little bit unique. I've never had a season where we've had cars that are competitive, but don't actually know how competitive they really are. I go back to Atlanta, Vegas - got swept up in a wreck the first 10 laps of the race - we don't know how good we were. I think we were good, but I don't know how good. I don't know if that would have put us in the top 10 or the top 5. A win would be pushing it, but somewhere it was gonna fall in the top 5 or top 10. That's happened frequently week in and week out. All of a sudden we go to Atlanta and run extremely well down there. We came from 31st in qualifying and drove up through the field on the first green flag run. I think we got into the top 10 on the first green flag run, so we had a very good car that day.
We ran most of the race in the top 10 and got into the top 5, and then we were challenging Carl Edwards for third when we had a freakish thing where a wheel bearing went out. The bottom line is we didn't finish the race, so I don't know how many top 5's or top 10's we could have logged by now. So if we cut back to that old scenario, I think we're there with some luck that it wouldn't surprise me to see a win. But based on what our end results have been, most people would say that it doesn't make sense. However, if you analyze what we've got going on, we've had fast cars and been in every wreck. So that track record of logging top 5's, I don't think that really applies to our situation. Now last year that would have applied. We didn't run good the first of the year until late in the season when Fatback came on board, but that was a scenario where that situation would have applied. You run week-in and week-out and finish races - you're not in wrecks - and you finish 25th, you're not gonna come out and win the race next week. You've got to start to show that pattern of improvement, and I think we've got that pattern of improvement but we just don't know how good we are." SO YOU WOULD BE SURPRISED IF YOU WON TOMORROW BUT NOT SHOCKED? "I think it would surprise a lot of people but it wouldn't really totally shock me. The pit crew is good. The cars are good on the race track. These are the type of tracks like last year that we ran really well. Late in the year we nearly won Kansas and this is a similar type of track. We could have won Kansas if circumstances had worked out, so to say that we could win tomorrow it would not be a real surprise to me. It would be a surprise from the fact that we haven't really shown enough to consistently to win, but a lot of people get caught up in the hype of their own team. They're all cheerleaders saying they're gonna do this or do that. I think realistically that we've got a real good shot at a top-5 tomorrow. I don't think anybody can predict a win, but if you can predict a top 5 and then things fall in your way you can win this thing."
PEOPLE WILL EXPECT TO SEE CERTAIN CARS UP FRONT TOMORROW, BUT THEY MIGHT BE SURPRISED IF YOU STAY THERE ALL DAY. "I think you have to go back to Atlanta. That's the last time we ran a similar track like this and you have to look at who the cars were that day. If I was going to be an oddsmaker, I would base performances on Atlanta as to who the favorites should be here. Not everybody finished Atlanta. Some guys ran well and they blew up while others wrecked. Forget all of that. I would go back and look at the ones that ran well and I would put them in my predictions."
