02/20/2015

Biffle Leads Roush Fenway With 4th-Place Finish In Twin Duels

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 19, 2015) – Greg Biffle led the Roush Fenway Racing effort with a strong fourth-place run in Thursday night’s second Duel 150 Daytona 500 qualifying race at Daytona International Speedway. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who secured his spot in the 500 with an impressive qualifying run on Sunday, finished 16th in the race.

“I felt good about my chances right there,” said Biffle.  “I was so confident coming to take the green that I was going to have a chance at winning that thing or be dicing it out with those guys.  I was going make a move because I got pushed up against the back of the 18 so many times that I felt like I had a chance to pass the 18 and suck up behind the 48.  The 48 didn’t jump, but he was the first in the gas and just killed us on getting up to speed.” 

Trevor Bayne ran as high as second in the first duel, but got into the wall after contact with the No. 42 car late in the race and finished 22nd.  Bayne and the No. 6 team will go to a backup car for Sunday’s Daytona 500. 

“It just took off getting into the corner,” said Bayne. “He (Kyle Larson) said he got tight and pushed up into our left rear and packed air and spun us out. Obviously I haven’t seen it yet but it stinks. I felt really good running second early in the race but we couldn’t get any help there at the end. Every time we made a move everybody would ditch us. We just have to get more help. I think we had a quick race car at the beginning but I had help and you have to have that here.” 

Based on the finish Biffle will start the 500 on the outside of row four in eighth position. Stenhouse will start outside of row 16 in 32ndand Bayne will start inside of row 20 in 39th. 

The field will practice two more times on Friday and once on Saturday as preparations continue for Sunday’s ‘Great American Race.’ The Daytona 500 is set for 1:00 p.m. ET and will be televised live on FOX.