Greg Biffle took the checkered flag and the win in the Quicken Loans 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday and made history for manufacturer Ford.
Biffle’s win in the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion was the 1,000th victory across all three of NASCAR’s national series — Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck – for Ford.
Kevin Harvick finished second, Martin Truex Jr was third, Kyle Busch fourth and Tony Stewart fifth.
Harvick inherited the second position in the running order with three laps to go when the previous second-place runner, Jimmie Johnson, suffered a flat tire and made contact with the retaining wall.
With Johnson’s tire issue in the closing laps, all four drivers out of the Hendrick Motorsports stable fell victim to troublesome circumstances, mostly while running up front.
Jeff Gordon was unable to avoid a spinning Labonte on lap five and suffered significant damage to the car that put him in the garage for several laps.
Fellow Hendrick driver Kasey Kahne took the lead from teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. on lap 90, but just 13 laps later, Kahne suffered a tire issue himself, and made hard contact with the wall while leading.
That moved Earnhardt back into the lead. By lap 103, Earnhardt had a cushion of four seconds over second place, but on lap 128 he fell off the pace when his engine lost a cylinder. On lap 132, Earnhardt’s engine expired to bring out the caution.
That put another Hendrick driver, Johnson, into the lead. Carl Edwards, who started on the race on the pole, was back up front to restart with the lead following the lap 132 caution. Soon after the restart, Edwards was joined up front by his Roush Fenway Racing teammate, Biffle, in the second spot. Biffle took the lead from Edwards a few laps later.
Biffle pitted under green around lap 164, as did several other drivers. A caution came out a lap later, trapping several drivers a lap down. Biffle was able to stay on the lead lap, though, and when those who hadn’t pitted under green headed down pit road under the yellow, Biffle moved up into the lead.
Edwards, though, wasn’t so fortunate. Edwards had to take a wave around to get back on the lead lap and restarted outside the top-20.
When the race restarted, Harvick moved into second behind Biffle, but with 10 laps to go, Johnson passed Harvick for the spot.
Trying to chase down Biffle to get the win, Johnson was gaining ground before his tire went down in the closing laps.
Matt Kenseth finished sixth and Clint Bowyer was seventh. Edwards drove back up through the field for an eighth-place finish. Joey Logano finished ninth, and Jeff Burton was 10th.
NOTES: The win was Biffle’s 19th career victory. Biffle’s most recent win was in the Fall 2012 race at Michigan. Biffle’s win was the 13th for Roush Fenway Racing…. The win for Ford came on the manufacturer’s 110th birthday…. A total of 13 cars posted speeds over 200 mph in qualifying on Friday… With the win, Biffle moves up to eighth in the championship points standings
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