2010 Price Chopper 400: Greg Biffle Holds Off Johnson at Kansas

Greg Biffle won the Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway on 3 October 2010, the third race of the ten-round Chase for the Sprint Cup. Kasey Kahne had started from pole, but Biffle, who had started fifth, took the win by 7.638 seconds over Jimmie Johnson.

Why did the 2010 race matter?

The race was the twenty-ninth of thirty-six scheduled Sprint Cup events in 2010 and the third of ten Chase races. Points leaders could still change quickly, so a single afternoon at Kansas carried real weight for every driver in the playoff.

Biffle's second win of the season also moved him up the standings, and it came in a race that featured twenty lead changes among twelve drivers. The result showed how quickly the order could shift when cars were running at the front together.

Greg Biffle's second win of 2010 came from a fifth-place start at Kansas.

What did the track offer?

Kansas Speedway is one of ten intermediate tracks that hold NASCAR races. The standard layout is a four-turn, D-shaped oval 1.5 mi (2.4 km) long, with grandstands that seat 82,000 spectators and turns banked at fifteen degrees. The front stretch, where the finish line sits, is banked at 10.4 degrees.

The back stretch is banked at only five degrees, so the banking changes markedly from one section of the lap to another. Teams had to balance the sharp turns against the flatter straights when they set up their cars for the weekend.

Where did the points table stand before the race?

Hamlin topped the Drivers' Championship at 5,368 points before Kansas, with Johnson second on 5,333. Kyle Busch was third on 5,323, while Chevrolet led the manufacturers with 206 points, thirty-five ahead of Toyota. Kurt Busch sat fourteen points behind Kyle Busch. Tony Stewart was the race's defending champion.

Gaps were narrow below the top three, and Harvick and Edwards were both within striking range of the lead. Those margins meant a single weekend at Kansas could move a driver several places in the order.

What happened in practice?

Three practice sessions ran before the Sunday race, with Juan Pablo Montoya fastest in the first session. The first lasted 90 minutes, the second 45 minutes and the third 60 minutes, and Kurt Busch led the Saturday morning session. Mark Martin was quickest in the final run.

Several drivers pushed hard in practice. Biffle, who was fifth quickest in the Saturday session, spun sideways as he came to the finish line, but the damage was minor. In the final run, Martin and Johnson both spun at different times without major damage.

How did qualifying set the grid?

Kasey Kahne claimed his eighteenth career pole with a time of 30.920 seconds, and Paul Menard joined him on the front row. Jeff Gordon qualified third, Joey Logano fourth and Greg Biffle fifth. Forty-six cars were entered, and forty-three were allowed to race.

Each driver ran two laps, and the field was set by each car's fastest time. Harvick qualified twenty-fourth and Carl Edwards thirty-first, while Jason Leffler, Mike Bliss and Joe Nemechek failed to make the race.

Kahne said he felt great coming to the green, but got a little loose going into the third corner, which cost him some time. He noticed that Menard had gained a lot in the same corner, and he was glad the pole had come for Budweiser and Ford.

What were the conditions on race day?

The race began at 1:00 p.m. EDT on ESPN in sunny weather, with the air at about 60 F (16 C). Pastor Steve Schulze gave the invocation, and Betti O., an Army veteran, sang the national anthem before the drivers were sent to their cars.

Kelli Fuller, who had won a Price Chopper contest, then gave the drivers the order to fire their engines. On the pace laps, Martin, Marcos Ambrose and Casey Mears were moved to the rear of the grid because of engine and transmission changes.

How did the race unfold?

Kahne kept the lead through the first corner, but Gordon passed Menard on the same lap and then took the lead after Kahne had led twenty-seven laps. Biffle, who started fifth, fell to ninth early and complained about his car's handling.

Gordon led for a stretch before the field tightened up in traffic. Stewart passed Kenseth on lap 81 to take the lead, and green-flag stops began on lap 93, bringing the leaders through the pits before the restarts.

Biffle and Johnson stayed close behind the front runners through the middle of the race. Several cars pressed the leaders, and the order changed often as teams chose their pit windows.

The race ran with five cautions, and the lead changed hands twenty times among twelve drivers. Those yellow periods gave teams a chance to change strategy, which mattered on a track where restarts could shuffle the order.

Which drivers mattered most?

Biffle, Johnson and Harvick were the leading trio at the finish, and Biffle led a total of sixty laps. Johnson finished second but could not get back past his rival in the final stages, while Harvick took third. Johnson's pace kept him close to the front for much of the day.

Kahne's fast start from pole gave his team an early advantage, but he could not hold the front for the whole race. Edwards finished sixth after a steady afternoon, and Hamlin recovered to finish twelfth.

Which Chase contenders were in the frame?

Hamlin, Johnson and Kyle Busch led the early points table, while Harvick, Edwards and Gordon were close behind in the Chase picture. Biffle had been fifty-seven points behind Gordon before the race, so the win gave him a route back into the title conversation.

Each of the leading contenders had a different path to the title. Some needed a strong finish to keep their place, while others were content to stay close and rely on consistency across the remaining races. That mix of approaches made the rest of the playoff difficult to predict.

How did the early cautions shape the race?

Montoya hit the SAFER barrier early in the race, which brought out the first caution while the field was still bunched up. Later, Kyle Busch crashed into Reutimann, sending Reutimann spinning into the same barrier and bringing out another yellow.

Those incidents gave the leaders a reason to make pit stops under caution, and they reshuffled the order at the front. Teams that stayed out lost ground, while the drivers who pitted moved up in the running order.

How did the leaders trade places late on?

Biffle passed Kenseth for second less than five laps after Stewart had built a 1.4 second lead over him. Johnson and Harvick then moved past Stewart with fewer than ten laps left, which dropped him to fourth at the finish. Johnson's move was one of the decisive passes of the final stint.

Stewart had been at the front for a spell after passing Kenseth on lap 81, and his lead was 1.4 seconds by lap 86. The green-flag stops that followed gave the lead back to Kenseth and then to others, and the closing laps decided where each driver finished.

What did the leaders' positions mean for the Chase?

Biffle's win put him in a stronger position in the Chase, and it kept Johnson at the front of the table with a clear points lead. The result showed that the title contenders were still separated by only small margins from one race to the next.

For teams in the playoff, a late pass or a slow pit stop could make the difference between staying in contention and falling behind. The margins meant that consistent weekends mattered as much as single wins, and a driver who avoided mistakes could still gain ground.

What were the final results?

Biffle won, Johnson finished second and Harvick third. Stewart took fourth place, while Gordon finished fifth after starting third. Edwards took sixth, and Hamlin finished twelfth, with the margin of victory recorded at 7.638 seconds. Both Stewart and Gordon had led laps earlier in the race.

The clock read two hours, fifty-four minutes and two seconds at the flag. A crowd of 100,000 attended, and 5.25 million people watched on television.

What did the result change in the standings?

Johnson moved to the top of the Drivers' Championship with 5,503 points, and Hamlin stood second, eight points behind. Biffle climbed to eighth in the standings, eighty-five points behind Johnson and sixteen ahead of Jeff Burton. Edwards held fourth on 5,450 points.

Chevrolet kept its lead among manufacturers with 212 points, while Toyota remained second on 175. Ford followed on 135 points, nineteen ahead of Dodge, with seven races still to run in the season.

Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Biffle, Burton and Stewart filled the rest of the leading group behind Gordon in fifth, so the Chase picture stayed crowded.

What did the drivers say afterward?

Biffle said the team had been down after Dover, one of its best tracks, because a pit call had trapped them off sequence. He said they would keep doing the best they could, and that the win was a reward for not giving up.

Johnson said the team had changed a lot of the car to get it right for the race, and that a restless night had been followed by a frustrating morning. Hamlin said the run was not the one the team had wanted, but that they were not out of the hunt and had not panicked.

Biffle's comments summed up the mood: the team was still in contention and would keep racing hard.