Biffle in lead as racing resumes

Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Greg Biffle fell two laps down at Martinsville, clawed his way to a 13th-place finish, then headed to the Bahamas as NASCAR’s points leader.

“It feels good to go on vacation being the point leader,” Biffle said after the April 1 race in Virginia.

Biffle better have enjoyed his time away from the track, because it’s game-on from here. NASCAR resumes racing this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, the first in a stretch of 14 consecutive races that will shape most of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship field.

Brad Keselowski proved last year a driver can overcome a slow start and still be a championship contender. He was a season-low 28th in the standings nine races into the season, turned things around at the start of the summer and used three wins to claim one of the two wild card spots in the 12-driver Chase field.

That leaves hope for Kasey Kahne, who has had a horrendous start to his Hendrick Motorsports tenure.

Despite two poles and strong cars, Kahne has been plagued with problems and has four finishes of 29th or worse. His best showing so far this season was 14th at California, and an engine failure at Martinsville has him sitting 31st in the standings.

He’s been furious at times and frustrated with his position but isn’t giving up hope he can turn things around with strong Chevrolets that are struggling to make it to the finish.

“I am upset that we haven’t run great this year, but we are great on Friday and Saturday,” Kahne said. “We have the speed, so when it’s our time we will be ready to take advantage of it.”

He’ll have to get moving pretty soon, though, because there are some big names sitting outside the top 10 in points right now.

Carl Edwards, who lost the championship to Tony Stewart last season on a tie-breaker, is 11th, and Keselowski, despite a win at Bristol, is 12th.

Kyle Busch is stuck back in 16th and uncharacteristically has only challenged for one victory so far this season. He settled for second to Stewart at California, where he led 80 laps in the rain-shortened race, but has only one other top-10 finish this season.