Biffle gas controversy caps one wild day at Kansas

Greg Biffle ended a 28-race drought, but controversy followed as his car slowed and he crossed the finish line after Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer. Jamie Squire/Getty Images

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Who needs Talladega? Who needs Bristol? The twice rain-delayed LifeLock 400 had it all at the Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

There were crashes worthy of the "Big One" -- which always seems to happen at the 2.66 mile Talladega Superspeedway, and banging and bumping like the short track at Bristol.

The only thing that was missing was bottles being thrown on the track -- recalling an unpopular finish at Talladega when Jeff Gordon beat Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a race that ended under yellow.

To top it all off, there was controversy at the finish when winner Greg Biffle's Aflac Ford slowed and passed the finish line (more importantly the scoring sensor) after second place Jimmie Johnson, and third place, Clint Bowyer.

NASCAR ended the race due to darkness and Biffle said that he pulled over into the grass, then turned off his motor according to orders from NASCAR officials.

Johnson, who won the pole but started last because he had to switch to a backup car, complained "he [Biffle] was clearly out of gas ... if you don't hold your speed, you don't hold your position."

Bowyer a local favorite agreed "I thought you had to finish under your own power across the finish line. We maintained the pace car speed. I don't know what the deal is."

For his part Biffle denied the contention he was out of gas. "The race was over the caution was out we were declared the winner. All we had to do was come around and cross the stripe."

So it came down to a question of what was a reasonable speed. NASCAR officials ruled Biffle was doing that. The contested ending recalled the Busch race in Montreal earlier this year, where Robby Gordon was dropped from either leading or second to further back in the field, which Robby disputed.

Late Sunday night, NASCAR spokesman, Ramsey Poston, explained, "when the caution came out on lap 207 the 16 [Biffle] was in the lead and field was frozen. In the opinion of the tower [NASCAR officials] the 16 maintained reasonable speed," and further explained reasonable speed is different than the pace car speed."

The controversial finish will be debated, at least until the green flag falls at Talladega next week.

As for Biffle he's still ready to prove he wasn't out of gas, as the night hours grew later he said "if you want I can go start the car up, and do some burnouts, in the garage over there. Do some doughnuts, if that will make you feel better about it."

Key Moment

NASCAR's decision to restart the race after the second rain delay. There was only about one hour of light remaining and there was precious little time to make points. As Johnson explained "we had such a small window of time that everybody just started driving really aggressively."

Hidden Star

The closest to star to the Earth -- the Sun. Since Kansas Speedway is one of the few remaining track without lights, the race was shortened because the drivers just couldn't see anything.

Hot Numbers

Biffle led the last 36 laps. Six Chase drivers finished 29th or worse. The top three Chasers, Johnson, Gordon, and Bowyer are within 14 points. The bottom two Chase drivers, Matt Kenseth, and Denny Hamlin are over 200 points behind Johnson.

Spinning My Wheels

What do you do when there's a rain delay? Carl Edwards took a nap while the weather cleared and track drying began. "I was listening to the NASCAR radio. There's nothing like the sounds of (Managing Event Director) David Hoots while you sleep," the local favorite said.

While Jeff Gordon and Johnson spoke out about Jacques Villeneuve Attempting to make his NASCAR debut at Talladega, only one current driver, Juan Pablo Montoya has raced Villeneuve before, although it was in Formula One not NASCAR. Montoya said "J.V. has all the experience in the world and can probably do it, but without the experience of going four-wide and the level of respect you need to run in a 43-car pack at Talladega, it might not be the best place to make your debut. One mistake out there and you don't want to be the one causing the big one especially in a chase race with so much on the line."