Roush battle to resume at Kansas By Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service Posted:0835hrs
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He missed the Chase for the second consecutive year, and he waited until September to score his first win of the year at Kansas Speedway. All told, he scored only five top-five finishes all season and led just 78 laps. This year, he returns to Kansas for today's Camping World RV 400 as the defending race winner on a two-race win streak after victories at New Hampshire and Dover. He also sits in a tie with Jimmie Johnson for second in the series standings, just 10 points behind teammate Carl Edwards. Biffle is the first driver to open the Chase with two consecutive wins, which has him in position to become the first driver to win a title in all three of NASCAR's top three series. He won the Craftsman Truck Series championship in 2000 and followed it with a Nationwide title in 2002. "We've worked extremely hard to get our cars and our team where they need to be," Biffle said. "I guess if you want to use the term 'peak at the right time,' you could. I feel we have worked hard all season and now our hard work is starting to show up. I feel a lot better about this championship run than I did in 2005." --(Cont'd From Front Page)-- With so much momentum behind him, Biffle thinks scoring his third straight win is a real possibility. "The feeling that we have together as a team right now is indescribable," Biffle said. "If we can keep it going, which I think we can, we will be unstoppable. As a driver, you dream of having a team like this at this point in your career. We're not finished winning, and I don't see why we can't make it three in a row at Kansas this weekend." Biffle isn't the only Roush Fenway Racing driver on a roll heading into Kansas. Carl Edwards comes in with consecutive third-place finishes at New Hampshire and Dover, and Matt Kenseth recovered from a dismal 40th-place finish in New Hampshire by finishing second at Dover. "Last weekend was a welcome change for us," Kenseth said. "We qualified well, led a bunch of laps and ended up with a good finish. Obviously I would have rather won than finished second, but as a whole our team performed a lot better than it has been. Hopefully we'll be able to build on that this weekend and leave Kansas with a win. "Kansas is a lot like Chicago, and we were very competitive there earlier this year. So far this year, we've had the majority of our success on these-type (of) tracks." While three of Jack Roush's drivers are in the Chase and a fourth -- David Ragan -- narrowly missed it, the organization's fifth driver largely has been overlooked. Jamie McMurray has picked up only six top-10 finishes all year. His season has been on the downswing of late, as he hasn't finished higher than 24th since finishing 12th at Bristol in August. McMurray had a chance to race for the win last week at Dover, but contact with another car put him out of contention and left him 36th at the end. McMurray, from nearby Joplin, Mo., could use a little boost in front of his fans to finish the season on the right track. "If things continue like they have the last few weeks, we will have another really fast (car) for this weekend," McMurray said. "It's unreal how fast our cars have been, which is great, but we need the finishes to go along with them. Hopefully, we can have a great weekend in Kansas this weekend and bring home a good finish in front of the local fans."
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