Editor's note: NASCAR driver Greg Biffle will document his journey through the Chase for the Sprint Cup in an exclusive online diary for USA TODAY:
Well, Charlotte certainly didn't end up like we wanted.
We were hoping for a tick better run than that at the end because we ran in the top three or four all night and then ended up seventh. We just slid a little bit and, unfortunately, that's the way it goes. We were just a little too loose after taking those four tires and couldn't really go where we needed to go. But I think, overall, finishing in the top 10 didn't really hurt us too bad in the points, other than Jeff Burton winning.
A race like Charlotte shows you how fast things can change in this Chase. Something as freak as what happened to Carl Edwards can really put you behind the eight ball while a win like Burton's has put him right in the middle of this championship battle. And I'm not forgetting about the other people just behind us, either. Carl, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon are all capable of getting on a hot streak, so they shouldn't be counted out — and neither should we.
So now we're off to Martinsville and it's going to be critical to get a top-10 this weekend. Martinsville is definitely a finesse track and we know that we're gonna have to be easy on the brakes, easy on the car, and keep the fenders on it. I like the big tracks where you can pretty much try to go as fast as you can, but we know that Martinsville is real technical. We're gonna have to be right on the money.
I sort of have a love-hate relationship with Martinsville, but I'm feeling more and more comfortable each time we race there. Our goal is simple — finish in front of the 48. That's a pretty tall order, considering how good they run there, but that's our focus. I finished seventh in this race a year ago, which was my first top-10, and I remember beating on the back of the 48 car for the lead in turns three and four at one point. I just had to bump him a few times. I just got a chance to get close enough to him, so that's kind of the highlight of my career as far as this race track goes.
Brakes have been the biggest issue for everybody, I think, since the beginning of time at Martinsville, especially with how fast the cars go and how much power they make. This car has to slow down a little bit more in the corner than the old car because it's got a higher center of gravity and it just won't go around the corner as fast. The car is a little bit heavier, so we're a little more demanding on the brakes.
Brakes are the first concern and then getting your car to go around the corner is second. It's kind of an evil scenario. If your car doesn't turn good when you get down in the corner, and you put the wheel to it where the front tires slide, then you've got to slow down more for the corner. That means you've got to use the brake harder to get the car slowed down enough to go around the corner. If you've got a good handling car, you're a lot easier on the brakes. If you've got a poor handling car, you're harder on the brakes.
Martinsville is going to be very important as far as the Chase goes, but this weekend also means a lot to me because Friday will mark one year since Nicole and I got married. She's played a big part in the Greg Biffle Foundation and our work with various animal shelters, in addition to being a great source of support for my racing career and me.
It's also been nice this week to have my brother, Jeff, in town. We took advantage of having Sunday off and drove up to the mountains in the Ford Focus I mentioned last week. We had fun just messing around for the day, and then I switched out my Focus for a Fusion, which I'll drive the next few days as part of the "I'm Driving One"
promotion with Ford Racing. Be sure to check out my blogs on each car at fordracing.com.
