SONOMA, Calif. — The guessing game surrounding Greg Biffle’s future is apparently on the verge of ending with a three-year contract extension with Roush Fenway Racing.
Biffle said Friday he hopes to finalize a deal this week and announce it at next week’s race at New Hampshire International Speedway.
“We’re really close to having it done. I’ve said that for a while now. But I think we’re down just to getting it signed, more than anything,” Biffle said. “I think we’ve worked out all the infinite details on it.”
But the deal is not done, and it’s also possible that the entire thing can implode before either party signs on the dotted line. These contract talks have been going on for months, despite Biffle’s continued public statements that he intended to stay in the No. 16 Ford.
“The wheels can fall off of anything, I suppose,” Biffle said. “But I’ll be excited to get it done and get it behind me. That will put me at Roush Fenway for 13 years at the end of that contract. That’s a long time to be with an organization. We’ve got good cars; we’ve worked really hard. Everybody is. We want to win the championship this year. That’s everybody’s goal … but we really feel like we’re that close.”
Biffle said he’s not currently speaking with other teams, but said he gets occasional calls of interest. But he said his message of late has been his intent to stay with his current team. Biffle won both a Truck Series and Nationwide Series championship driving for Roush.
“We’ve been focusing on getting this done with Roush Fenway,” Biffle said. “You know, I think the phone still rings every once in a while. People are inquiring about what we’re doing, more than anything. We’ve told them, ‘Hey, we’re signing a deal with Roush Fenway … coming up here in the next couple of weeks.’
“That’s what we’ve been working toward. That’s what we’ve been working toward the entire time — doing an extension.”
OUR BAD: NASCAR admitted Friday it made a scoring mistake last week in Michigan when series officials allowed Mark Martin to line up in front of Brian Vickers before the final restart.
Vickers insisted he had passed Martin a full two laps before the caution, but when it came time to return to racing, Martin was moved in front of him. Vickers said earlier this week NASCAR told him the ruling was incorrect, and vice president of competition Robin Pemberton confirmed the error.
“There’s no defense for it,” Pemberton said. “But in all the commotion, and trying to set law and order at the front of the field, we made a mistake.”
Vickers was outraged by the call and claims it cost him a chance to run for the win. Because he had to work to pass Martin in the closing laps, he didn’t have enough time to chase down eventual winner Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Vickers wound up fourth.
“I was furious. I was pretty upset about it, and rightfully so,” Vickers said. “I felt like in a lot of ways it cost us a shot at the race. There’s no guarantees what would have happened, but it definitely hurt us. Unfortunately in our sport, and if I was sitting in the tower, I couldn’t do it any different, you can’t just call a time out and go look at the replay and sort it out.
“It’s 43 calls up in the tower. They have 43 positions to sort out every caution, not one. It’s a tough job, you know, and they can’t just pause the race. They’ve got guys running out of fuel, the race is coming to an end, and it’s time to go green and get the checkered out there, so it’s time to move on. But they did say they made a mistake and owned up to it, and that’s all you can ask for.”
NEW MONEY: With sponsorship hard to come by during the current economic slide, Richard Childress Racing is doing an exceptional job bringing new money into its organization.
RCR signed Caterpillar this week to sponsor Jeff Burton’s car next season in its second substantial deal so far this season. The team previously announced General Mills would sponsor a fourth RCR car next season.
Burton said the incoming funds prove just how attractive car owner Richard Childress has made his three-car Cup organization.
“I think it’s important that sponsors want to talk to us and that we’re under consideration,” he said. “We feel good about the amount of interest that we’ve had in our company, and that goes back to Richard.
“Richard’s a very competitive person, doing his best to put competitive teams on the race track, but more importantly he’s very honest, very straightforward.”
Caterpillar moves to Burton’s car after 10 seasons sponsoring the No. 22 at Bill Davis Racing. Burton’s brother, Ward, drove the car during part of that stretch and won both a Daytona 500 and the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway with the CAT colors.
“I think Ward and CAT was a great relationship,” Burton said. “That was a really neat relationship. I’m excited about continuing the Burton relationship with CAT. It’s a really good fit for us. Our family has been in construction business for forever. It is a unique situation that a brother drove with a sponsor and now another one is, but I think that’s a positive thing.
“The family has really good thoughts about CAT and holds CAT in high regard. To be able to continue that, I think is pretty special.”
Davis, meanwhile, said his team is actively searching for a replacement sponsor. The team also needs a sponsor for its planned second car.
“We’re real optimistic,” Davis said. “We think we’ll be just fine. Hopefully people aren’t going to just try to stick a fork in us and think we’re done. We’re not by any means.”
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