CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Exactly one year ago, Greg Biffle was NASCAR’s hottest driver. He had two wins, solid footing in the points standings and was well on his way to becoming a championship contender.

My, how things have changed.

Biffle can’t seem to catch a break this year, with his latest bout of bad luck coming Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. He had led 49 of the first 82 laps and established himself as the driver to beat, only to see his day come to a crashing end when contact with former teammate Kurt Busch wrecked his car.

Then things got interesting.

Biffle’s girlfriend climbed off his box and marched down pit road to angrily confront Busch’s fiance. The confrontation was brief, and it’s not clear what point Nicole Lunders was trying to make. But as the two women had it out under the hot Texas sun, Tammy Wynette was likely smiling down to see Lunders “Stand By Her Man.”

There’s no doubt the frustration has set in for Biffle and everyone surrounding him. One of the preseason favorites to win the Nextel Cup title, “The Biff” is now a big if to even make the playoff race.

“It’s a shame ... so many times this year we’ve had a good car and we just can’t complete it,” crew chief Doug Richert said. “We certainly don’t have the luck going our way this year, but we can turn it around.”

It’s way too early to count out Biffle, who proved he’s one of the top Nextel Cup drivers with a series-high six wins last season and a second-place finish in the final points standings.

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But this year he’s 23rd in the standings and 188 points behind the cutoff for qualifying for the Chase for the championship. Finishes of 31st or worse in four of the first seven races have put him there.

Despite the disastrous stat sheet, Biffle has shown his team is still pretty strong. He’s led a total of 398 laps in six different races and probably should have a win or two.

He had the race at California Speedway won in February until his engine failed with 25 laps to go. And he was good last month at Atlanta Motor Speedway, only to run out of gas, and again at Bristol Motor Speedway, where a flat tire took him out of contention.

“We can’t dwell on the past,” Biffle lamented of his latest disappointment.

Still, this one probably stings a little more than the others.

Biffle and Busch spent three seasons as Cup teammates at Roush Racing, and despite on-track incidents here and there, Biffle was one of the few drivers to routinely offer Busch support during his tough times.

But now that Busch is driving for Penske Racing, his old relationships appear to have expired — something Matt Kenseth learned firsthand at Bristol when Busch bumped him out of the way to steal the win.

Now Biffle can commiserate with Kenseth.

After leading early, pit stops had shuffled Biffle back to ninth on Sunday when he came across Busch, who was a lap down. As Biffle tried to clear him on the track, Busch hit Biffle’s rear bumper — contact that sent Biffle hard into the wall.

“He just didn’t lift,” Biffle said. “He just ran into the back of me and turned me into the fence.”

But Busch maintained it wasn’t his fault, that Biffle slowed in front of him.

“I don’t know what he was doing,” he said. “I was trying to get out of the way. I tried not to get into him and I just couldn’t get out of the way.”

Biffle wasn’t hearing any of Busch’s excuses, pointing out that the incident was quite similar to the 2004 All-Star race when Busch hit him from behind rather than lift off the gas.

“At some point, common sense has to set in and say, ‘I can’t run into the back of a guy at a superspeedway, a mile-and-a-half track going 175 miles an hour,”’ Biffle said. “All you have to do is lift on the gas pedal and elect not to run into the car in front of you on the straightaway. That’s pretty unforgivable, I would have to say.”

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Only Biffle and Busch know who was really at fault on Sunday, and both are placing blame on the other.

The only thing that’s certain is that Biffle can’t have many more mishaps or else he’ll find himself locked out of the championship hunt.

That’s unacceptable for Biffle, who at 36 years old is at the prime of his career and eager to earn something to show for it. He’s the only driver in NASCAR history to win championships in both the Truck and Busch Series, but desperately wants to add a Cup title to that resume.

Biffle is blunt and to the point, unafraid to point fingers. If things don’t turn around soon, he and Lunders will certainly be doing a lot of it.