Benny Parsons

Greg Biffle can turn around a rough first few months of the season, and I think his No. 16 Ford of Roush Racing is running well enough for him to qualify for the Chase for the Championship.

Witness his win at Darlington on Saturday night!

Fast but unlucky
Biffle's car is fast, and that's one thing that's definitely needed to win a Cup championship.

So why after 10 races was Biffle, who finished second last year in the Chase, sitting 20th in the championship standings where last year at the same point in the season he was third?

Well, I think more than anything else the reason is misfortune. Biffle's had plenty of it. Just look at the fact that in nine of the first 10 races in 2006, the 36-year-old started in the top 10, but had only three top-10 finishes to show for it.

In the second race of the season in late February at California Speedway, Biffle led the most laps (168), and was dominating the race before his engine blew 21 laps from the checkers. He was done for the day, and instead of a win, his finish was a brutally disappointing 42nd.

In early April, Biffle led for 49 laps at Texas Motor Speedway when on Lap 82 he got tagged by Kurt Busch as they entered Turn 3.  Biffle wound up crashing into the wall, bringing an early end to a day where his car certainly looked dominant enough to have a solid shot at winning. Instead another 42nd-place finish was the result.

Misfortune struck Biffle again at Phoenix in late April when he had to surrender second place to pit because he was out of gas. And then at Talladega on May 1 less than 50 laps into the restrictor-plate race, Biffle headed to the garage after dropping a cylinder. He was forced to retire from the race, and swallow an awfully unlucky 38th-place result.

So with three DNF's in the season's first 10 races, Biffle felt the sting of having good cars that were victimized by bad luck. You name it, if it is bad or unfortunate, it likely has already happened to Biffle this season.

Competitive without question
In the season-opening Daytona 500, Biffle's Ford did not run well, starting 16th and coming home 31st. His car was not competitive, but that's really about the only race this year where Biffle and his team have missed the mark.

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The driver who began in the Cup series in 2002 racing a limited schedule led in eight of the first 10 races this season, and in those events he posted a combined 609 laps in the lead. He's doing the right things, and despite getting off to the worst start of his racing career, he's not about to panic.

All the misfortune that Biffle experienced over the first 10 races of the season may end up working in his favor because you have to figure he's got some good fortune coming his way.

And also some of his competitors who so far haven't had any bad luck may end up experiencing some in the last third of the season, which is when the Chase takes place.

Biffle has the talent, and with Roush Racing he also has the technology, teammates, and resources to come out on top this season in the Cup series.

So with a change in his luck, and a hot summer on the track, the Vancouver, Wash. native can qualify for the Chase, and if he does, he's quite capable of winning it.

Q: The Petty Enterprises cars seem to be running much better so far this year than in a long time. Are their apparent gains for real, and can they regain respectability?
— Jeff Harvey, Chesapeake, Va.

A: The cars of Kyle Petty and Bobby Labonte are running much better. It was a good move for Petty Enterprises to add Labonte this season as the veteran driver posted three top-10 finishes in his first 10 races. Petty had one top-10 result over that same stretch.

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It's important to remember, however, that operations like Petty Enterprises, which are rebuilding don't go from mediocre or disappointing results to solid results and wins overnight. It takes time, and the teams have to show consistent progress in order to start coming away with top-five finishes. Once they do, it's then that they are ready to win races.

I like the way Petty Enterprises is going about things this year as the operation is making steady gains under the direction of Robbie Loomis, who left Hendrick Motorsports to become vice president of race operations for Petty.

Cup-championship-winning crew chief Todd Parrott was brought aboard to be Labonte's crew chief, and these two form an intense combination as they strive to help Petty Enterprises take the steps needed to return to prominence in the Cup series.

I think in time Petty Enterprises will be able to put itself in position to win races. The immediate goals are to get the equipment better for Petty and Labonte (who had three DNF's in his first 10 races of 2006).

Loomis has brought over some of things that produced success at Hendrick Motorsports, and I feel that will prove a help to him as he attempts to right the ship at Petty Enterprises, which has fallen on hard times in recent years, and has not won a race since 1999. Kyle Petty's last 11 seasons have been winless.