Biffle a winner in Michigan

Greg Biffle was proud of himself for an unlikely reason after winning the NASCAR race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich.

“The guys did a great job and I didn’t make any mistakes, which is pretty unusual for me to race an entire day and not make any mistakes,” Biffle said after pulling away from teammate Mark Martin for an easy victory Sunday in the GFS Marketplace 400.

Biffle, the only driver to win both the Busch and Craftsman Truck series championships, has struggled through most of his 65-race Nextel Cup career, finishing 20th in points last year as a rookie and failing to become a contender this season. He had just one top 10-finish in the first 19 races of 2004.

But things began to change earlier this month, with finishes of fourth at Pocono and sixth at Indianapolis before a disappointing 35th-place run a week ago on the road course at Watkins Glen.

“It’s been tough at times this season, but I knew we could be in Victory Lane this year,” Biffle said. “We’ve got this 16 car ironed out.”

The driver from Vancouver, Wash., led a race-high 73 of the 200 laps Sunday and averaged 139.063 mph, slowed by a Michigan record-tying nine caution flags.

Franchitti wins at Pikes Peak

Although Dario Franchitti was criticized for making the jump to the IRL from the former CART series, his decision is starting to look like a good one.

But it wasn’t that way a year ago, when a bad back that needed surgery kept him from proving it wasn’t a bad move.

Now, with two wins this year — including Sunday at Pikes Peak International Raceway — perhaps Franchitti will stop hearing the questions.

The Scottish driver who held the lead four times for a total of 128 laps, took advantage of a yellow flag to clear debris on lap 120, caught up to the leaders and passed Sam Hornish Jr. 12 laps later.

Adrian Fernandez stayed close for about 35 laps before Franchitti started pulling away after another caution.

Franchitti took the checkered flag 2.2429 seconds ahead of Fernandez. It was the 11th straight victory for Honda.

Johnson’s slump extended

Jimmie Johnson’s struggle continues because he can’t seem to find an engine that lasts.

After putting together an impressive run to build a big lead in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series standings, Johnson fell to second Sunday at the GFS Markpetplace 400 — failing to finish for the third week in a row.

Since building his lead to 232 points over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, Johnson has finished 36th at Indianapolis with an engine failure, 40th at Watkins Glen with a broken transmission that cooked another motor and 40th Sunday with another blown engine.

He now has five DNF’s (did not finish) in 2004 after totaling only three in his first two seasons on NASCAR’s premier circuit.

The latest failure left Johnson 68 points behind four-time series champion Gordon.

“I’m just dumbfounded right now,” said Johnson, who started the race from the pole but failed to lead a lap before exiting on the 82nd of 200 on the 2-mile oval. “I was coming down the backstretch and it acted like it was running out of gas. I looked at the fuel pressure and it was fine. Then right away I could smell oil and we knew we had dropped a cylinder.

“It’s a shame, three weeks in a row.”