A season of ups and downs for Biffle

Through the first 11 races of the 36-race schedule, this is definitely not the year Greg Biffle expected to have.

Even though he's a respectable 11th in the Sprint Cup standings, the Vancouver, Wash., native has been up and down more times than a roller coaster – and there are still 25 races remaining.

Biffle’s year has included finishing 10th at Daytona, third in Las Vegas and back-to-back fourth-place showings at Atlanta and Bristol.

Then there's the flip side – and it's a pretty ugly side at that.

Twentieth at Martinsville, 39th at Texas and most recently, a season-low 43rd this past Saturday at Darlington.

It was that embarrassing finish at Darlington – a race where Biffle arguably had the most dominant car and led 95 laps before several mechanical issues including loose lug nuts and eventually a blown engine – caused him to blow his cool.

"It is really frustrating," a bitter Biffle said. "But, you know what, I’ve just become accustomed to expecting it because it’s just week after week it’s something. Something breaks; something falls off; we’ve got wheels loose."

Biffle is normally a big cheerleader for his team, but after Darlington, he all but threw his team under the bus.

"I give it 110 percent as a driver all the time and you just want your equipment to last and be able to win these races," he said. "They’re so hard to win these days. You can deal with a flat tire or something like that, but when it’s self-induced it makes it even harder. It makes it so hard to swallow when it’s self-induced like that."

It should be interesting to see how his team responds not only in this Saturday's Sprint All-Star Race, but the following week in the season's longest race, the grueling Coca-Cola 600. Both races will be at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

The all-star event is a no holds barred, wide open affair, where drivers let it all hang out in the 100-lap, four-segment event. They and their teams – particularly crew chiefs and the strategy they devise – can afford to gamble and do things they'd rarely think of doing in a points-paying race.

Biffle likes racing at Lowe's a lot, but it hasn't shown him a lot of affection in return. In 10 career starts on the 1.5-mile oval, Biffle has just one top-five and two other top-10 finishes.

Even worse, he's recorded three of his four worst finishes at Lowe's in the last three events: 37th, 43rd and 27th.

That's why Biffle is looking for some significant change in his fortunes at Lowe’s.

Biffle is hoping that the test for all Cup drivers held at LMS two weeks ago, not to mention the data he and his team gathered from it, will come in quite handy both this Saturday and a week from Sunday in the 600.

"I think we learned a little bit," Biffle said. "That track, for some reason, has been a little frustrating for me since they re-paved it. We have just been off a little bit and can’t get the car to do what we need it to do.

"It’s too loose and then in four laps it’s pushing so bad that you’re a half-second off the pace. Then we’re able to adjust the car to get it to go fast, but then when you put tires on it you can’t drive it, so that’s been a frustrating point for me at Lowe’s – to get that thing driving right and as much speed as we need to have."

But having a test at Lowe's wasn't really necessary, either, Biffle said. Because NASCAR is just closing in on one-third of the season completed, he would have preferred to test there later in the year, particularly since Lowe's hosts one of the 10 Chase for the Sprint Cup events.

"We really didn’t need that test right then," Biffle said. "It would have been better for us later in the year when we could be more organized and have a better test plan in place, but it is what it is."

That's kind of the best way to describe Biffle's up-and-down season so far: it is what it is … but he's hoping what it is to be will be a lot different and much more successful.

Jerry Bonkowski is National NASCAR Columnist for Yahoo! Sports (Yahoo.com) and a featured contributor for Gatehouse News Service. He can be reached at NASCARColumnist@Yahoo.com.

THE BIFFLE FILE

- Greg and his wife, Nicole, founded the Greg Biffle Foundation for Animals in 2005, a charity that creates awareness for the well-being of animals.

- The late Benny Parsons, a TV announcer and former NASCAR champion, was instrumental in getting team owner Jack Roush to take an interest in Biffle as a driver.

- Favorite pastimes are deep-sea fishing and boating, as well as off-road recreational driving.