Taking off: as kicking up sand in a dune buggy with red hot Greg Biffle proved, there's no keeping a good man down

We shot down, hit a series of moguls, then lifted off. Everything went silent. We landed as softly as a bearhug. Again and again, we surged straight up the sand mountain, turned around and blasted down. This is the strongest memory of this day, the taking off, flying long enough to have a thought (Do I have life insurance?), the realization there are bowling ball-sized rocks out here and if we land on one we're going to barrel-roll.

After one jump, Kurt Busch, the Nextel Cup champion and Biffle's Roush Racing teammate, paced off our flight. He took 30 steps, meaning we flew 85 to 90 feet.

Yes, you read that right.

Gulp.

Not breaking out all over

Based on their performances last season, Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray
and Kasey Kahne carded big expectations in this season. Only Biffle has
delivered.--M.C.

2005
            Points
Driver      position     Starts     Wins    Top 10s    DNFs

Biffle        4th          9         2         5        1
McMurray      10th         9         0         3        1
Kahne         22nd         9         0         2        3

2004

                         Points
             Starts     position    Wins    Top 10s    DNFs

Biffle        17th         36        2         8        5
McMurray      11th         36        0        23        6
Kahne         13th         36        0        14        7

COPYRIGHT 2005 Sporting News Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning