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♦ SUNDAY, MARCH 6, 2005
Quiet contender
Is Biffle the man to beat for NEXTEL Cup title?
By MIKE HARRIS
AP Motorsports Writer
FONTANA, Calif. -
People tend to over
look Greg Biffle.
At 35, he certainly
isn’t one of NASCAR’s so
called Young Guns, nor is he
a big talker who elicits much
attention. But Biffle definite
ly has credentials.
A newspaper recently did
an anonymous survey of 15
Nextel Cup drivers, asking
their opinion on the best in
the series. Biffle was on a
very short list led by four
time champion Jeff Gordon.
Biffle is the only driver
to have won champion
ships in both the Busch and
Craftsman Truck series. Now,
he’s giving every indication
of being a serious contender
for another title in his third
full season on NASCAR’s top
circuit.
“Biffle is no surprise to
anybody in the NASCAR
garage,” said teammate and
series champion Kurt Busch.
“Everybody knows what a
good driver he is and how
tough he and that No. 16
team can be if they put it all
together.”
Although his first two years
in the Cup series produced
finishes of 20th and 17th
in the standings, the driver
from Vancouver, Wash., has
four victories.
But two of those wins have
come in his last three races -
the season-finale last year at
Homestead-Miami Speedway
and last Sunday at California
Speedway.
The win here was particu
larly impressive, with Biffle
twice coming from far back
in the field and leading the
last 23 laps.
It was apparently no sur
prise to Biffle, who predict
ed he would win the race
after testing at the track in
January.
“After that test, I had a
pretty strong feeling that we
would win out here if some
thing crazy didn’t happen,”
he explained.
But that doesn’t mean it
NASCAR drivers take their show on the road to Mexico
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
- Two weeks down, 34 to
go. With those
On u m b e r s
looming, an
off-week for
the NASCAR
NOTEBOOK N EX T E L
Cup Series
Compiled by • • lit
NASCAR 1S ’ rea “ ty ;
anything but
that.
The
next event - the UAW-
Daimler Chrysler 400 on
March 13 at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway - is fast approach
ing.
For some competitors,
there’s only one way to pre
pare:
Keep racing.
That inclination pairs per
fectly this week with a first
ever NASCAR Busch Series
event in Mexico City. Seven
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup driv
ers are making a South of the
Border sojourn to compete in
a historic event - Sunday’s
Telcel Motorola Mexico 200
presented by Banamex at
the legendary Autodromo
Hermanos Rodriguez road
course.
It will mark the first
NASCAR Busch Series points
event held outside the United
States, and the first road
course event for the NASCAR
Busch Series since a 2001
event at Watkins Glen.
FOX will televise the Telcel
Motorola Mexico 200 pre
sented by Banamex. five on
Sunday beginning at 3 p.m.
on FOX.
Among those tackling the
80-lap, 201-mile challenge
on the Autodromo’s 2.5-mile
course will be Robby Gordon,
Rusty Wallace, Jamie
McMurray, Kevin Harvick,
Carl Edwards, Boris Said and
Elliott Sadler.
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NASCAR
Greg Biffle celebrates in Victory Lane Sunday in California. His win has some asking the
question if he might not be NASCAR's next NEXTEL champion.
was easy. He muscled his
ill-handling Ford to the
end, beating hard-charging
Jimmie Johnson by six car
lengths.
“This was the toughest of
my life to earn,” Biffle said.
“We overcame more in that
race than I ever have in a
race car. The car was so loose
at times I could hardly keep
it going in the right direction,
and I didn’t know why.”
Now, thanks to that master
ful driving job - and despite
a 25th-place finish in the
season-opening Daytona 500
- Biffle is fifth in the stand
ings, trailing leader Busch by
just 67 points.,
Biffle gave car owner Jack
Roush his first NASCAR
title when he won the truck
championship in 2000, and
added the Busch champion
ship two years later.
Now, Biffle would like
' in
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A NASCAR hauler crosses into Mexico, the site of the Busch race Sunday.
Another participant with
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup
experience is Ron Fellows,
a road-racing specialist who
makes frequent appearances
in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup
events at Infineon Raceway
and Watkins Glen.
“I’m pretty excited about
it,” said Gordon, a veteran
off-road and dirt racer in
Baja, California. “I think it’s
a good marketplace for us.
It obviously makes a lot of
sense because it’s in a differ
ent country that obviously
we can just drive across the
border to go down and put on
the event.”
ROOM FOR SURPRISES: Only two
races have been checked off
the 2005 NASCAR NEXTEL
Cup schedule, but fast start
ers already have emerged,
among them Carl Edwards,
who sits a surprising fourth
in the NASCAR NEXTEL
Cup point standings heading
into the off week thanks to a
12th-place finish in the sea
son-opening Daytona 500 and
last Sunday’s fifth-place fin
ish at California Speedway.
nothing better than to pres
ent his boss a third straight
Cup title.
Matt Kenseth gave Roush
his first in 2003.
“I’ve learned a lot about
myself and the way you
have to race to win in Nextel
Cup,” said Biffle, who has
been in some trouble on the
track by being overly aggres
sive. “I really think we’ve
got everything we need to be
contenders.
“I think Jack gives us
everything we need. Now we
just have to put it together
and make it happen.”
It wouldn’t surprise crew
chief Doug Richert if Biffle
becomes the first driver
to win titles in all three of
NASCAR’s top touring cir
cuits.
“I really feel this team is
ready,” Richert said. “The
team has matured, and we’ve
Bienvenido a Mexico
Welcome to lUexic
“It gives us a lot of confi
dence,” said Edwards, who’s
paired with crew chief Bob
Osborne. “It gives me as a
driver a lot of confidence.
It is different leading these
races. It’s one thing to follow
these guys and change your
line a little bit from theirs,
but it’s apother thing to be
the guy out front with them
chasing you. I’m learning a
little bit and I’m just glad to
be here.”
TV TIMEOUT The preliminary
results reveal that more
households tuned in to the
2005 Auto Club 500 than
any other non-Daytona 500
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup
Series event in history, which
also made it the highest
rated, most watched event at
California Speedway.
The Auto Club 500, which
followed the Daytona 500
for the first time, enjoyed
a 20 percent increase in
households and an 18 per
cent increase in viewers over
the second event of the 2004
season at North Carolina
Speedway.
SPORTS
figured out what we need to
give Greg for him to win.”
Richert knows a bit about
calling the shots for cham
pionship teams. He was the
crew chief in 1980, when the
late Dale Earnhardt won the
first of his record-tying seven
titles.
Roush, who also fields Cup
cars for Busch, Kenseth, long
time star Mark Martin and
promising newcomer Carl
Edwards, has stood behind
Biffle even when the driver
made disparaging remarks
about the team last year.
“There has never been any
doubt about his talent,” said
Roush, who signed Biffle sight
unseen after a recommenda
tion from former NASCAR
champion Benny Parsons.
“He has the ability to do just
about anything he wants in
this sport, and I expect him
to do it for our team.”
Perry United Methodist Church
Jenny Jackson-Adams -Senior Pastor
Roland Fall -At isociate Pastor • Josh Bizzell - Youth Minister
Krissy Pope -Pastor to Children & Director of Christian Education
NASCAR
1002 Carroll Street Childcare
478-987-1852 Provided
New technology now
available to flslwraien
By ELLIOTT MINOR
Associated Press Writer
EUFAULA, Ala. - Side
imaging sonar, technology
used to locate the wreck
age of the Titanic deep in
the North Atlantic, is now
available to anglers who
just want to find a good
fishing hole.
Such systems have been
used for years in Naval war
fare, scientific research and
underwater mapping, but
until recently they were far
too costly and cumbersome
for the average fisherman.
That has changed with
the recent introduction
of new “fishing systems”
offered by Eufaula-based
Humminbird, a leading
manufacturer of electronic
fish finders.
The company hopes the
new $2,000 side-imaging
sonar systems will become as
essential to serious anglers
as the tackle box, fishing
pole and can of worms. It
also predicts the systems
will be a hit among divers
looking for sunken ships,
recovery teams search
ing for drowning victims,
underwater archeologists
. and anyone else who needs
a view of the depths.
“It is cutting edge,”
said Gary Caputi, editor
of Saltwater Sportsman
Magazine. “Nobody else has
done anything like this.”
Fish-finding technology
has improved only incre
mentally since the mid
1980s, when sonar fish
finders with liquid crys
tal displays were intro
duced, said Mark Gibson,
Humminbird’s global prod
ucts manager.
Sonar detects underwater
objects by bouncing sound
waves off them and analyz
ing the results.
Traditional fish finders
project sound waves directly
below the boat and produce
two-dimensional images on
a display that shows the
contour of the water’s bot
tom, the depth and blips
representing fish or other
objects in the water.
Humminbird’s systems
not only beam down, they
also send sound waves to
the side at a 30-degree
angle. Their signals are fed
into a microprocessor that
produces three-dimension
al images of objects up to
100 feet below the boat and
240 feet to either side. The
images appear on a display
similar to those found on
laptop computers.
The systems also can be
linked to global-positioning
navigational gear so anglers
can mark prime locations
and return to them.
Structures are considered
the most desirable spots
because fish tend to congre
gate around them, either to
hide from predators or to be
predators.
“We were looking for
something revolutionary,”
Gibson said. “We were
thinking from the angler’s
perspective - ‘What would I
want my fish finder to show
I MORNING WORSHIP
9am & 11am
SUNDAY SCHOOL
10am
SUNDAY NIGHT WORSHIP
7pm
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
'lt can't do
everything that a
hlgh-dollar sonar
unit can do, but
the image quality
is up there with a
SIOO,OOO unit/
- Aquatic biologist Chad Lewis
me?’ I’d want it to show me
an image of what’s exactly
under water.
“Side imaging provides
both the high-resolution
images and works in all
water, whether it’s clear or
muddy,” he said.
During a recent demon
stration on Lake Eufaula,
Gibson and Dave Betts,
Humminbird’s research
and development manager,
cruised slowly across the
45,181-acre lake as detailed
images appeared on the dis
play.
They saw a sunken barge
and a pile of logs that had
spilled out as the vessel
went down.
Lake Eufaula, which
stretches for 85 miles
along the Alabama-Georgia
boarder, was created in
1963 by damming the
Chattahoochee River. The
rising water covered build
ings, trees, stumps and all
other vestiges of human
habitation.
Gibson and Betts have
found a submerged swim
ming pool, a bridge founda
tion, the remains of a hydro
electric plant and scads of
stumps and trees. They can
also see schools of fish or
larger fish individually.
In military and commer
cial systems, which can
cost more than SIOO,OOO,
the transducers are either
built into a ship’s hull, or
they are mounted in a tor
pedo-shaped “towfish” that
is too heavy for the average
angler to handle.
Humminbird’s transduc
er unit, only six inches long
and weighing only a few
ounces, can be mounted to
either the front or rear of a
regular fishing boat.
Chad Lewis, an aquatic
biologist with Mainstream
Commercial Divers of
Murray, Ky., said his under
water construction and
diving company uses com
mercial side-scan sonar
systems routinely to locate
sunken vessels. Still, he was
impressed by the quality of
the Humminbird images.
“It can’t do everything
that a high-dollar sonar
unit can do, but the image
quality is up there with a
SIOO,OOO unit,” he said.
Pat Hahs, who uses side
scan sonar to map the bot
toms of areas in western
Kentucky, said the system
produced higher quality
images than his commercial
system.
“Fishermen will find it
extremely valuable,” he
said.