Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray prepare for 500th Sprint Cup starts

When the green flag drops on Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway, Greg Biffle and Jamie McMurray will mark an achievement together with their 500th starts in the Sprint Cup Series.

The last time two drivers made their 500th starts in the same race was Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Terry Labonte at Watkins Glen International in 1995.

“I’m really excited about making my 500th start,” said Biffle in a team release. “It’s been a great ride and it’s amazing how fast the time goes by. I’ve got a lot of memories, wins, close races and fun times. I’ve won a lot of great races and look forward to running for that third championship.”

Biffle and McMurray did not make their first starts together, but their careers are intertwined.

The oldest full-time driver on the Cup circuit at 46, Biffle broke into the series on April 28, 2002, in the NAPA Auto Parts 500 at Auto Club Speedway. After three seasons and one title (2000) in the Camping World Truck Series and one Xfinity season, Biffle started in the No. 16 for Roush Fenway Racing.

The native of Vancouver, Washington, qualified 29th and finished 13th in the first of six starts that season.

McMurray’s debut, 20 races later, is much memorable.

A native of Joplin, Missouri, McMurray had 21 truck starts and a season and a half of Xfinity starts with no wins when Chip Ganassi called. On Sept. 29, Sterling Marlin suffered a fractured vertebra in his neck in a crash at Kansas Speedway. The injury forced Marlin from Ganassi’s No. 40 for the rest of the season.

McMurray, then 26, stepped into the car the next week at Talladega Superspeedway, where he would start fifth and finish 26th, a lap down.

McMurray would start fifth again a week later at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the UAW-GM Quality 500. He would lead three times that night for 96 laps. He assumed the lead for the last time with 31 laps to go en route to his first Sprint Cup victory.

Both Biffle and McMurray would be full-time rookies in 2003, with Biffle driving the No. 16 for Roush and McMurray the No. 42 for Ganassi. Since that season, only Biffle has failed to make a start, when he did not qualify for the third race of the 2002 season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“If I wouldn’t have missed the Las Vegas race I would have won Rookie of the Year, except he did,” Biffle said last month at the unveiling of his car for the Southern 500.

Since 2002, Biffle has driven only for Roush, earning 19 victories (the first coming in the 2004 Pepsi 400) 92 top fives and 175 top 10s. Biffle will be the second driver to make his 500th Cup start at Roush. Mark Martin made his in March 2002.

Biffle hasn’t won since the spring Michigan race in 2013.

McMurray, now 40, is in his second stint with Chip Ganassi Racing after competing with Biffle at Roush from 2006 – 2009. The two remain good friends from their days as teammates, often vacationing together and sharing plane rides to races.

“More of a friendship of any other driver, a colleague at work that you respect their talent and ability,” Biffle said. “A lot of times friendships kind of stay intact … you can usually get over, ‘Hey I cut you off or you ran into you on accident.’ Typically you can put those behind you. We haven’t had too many of those.’’

While McMurray has only seven wins on his record – and none since 2013 – his victories tend to come on NASCAR’s biggest stages.

Nicknamed the “Big Game Hunter” by Ganassi, McMurray won the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400 and fall Charlotte race in 2010. His second Cup win was the 2007 Pepsi 400. He also has two wins at Talladega (2009, 2013). His last trip to victory lane was the 2014 All-Star Race.

Heading into Saturday’s race, McMurray holds the final provisional spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup and is 22 points ahead of Ryan Newman.

Biffle needs to win in order to qualify for the Chase.

Kasey Kahne takes after Terry Labonte for Southern 500 paint scheme

Kasey Kahne‘s Southern 500 paint scheme will be based on a car driven by former Hendrick Motorsports driver Terry Labonte early in his Hall of Fame career.

Kahne’s No. 5 LiftMaster Chevrolet will be patterned after the No. 44 car Labonte drove in 1982 when he drove for Billy Hagan and was one of five cars sponsored by J.D. Stacy. Labonte helped Kahne unveil the paint scheme at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Kahne’s sponsor, LiftMaster, was founded in 1982.

Labonte won twice at Darlington in his Sprint Cup career, claiming both is first (1980) and last career wins (2003) at the “Track Too Tough To Tame.” Kahne has started from the pole four times and earned three top fives in his 13 Darlington starts.

“Darlington’s throwback weekend is one of the coolest programs any track does all year,” said Kahne in a press release. “I’m glad that LiftMaster is participating in the program to celebrate their start of the garage door opener business. I appreciate the opportunity to honor Terry Labonte with our throwback paint scheme at one of my favorite tracks.”

Kahne is the last Hendrick Motorsports driver to have their Southern 500 paint scheme announced following Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s, Chase Elliott’s and Jimmie Johnson’s.

The rest of the Southern 500 paint schemes will be on track on Sept. 4 on NBC.

No secrets: From setups to strategy, group chat among some crew chiefs shares all

CONCORD, N.C. — As Martin Truex Jr. led fellow Toyota driver Carl Edwards at Dover earlier this month, crew chief Cole Pearn plotted his strategy, wondering what Edwards’ crew chief, Dave Rogers, planned to do.

So Pearn asked Rogers.

He messaged him, actually.

“Come on man, throw me a bone,’’ Rogers recalled Pearn’s note. “Tell me when you’re going to pit.’’

Pearn, Rogers and his fellow Joe Gibbs Racing crew chiefs are on a group chat with Andy Graves, group vice president, technical director for Toyota Racing Development, USA. They share information throughout the week and an occasional quip — often by Pearn. The chat doesn’t stop when the race starts.

Group chats are not new in NASCAR among crew chiefs on the same team or alliance. Graves recalls a more modest system in place at Hendrick Motorsports when he served as Terry Labonte’s crew chief from 1997-99.

With team computers showing each car’s setup and pertinent information, crew chiefs know what their teammates are doing at all times. Joe Gibbs Racing has incorporated Furniture Row Racing’s Truex so that the information available to each team is if they truly were teammates.

Even with all that information to both Toyota teams, the group chat provides answers to questions about key issues, setup notes and other matters. The more a crew chief knows, the more informed their decisions can be.

Still, what about asking a teammate/competitor on strategy that could hurt them?

It’s all fair.

“What did you tell him?’’ Edwards asked Rogers upon hearing of Pearn’s Dover request. “Get back to you in a minute?’’

They laughed.

No, that’s not what Rogers told Pearn.

Before Rogers revealed how he responded, he recalled that weekend and the struggles Rogers and Edwards had with their car during practice. It was confusing because the setup had worked so well previously. As they tried to figure out how to be faster, Truex posted quick times.

Rogers told his engineers to get Truex’s setup and they would change Edwards’ car to match what Truex had with his.

Edwards went faster.

So when Pearn’s request came during the race asking about what lap Edwards would pit, Rogers responded in the only way he could.

“I told him what I was going to do,’’ Rogers said.

As Graves watched the exchange on the chat, he beamed.

“It’s competitive inside, but not to the point that we’re willing to jeopardize the good of the whole,’’ he said.

That’s the message ingrained in the teams. There’s a closeness between JGR and Furniture Row Racing that is different when Michael Waltrip Racing was with Toyota. The group chat for JGR and MWR crew chiefs was primarily used during restrictor-plate events at Daytona and Talladega.

It’s used constantly among JGR and Furniture Row Racing.

“There’s no question that each one of us wants to be the top team every week,’’ Rogers said. “If you didn’t, you don’t belong in this sport. But we all know that our unity and our sharing of information is going to separate us from the field. It’s a heck of a lot easier to beat four guys than it is to beat 39. So if we work together and we can separate our group and fight amongst ourselves, our odds of winning are better.’’

Pearn said that the openness will keep their working relationship strong.

“Once you go down the path of hiding from each other is when most teammate relationships break down,’’ he said. “You hide one time and it’s easier to do the next time and you just slowly drift apart.’’

Another key to the group chat is that Graves can add his insight on matters, including things during the race the other crew chiefs might be too busy to notice.

Graves noticed during that Dover race that Dale Earnhardt Jr., running outside the top 10 at the time, was saving fuel to make it to the end based on his slower lap times. Graves altered his crew chiefs to the maneuver. In the end, it didn’t matter when Earnhardt was collected in the 18-car crash late in that event, but it could have.

The cooperation was evident Thursday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Truex and Edwards were staged next to each other on pit road during Coca-Cola 600 qualifying. Before the final session, which would determine the pole, Rogers walked over to Pearn and talked briefly. Truex went on to win the pole.

“There’s no information that is not shared,’’ Rogers said.

As a result, Joe Gibbs Racing has won seven of the first 12 points races this season and Truex seems on the cusp of winning.