NASCAR on NBC podcast, Ep. 47: Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer

Two Sprint Cup drivers who are in the midst of their most disappointing seasons joined the NASCAR on NBC podcast to analyze adversity and what lies ahead.

Clint Bowyer, who is 26^th in the points standings, and Greg Biffle, ranked 24^th, were the guests in separate conversations at Kansas Speedway last week.

Biffle, who is four races away from his 500^th consecutive start in the Sprint Cup Series, has taken a leadership role at Roush Fenway Racing, his home since 1998. But while he has been able to help with pit stops, Biffle said there are limits to how much he can help the team improve.

“There are a lot of things I want to change and do different, but it’s tough for the driver to go in and change a bunch of things inside a company and people and realign this and that,” he said. “I’ve been able to make some influences, but I haven’t been able to do all the things I wish I could. I’m not up there on the (management) list and not the competition director. I can only kick and scream so much and push and make an influence where I can.”

Biffle, who missed the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the second consecutive season, said it’s difficult to watch longtime teammates Carl Edwards andMatt Kenseth excel after joining Joe Gibbs Racing over the last three seasons but said, “I’m the type of person who wants to work hard and bring the whole organization with me to be able to compete at the level you need to (perform.)

“There’s nothing more frustrating than knowing you have the ability but don’t have the equipment,” Biffle said. “That’s been tough the last two to three years. You’ll see guys who moved on and won races and championships that I was doing better than when they were racing with me.”

Though Bowyer’s performance marginally has improved with new crew chief Jay Guy in his one-year stint at HScott Motorsports – his 26^th at Kansas snapped a six-race streak of top-25 finishes – he is looking forward to taking over the No. 14 from Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing next season.

“There’s a lot of things, talk and excitement, for next year,” said Bowyer, who recently began receiving merchandise approvals for 2017. “You’re already starting to think about those things. You have to; everybody in the garage area is. Whether I was going somewhere else or staying where I’m at, you’re already working toward next year.

“That always gets your wheels cranked up again because you’re thinking, ‘All right, man, we did this wrong. We can do that better next year.’ There’s always those things in the back of your mind, so I can’t wait.”

You can listen to the podcast by clicking on the AudioBoom embed below or download and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes by clicking here. The free subscription will provide automatic downloads of new episodes to your smartphone. It also is available on Stitcher by clicking here and also can be found on Google Play, Spotify and a host of other smartphone apps.

NASCAR America: Dale Jr: Alex Bowman battled through adversity

Alex Bowman was sick last weekend yet still managed to finish in the top 10 at Kansas for a career-best finish. Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared what he thought about Bowman’s gutsy performance in his podcast. Jeff Burton, Kyle Petty and Parker Kligerman discuss Bowman’s career trajectory and what he can expect passed 2016.

Kurt Busch hopes to be the first and last ‘Sprint’ Cup champion

There are only five races left in the ‘Sprint’ era of NASCAR.

The cell phone company departs as the title sponsor of the Cup Series following the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 20. Clinching this particular title would have a little more meaning for Kurt Busch.

Busch, at 25 and in his fourth year in the series, kicked off Sprint’s 12-year relationship with NASCAR in 2004 when he won the inaugural title, then the Nextel Cup. A corporate merger made it the Sprint Cup in 2008.

Kurt Busch in New York City in December 2004 prior to the Nextel Cup Awards.

“That would be fun to be able to bookend the championship run with Sprint sponsorship of our series,” Busch said Tuesday during a test at Homestead-Miami Speedway  “It’s been an amazing run for them, a brand builder for both NASCAR and a cell phone company. When you’re the first champion with a new sponsor it came with some fun responsibilities and good promotions.”

Busch won the 2004 title, the first of the “Chase” era, while driving for Roush Fenway Racing.

“It’s neat to see what (Sprint) benefited from and here we are now, it’s at the end,” Busch said. “2004 was a long time ago. It’s time to upgrade the championship trophy to a 2016 one.”

If Busch can survive in the standings until the finale, he’ll have the chance to score the third Cup title for Stewart-Haas Racing – where he has been since 2014. Heading into the Alabama 500 at Talladega, Busch is sixth on the Chase grid, 17 points up on the bubble.

“Last year we came out of Kansas with a top-(six) finish and had 13 points as our cushion,” Busch said. “This year we have a 17-point cushion after we finished 13th (at Kansas). It’s a numbers game, and we feel comfortable where we sit.”

But the fates of Busch and nine other drivers hinge on their result at Talladega, the 2.66-mile track notorious for wrecks that threaten to eliminate half the field.

“All we have to do at Talladega is finish 16th or better, no matter what anybody else does,” said Busch of his best possible clinch scenario outside a win. “It’s the same as having sixth or better or 36th or better because you never know when you’ll get caught up in the big wreck and end up 36th or worse.”

In his 17 years competing in the Sprint Cup Series, Busch has never won a points paying restrictor-plate race. He’s finished third five times at Talladega but hasn’t earned a top five there since 2007.

His average finish at Talladega through 31 starts? Just on target at 16.3.

“It’s nice to have points in our pockets,” said Busch. “That’s the best feeling.”

Radioactive:Kansas -"Get our [expletive] head out of our [expletive]."NASCAR RACE HUB

Check out all the best scanner audio from the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway

Sprint Cup car owner Tommy Baldwin ‘exploring all my opportunities’ for team’s future

Unsure about his organization’s future, team owner Tommy Baldwin met with his employees Monday “so I can give them the options if they needed to go find a job.’’

Baldwin told NBC Sports in an exclusive interview Tuesday that “I’m exploring all my opportunities right now. I’m trying to figure everything out.’’

He hopes to have his plans solidified by some point in December. Among the options, there is one thing Baldwin said he won’t do.

“I would never shut down,’’ said Baldwin, whose team debuted in the Cup series in 2009. “Don’t use that word. The options are keep going or sell. That’s the only two options we have.’’

Baldwin admits he’s given his employees a similar message “in six out of the eight years” of the team and always made it to the next season.

But Baldwin concedes that it is becoming more difficult for a small team like Tommy Baldwin Racing.

Although Tommy Baldwin Racing has competed in NASCAR’s top series since 2009, car owner Tommy Baldwin told NBC Sports that it is become more challenging to be competitive.

“The technology has just increased,’’ Baldwin said. “Everyone has just become smarter. The race teams, with Michael Waltrip Racing shutting down (after the 2015 season) and some other things, it put a lot good people, dispersed a lot of good people to different teams. Everyone had to spend a lot more money to keep up with the Gibbs and Hendrick programs.

“It’s funny to me how everyone thinks our racing is not good. This is the most competitive that NASCAR has ever been.’’

Baldwin admits it has been a struggle at times for the team and driver Regan Smith.

“I think we’ve been competitive at times,’’ Baldwin said. “I think we’ve been really bad at times. It’s been a competitive roller coaster. This year is probably one of the best race teams that we’ve assembled, it’s been a great group of guys that have worked for TBR. There’s a lot of pluses that we have going on, but again, it’s the almighty dollar that is talking.

“If you don’t have the money to keep up with the Joneses, you’re going to be left behind. If you told me eight years ago when I first started this team I would be pretty much in the same spot as when I started, I would have told you that you were crazy. This sport has taken off so much here as far as how smart we’ve all gotten. It’s not that we don’t know how to do it, it’s just that we don’t have the money to apply the proper resources to do it.’’

Baldwin has one of the 36 charters granted to Sprint Cup teams at the beginning of this season. That adds value to his organization, ensuring that his team — or whoever purchases the charter, if that happens — would be in every Cup points race.

Baldwin’s car is 32nd in the car owner point standings, ahead of five other teams that have charters (another team below Baldwin’s leased its charter for this season).

Smith is 33rd in the driver standings. He finished a season-best third at Pocono in August. His only other top-10 finish this year has been an eighth-place result in the Daytona 500.

Tommy Baldwin Racing debuted in 2009, competing in 25 races. The team had five drivers: Michael McDowell (eight races),Scott Riggs (eight), Patrick Carpentier(four), Mike Skinner (four) and Robert Richardson (one).

The organization continued to use a variety of drivers in 2010 before Dave Blaney ran 34 races in 2011. Blaney was with the team through 2013.

Tommy Baldwin Racing expanded to two full-time cars in 2012. Danica Patrick, in partnership with Stewart-Haas Racing, ran 10 races where Baldwin was listed as the car owner. Tommy Baldwin Racing ran two cars through 2014 before selling the assets of the second car (the No. 36 team) to Premium Motorsports.

Before becoming a team owner, Baldwin was a crew chief. He won five Cup races as a crew chief, including the 2001 Southern 500 and 2002 Daytona 500 withWard Burton.

Kevin Harvick crashed the Toyota party at Kansas

When you looked at qualifying and the practice sessions at Kansas Speedway this weekend, I felt like the Hollywood Casino 400 was certainly going to be a Toyota day. Toyotas swept the first two rows in qualifying and Matt Kenseth was fastest in Happy Hour.

Early on, Kenseth made it look like that was going to be the case. He led 116 laps, but close to the halfway point, he got against the wall and the handling changed on his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. And that pretty much took him out of contention to win the race.

Again, how many times this year have we talked about it: Chase Elliott, drives up there, takes the lead and just — he just can’t have any luck, that’s all you can say. He and his teammate Kasey Kahne had the same problem with tire rubs at the back of the car that made me go, “Hmmm?”

I knew watching practice on Saturday that Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet maybe didn’t have that short-run speed, but he definitely had long-run speed and that showed up yesterday.

And as much as we think that once you get them in a hole, they’re not going to get out, they continue to prove, yes they will get out. It’s almost like this situation that they were in motivates them. We’ve seen it for 2 ½ years now. Nobody probably does it better than they do.

The last seven races at Kansas, Harvick has been with two different organizations, and had to race with rules packages all over the place, and yet still, he’s finished first or second five times in those seven races. Harvick told me he’s figured something out there, but he wouldn’t expand on it, and I think the numbers support it.

After his victory, then you look at how the Chase is formatted and how the Round of 12 is playing out.

The top six finishers were all Chase drivers. Austin Dillon raced his guts out and he finished sixth and basically gained three points. He’s still on the outside of the Chase bubble looking in.

Joey Logano finished third and gained six points, but he’s still just barely above the cut line. So that, to me, is what makes this whole format interesting.

But I will say this in closing: For a track to have a repave not too long ago, that place is racing nice and it has a groove from the top to the bottom. So I commend the job that was done on that race track.

Normally, when a mile-and-a-half track gets repaved, you dread the racing for five, six or seven years, knowing you’re going to have one, maybe, two grooves. But at Kansas Speedway, they’re running from the top to the bottom of that race track. And that’s a good thing.

The battle of the Chase bubble:Logano in for now,Dillon just outside

After finishing sixth Sunday at Kansas,Austin Dillon feels confident that he can finish well enough at Talladega Superspeedway next weekend and advance to the Round of 8 in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

“I’m just proud of my guys, we did a good job,” Dillon told NBC after the race. “The last four-tire call was really good. I really wanted a top-five there, that was our goal or a win, and just missed it by one.

“We have a shot to make it to the next round at Talladega, and that’s all you can ask for. … We’re just going to have some fun at Talladega and see if we can make it to the next round.”

But Dillon will have to worry not only about how well he finishes at Talladega, he’ll also have to worry about how Joey Logano does.

MORE: Race results

MORE: Point standings

Logano and Dillon enter the final elimination race of the Round of 12 tied, 37 points behind points leader Jimmie Johnson. Logano is scored in eighth place in the standings after Kansas, while Dillon is scored ninth. The tiebreaker is best finish in the round. Logano finished third at Kansas to hold the tiebreaker on Dillon for now.

“We did what we had to do today, went and were flawless on execution, just need to be a little faster to win,” Logano told NBC. “It was a good recovery (from last week’s wreck at Charlotte), but I wouldn’t say it’s a full recovery yet. We’re going to be needed the race pretty hard at Talladega and try to get a few more points there.”

Logano said Talladega is “not a must win, either. We’re in (a transfer spot) right now, but it’s obviously a little bit too close for comfort. We have to push harder next week.”