Biffle keeps NASCAR hopes alive

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - NASCAR's championship race tightened considerably Sunday at Kansas Speedway, where Greg Biffle won to keep his title hopes alive and Jimmie Johnson returned to the top of the Sprint Cup leader board.

Johnson, the four-time defending series champion, took a mediocre car and drove it to a second-place finish behind Biffle. It pushed him past Denny Hamlin in the standings, and he has an eight-point cushion after the third of 10 Chase for the Sprint Cup championship races.

Only once since the Chase began in 2004 has the eventual champion left Kansas ranked lower than second in the standings. But this is suddenly the closest battle in Chase history, as the top seven finishers Sunday were title contenders.

The field now heads next week to California with the top nine drivers separated by 101 points.

That includes Biffle, who opened the day ranked ninth, 140 points behind the leader. His second win of the season cut the mark nearly in half; he moved up one spot to eighth and is just 85 points behind the leader.

Kyle Busch had the worst race of all Chase drivers because of a long-running feud with non-title contender David Reutimann.

Contact between the two early in the race caused Reutimann to spin, and he came back and appeared to intentionally wreck Busch with 112 laps remaining. Busch was running seventh at the time of the accident, and he dropped back to 22d before finishing 21st.

Busch was furious over his radio, demanding NASCAR take action against Reutimann. Crew chief Dave Rogers then heightened the drama by telling Busch that Reutimann's team had demanded he retaliate against Busch.

Busch took time after the race to change out of his firesuit before speaking to reporters, and he was much calmer about the incident.