LOUDON, N.H. – Greg Biffle entered the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup as and underdog, the smallest horse in the paddock that the big-time bettors dismissed on sight.

Really, who could blame them?

Ford hadn’t won a Cup race with a driver other than Carl Edwards this season, and Biffle himself hadn’t won in nearly a year. Biffle had the fewest top-10 finishes this season of any of the 12 drivers eligible for the championship. The best thing the NASCAR statistical machine could churn out about Biffle in comparison to his other Chasers was that he ranked sixth in the almost fictional category of "Fastest Laps Run."

But Greg Biffle loved his little horse and its Chase chances just the same.

"The horse rode today, didn’t it?" Biffle said after winning the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, jumping from ninth to third in the Sprint Cup standings, behind Jimmie Johnson and Roush Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards, the drivers who finished directly behind him on the track Sunday.

"I felt like we were a definite threat for the Chase if we made it, because of the momentum we’ve had and how good the race tracks that are in the Chase are for me. I feel like we’re definitely the dark horse, like a couple of people said we were."

And the horse got some help from the jockey, too.

Biffle fought both overheating brakes and the risk of running short of fuel to win, passing Johnson with 11 laps to go to deny the 2-time defending Cup champion his third straight win.

He took the lead for the first time just past the midway point of the event, following a round of green flag pit stops. He came in for his final stop of the day on lap 215, surrendering the lead to do so along with the rest of the lead-lap cars.

Crew chief Greg Erwin was asked just how much Biffle had done to conserve gas following his final pit stop on lap 215.

"Probably only Greg Biffle knows that," Erwin said, "and I’d say quite a bit."

Biffle restarted third after that last stop, and it appeared Johnson was going to drive away to the win. But Biffle said he only held back enough to keep Johnson in sight before taking advantage of the race’s final restart on lap 288. A lap later, Biffle drove past Johnson on the backstretch.

"On long runs, we had been very, very strong all day," Johnson said. "The short runs is what hurt me the most... I felt a little vulnerable (on the last restart) and sure enough he got by. I was inching back up to him, but I just didn’t have enough laps at the end there."

Biffle wasn’t the only Roush Fenway driver celebrating after the checkered flag. Edwards was thrilled when rain saved him from having to qualify, and he was even more exuberant following the race.

"Man, I feel like we won that thing just because of how terrible we were in practice, and to finish this well and be tied with Jimmie there in the points, that’s a huge day for us," Edwards said. "It was really cool that Greg got the win... That was wild. (Biffle and Johnson) were fighting hard, so it was a good day for us."

Jack Roush, Biffle’s car owner, said he feels the No. 16 team is ready to win a championship – especially after doing so in both the Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series, as well as narrowly missing out on the 2005 Cup Series title.

"I wouldn’t say we’re in the driver’s seat, but certainly we’re competitive," Roush said. "I think that Greg would say that we had a pit situation that really let him down, and that was the difference on the Cup (title) that we missed. So we’re determined not to do that.

"We think we’ve peaked, and we’re certainly going to be able to make a run at it with two, if not three, of our cars."

"I think sometimes you often wonder why things happen or go wrong when they do, but I think a lot of times you create your own luck," Biffle said. "It’s not bad luck if you just didn’t do it right. When I spun out and got up in the fence at Richmond last week, it wasn’t bad luck – that was an error on my part.

"You can say you’ve been jinxed sometime, but I feel better than I ever have about running these next nine races."

Posted at 8:35 p.m. by TBarrett