For Greg Biffle, Jack Roush and Ford, Timing is Everything

As far as happy endings go, it would be hard to top Jack Roush's week.

First, the 68-year old NASCAR team owner on Tuesday survived his second plane crash in the last seven years, and then his Sprint Cup Series team -- which had mustered only a single victory since February 2009 -- claimed its first win of 2010 on Sunday.

It's surely a pick-me-up for Roush, who remains hospitalized in the Mayo Clinic with facial injuries sustained when the jet plane he was piloting crashed on landing in Wisconsin.

But beyond the sentimental timing, Greg Biffle's win at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania is pragmatic, a sign that perhaps his Roush Fenway Racing team and the once-mighty Ford Motor Company have started to turn things around with five races remaining before NASCAR's 10-race Chase for the Championship playoff run begins.

"When it got to be five (laps) to go, I started thinking. ... this race was meant to be,'' said Biffle, who drives the No. 16 3M Ford. "I started thinking, it's for Jack.

"And then, spending all that time I've spent with the Ford people, how desperate they are to prove they've got a good product -- they've got great cars and trucks -- but they want to prove it on the racetrack. They want to win.

"I just thought this is going to be a great day if I can complete this thing.''

The timing was right on so many levels.

The victory couldn't have come soon enough for Roush, Biffle or Ford, NASCAR's 15-time manufacturer's champion, which is currently ranked third in the championship standings, well behind Chevrolet and Toyota. In fact, Ford has accumulated a mere 12 more points than Dodge -- which typically only fields four cars each week, compared to 12 for Ford.

And the statistics don't get much better for Ford, which ranks last in laps led (623) this year while series leader Chevy has 3,179 laps out front -- more than five times that of Ford. Toyota (1,493 laps led) has led more than twice as many laps.

Even in victory, Biffle led only 28 laps, compared to Chevy drivers Jimmie Johnson (a race-best 96 laps) and Jeff Gordon (39).

In three races this season, Ford drivers failed to lead a single lap. Jamie McMurray's win in October at Talladega, Ala. was the last time Ford or Roush Fenway Racing had been to victory lane. And Ford hasn't won a manufacturer's title since 2002.

And this is where "The Biff" comes in.

Biffle, who snapped his own 64-race winless streak dating to Sept. 21, 2008, appears to be the Ford driver finally stepping up to the plate. His win comes a week after a near-miss at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he finished third after opting for four tires on a final pit stop while race winner McMurray and runner-up Kevin Harvick took only two.

Biffle and his team learned the Brickyard lesson well, as it was a two-tire stop at Pocono, when most others took four, that allowed him to jump to the front of the field and gave him the key to victory.

Ford has only eight top-three finishes this year, but Biffle's win was its fourth consecutive, leaving the 2005 championship runner-up encouraged at what he considers a legitimate turn-around.

Ford's new FR9 engine and Roush Fenway's tenacious experimentation seem to be paying off at last.

Roush, 68, promised as much during the preseason. The no-nonsense owner repeatedly accepted blame for an unacceptable 2009 season and has been candid about his frustration in what looked like another year of underachievement.

"We've been to the race track with two dozen (front suspension packages) in the last two years trying to figure out, 'Why are these guys beating our ass so bad?''' Biffle explained.

"I think as a team we're on the right track.''

And yet for all the well-documented struggles, Ford and its flagship Roush Fenway team can take solace in the fact that it still has three drivers in position to qualify for the 12-driver Chase field. Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Biffle are ninth through 11th, respectively. Kasey Kahne, who drives a Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports, is 16th, 172 points out of the top-12.

As it stands now, with 10 bonus points awarded for a win, Biffle would start the Chase ranked sixth when the points are re-set following the Sept. 11 race at Richmond, Va.

Biffle spoke with Roush in victory lane and relayed the emotional call.

"He's excited,'' Biffle said. "He told me that he had never met somebody that had the will to win like I do.''

It was the perfect antidote, not just for the ailing Roush, but for Biffle, the whole Roush Fenway organization and Ford.

"Just picture yourself working 60, 70, a hundred hours a week, 40 or 50 weeks out of the year and coming up short, watching these guys kick your butt every week, basking in the glory,'' Biffle's crew chief Greg Erwin explained Sunday
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"Being able to walk in front of our guys at six o'clock every Monday morning and, look em' in the eye and tell 'em, 'We'll get them next week.' That's what you've got to do.

"It's going to be a lot easier tomorrow morning to stand in front of them, I can tell you that.

"Big momentum boost. Perfect time of the season.''