by Ryan McGee

Updated: February 9, 2007, 2:16 AM EST

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TOP 20 DRIVER COUNTDOWN 19. Juan Pablo Montoya 18. Scott Riggs 17. Bobby Labonte 16. Casey Mears 14. Dale Jarrett 13. Greg Biffle 11. Kyle Busch 10. Jeff Burton 9. Kurt Busch/Ryan Newman 6. Carl Edwards 5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 4. Jeff Gordon Sign up now and create your free fantasy team and league. Watch the Daytona 500 on FOX, February 18 at 2 p.m. ET. More NASCAR

2006 Rewind

2 wins, 0 poles, 8 top fives, 15 top tens, 13th in points

Watching Greg Biffle's first nine races was like watching Greg Norman during the final nine holes of a major golf tournament. You knew he had the skill, you knew he had the equipment, and you knew he was in position to win...yet something always happened to keep him from closing the deal.

One week it was a wreck, the next it was an engine. No matter what the cause, it was painful to watch. Over those nine weeks, his average starting position was sixth and he led 555 laps. His average finish? 26th.

"By the time we got to May we were already 23rd in points with a lot of really good cars between us and the top 10," says the man who had finished 2005 second in points behind Tony Stewart. "We knew we could still make it up into the Chase, but we also knew that we had made it way too difficult than it should have been."

A remarkable summer run of top 10s boosted the No. 16 Ford to as high as ninth, but another run of bad luck left the preseason title favorite on the outside looking in.

Why He Will Finish 13th

Over its first three seasons, the Chase has produced a sort of slingshot effect. Teams that fall out of title contention take advantage by getting an early jump on preparations for the next season and the results are undeniable. Just ask Biffle.

"There's no question that missing the Chase in 2004 (he finished 17th) set up the fast start we experienced in 2005 (five wins over the first 15 weeks)," Biffle said. "And just like '04, when it was obvious that we weren't going to make it last year, Doug made the decision to start aggressively preparing for this year. Now we have to see if that works out like it did before."

Problem is, Doug is gone. Crew chief Doug Richert, who was unhappy with team owner Jack Roush's decision to move him off the No. 16 team, bolted for Team Red Bull, which means that Biffle will spend the first part of '07 getting acquainted with vet Pat Tryson, Mark Martin's former pit boss. The good news is that with Tryson comes Martin's former shop, cars, and support staff. Let's hope they hung onto Martin's penchant for winning races, but not his uncanny ability to nearly miss winning championships.

The All-Telling, All-Knowing Stat: 993

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Biffle's 993 laps led stood third among all drivers last season, trailing Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth. How does one lead that much and not make the Chase? His 9,851 laps completed ranked 30th. In other words, he finished a collective 749 laps down to the leaders. Yikes.

Fantasy Lock: 1.5-mile "Cookie Cutters"

Biff is a lock at the tracks that make up the vast majority of the Nextel Cup schedule, the 1.5 to 2-mile "quadovals" that have sprung up all over the nation over the last decade. Ten of his 11 career Cup wins have come on intermediate tracks, led by Homestead-Miami, where he's won three straight.