But there were too many other races where Biffle was no factor — mechanical issues or not — to be labeled a serious contender yet. The next few weeks will clarify the picture more.

For me, the race seemed to encapsulate what we expected from Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson.

Busch’s own mechanical difficulties, a broken sway bar early on, doomed him to a 34th-place finish. He was 12 laps off the lead and plummeted in the standings.

Johnson had a stout car, but gave up the lead to Biffle in the closing laps. He finished second.

That frames what has always been the key question surrounding a Busch-Johnson duel (and forgetting about Carl Edwards for a moment): Will Busch make a mistake? And how will Johnson capitalize on it?

Busch can’t be faulted the sway bar problem. He can be faulted for incurring the one-lap penalty at the competition problem; but if the car was so undriveable, what difference did one lap really make? Even if the race had played out the same way and Busch didn’t get the penalty, he still would have finished 34th.

Without a thorough knowledge of how the cars are put together, it’s impossible to tell if a crew member slipped up or if it was just awful luck.

Either way, these are problems that don’t seem to befall Johnson or his crew. We can make a pretty safe guess that, on the track, Johnson won’t make a mistake. We can guess that Busch, based on his aggressive style, has a better chance of making a mistake.

But in the end, what matters is what actually happened. Busch, for the first time in 2008, has a hole to climb out of.

There’s no question he can make up the ground. He can win at any track; and he has won at many tracks this season.

The problem for Busch now is that he must catch up while Johnson has the advantage. Johnson, most likely, can afford to cruise ahead and not have the same concerns that Busch would have.

And that, not Biffle’s win, is the biggest story going forward.

(Photo by Gil Talbot/Associated Press)