Surprising Biffle wins Daytona pole\nDAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Greg Biffle is full of surprises at Daytona.\nAfter winning the Pepsi 400 here in July -- the only rookie in NASCAR's top stock car series to win a race in 2003 -- the former Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series champion grabbed the pole Sunday for the Daytona 500.\nAsked what it is that brings out his best at Daytona International Speedway, Biffle credited established Nextel Cup stars and former Daytona 500 winners Michael Waltrip and Dale Jarrett, as well as Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Bobby Labonte for showing him how it's done.\n"I've just learned a lot from all those guys and tried to apply it," said Biffle, who won his first pole in 43 Cup events. "But anybody will tell you, the driver means nothing here. It's the team."\nBiffle's fast lap of 188.387 mph was just good enough to relegate Elliott Sadler's 188.355 to the outside of the front row in next Sunday's Nextel Cup season-opener. The time difference between the two fast laps was just 0.008 seconds.\nA strong headwind on the backstretch of the famed 2 1/2-mile oval -- with gusts to 20 mph -- played havoc with just about everybody's expectations in qualifying.\nEarnhardt, the favorite in every event he enters at Daytona these days, missed the front row with his lap of 188.210 and will determine his starting spot in next Sunday's 43-car field by racing in one of Thursday's twin 125-mile qualifying events.\n"We just weren't fast enough," said Earnhardt, who finished second to Jarrett in Saturday night's made-for-TV Budweiser Shootout on the same track. "We're going to go out and try to win our 125-miler, like we did last year."
Fighting Irish facing \n'different territory'\nSOUTH BEND -- Notre Dame coach Mike Brey likes to talk about "new territory."\nThree years ago, the new territory was making the NCAA tournament for the first time in 10 years. Two years ago, the new territory the Irish faced was living up to expectations of returning to the NCAA tournament. Last season, the new territory was getting to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1987.\nFollowing a 66-58 loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday, Brey was talking about a "different territory" when asked about Notre Dame's hopes for making the NCAA tournament for a fourth straight year.\nThe Irish (10-9, 4-5 Big East) are anything but a lock. They are tied for eighth place in the Big East with Georgetown, West Virginia and Boston College. \nThe problem for the Irish, who are 0-5 against ranked teams, is that they play four ranked teams in the next five games, including No. 5 Connecticut twice. Worse yet, the Irish could be without their best big man, Torin Francis, when they face the Huskies Monday night.
