WATKINS GLEN — After waiting 24 hours to do their thing, three Western New York natives helped driver Greg Biffle have a “heluva” day at Watkins Glen International.

Western New Yorkers Rodney Fetters, Ryan Gamble and Glenn Waldron are members of Roush-Fenway Racing’s No. 16 Ford team, which got a crucial fifth-place finish on Monday in the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen.

NASCAR crew veteran Fetters of Niagara Falls is the jack man, Sanborn resident Gamble is the second gas man and Colden’s Glen Waldron is the surface plate specialist for the team. Waldron also passes tires over the wall on pit stops.

“It came together great for us today,” said Fetters. “We stuck with our two pit stop strategy like we were supposed to, and it worked. We had great pit stops. It’s not a win but it feels like it when you’re on a road course. To get a top five here at my home track and get further up in The Chase standings is what we want.”

Biffle came to the Glen—the fifth-to-last race before the Sprint Cup’s 10-race postseason chase begins — in the 12th and last qualifying spot in the points standings. Biffle’s best-ever finish at the Glen moved him into 10th place. Biffle’s average result in his previous Cup races at the Glen was a dismal 28.7 and his best finish was 10th.

Biffle is two points ahead of Mark Martin, 33 points ahead of Matt Kenseth and 91 points ahead of 13th-place Kyle Busch.

The team pitted Monday on laps 19 and 56 of the 90-lap race and then prayed that they had enough fuel to go the distance. Gamble is responsible for much of what goes into the fuel mileage calculations for the team.

During the final laps, Gamble’s heart was fluttering as the low fuel pressure light started to blink, but Biffle made it to the checkered flag.

“The gas cans weigh 85 pounds each when full,” said Gamble. “My role is to get the first and second gas cans to the gas man while he is over the wall so he doesn’t have to carry them around so long and wear himself out. Then I’m responsible for weighing them and giving the information to the gas man so he can pass it up to the crew chief. My numbers better be right or it could be disaster.

“It was great to finish like that. . . . We were right there to the last drop.”

Nothing matters if the car is not prepared properly. Waldron and his fellow mechanics gave Biffle a strong car.

“This is almost like a victory for me,” said Waldron. “We should have been a little bit better but road courses aren’t certainly one of our better deals, but we’re working on it hard. I’ll take this good points day.”

Waldron was here all weekend working on the car, primarily in the garage. Fetters arrived Saturday and Gamble came in on Sunday morning.

Fetters, Waldron and Gamble are part of one of the Sprint Cup’s top over-the-wall pit teams. The squad came to The Glen leading the Tissot Pit Road Precision Award standings; the team has won the award four times at races this season, one better then Jeff Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports team.

For Monday’s 90-lap grind, the pit stop team had a banner day at the office. Under very hot and humid conditions, Biffle arrived for his first stop of the day during a caution period while running eighth.

With Fetters whirling the jack around the car, Gamble hoisting the gas cans and Waldron collecting the tires, the team ripped off a lighting fast 13.8-second stop and sent Biffle back out fifth.

“That first stop is about as good as it gets at Watkins Glen,” said Fetters moments later. “We got Greg three spots.”

Gamble was equally ecstatic. “I [said Sunday] that we were going to better the 14 seconds. We just do our job and get positions on the track.”

The team was a bit slower on their second stop when Biffle pitted under green on lap 56, but still cranked out a 14.2 effort. Biffle came for the stop in fourth and reentered the fray in eighth as not all the leaders came in to the pits.

“The stop was two-tenths of a second slower then where we want to be, but two-tenths is one lug nut,” explained Fetters.

After the race Biffle was very happy with his team’s work.

“We had a really good day,” said Biffle. “The guys did a great job on pit road. We had a great pit strategy. Our engine ran good, our transmission shifted really good and our brakes held on.”

The team's weekend saga began early Sunday morning.

At 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Waldron was already busy in the garage working on the car while

Fetters was out on pit road helping set up the pit stall. Gamble was still en route to the

track from his Charlotte-area home.

"I go over my checklist - each mechanic has a list for a particular part of the car they go

over," Waldron, 47, explained Sunday morning. "I help make any last minute changes the crew

chief wants. Then we'll go through tech [technical inspection].

"If all goes well, once the car goes to the stating grid, I won't see it again until it's

time to load it up to go home. If I have to touch the car back in the garage area during the

race, it means we're having a bad day."

For many years, Waldron was helping local drivers at Holland NASCAR Motorsports Complex and

Dunn Tire Raceway Park in Lancaster. He won championships crewing for such drivers such as

brothers Vern and Mark Bliss and Larry Havens.

While Gamble was still in the air Sunday, Fetters was busy preparing to go on the air.

Fetters was on Sirius XM Satellite Radio at 9, doing his regular show with host Pat Patterson

called "Road Warriors."

"It's a segment I do on the front stretch on Saturday and Sunday mornings," said Fetters.

"It's something fun when Pat and I get to sit down and talk on the air for 20 minutes."

Gamble flew from Charlotte/Douglas International Airport to Elmira/Corning.

"I got up at around 4 a.m. and left the house at 5," said Gamble a former area Micro-Sprint

racer who has been in NASCAR four years. "It was pretty darn early. ... We landed at 8 and

took the bus. Here I am."

At 10:45 a.m. back in the garage, Waldron and his fellow mechanics fired the car for the

first time Sunday morning and as the large power plant rumbled, the engine timing and other

related adjustments were made.

This was the last time the engine was fired until race time. Within a half hour after the

team made it's adjustments the car was pushed to the inspection line and subsequently out to

the starting grid about noon.

Shortly after 1 p.m. Sunday, the team members assembled for the prerace meeting before making

their departure for pit road at 1:30.

"In the meeting we talk about the things we want to do today and also talk about those

things we don't want to do," said Fetters. "If our pit crew does it's job today we can do a 14

second pit stop. That's the goal."

At 2, the crew members lined up in their pit box for the playing of the anthems and upon

it's conclusion gave each other the high-five's for motivation.

The large flat screen satellite television that is mounted on the back of the large pit

wagon was turned on so the team could watch the race as the cars were set to scream around the

2.45-mile road circuit.

To that point Sunday afternoon, the battle plan had gone exactly as planned - but it all

changed seconds before the command to start engines. The feared thunderstorm hit, sending the

crew scurrying to cover the equipment and then seek shelter for themselves.

For the team, it was hurry up only to wait - all the way to Monday. Once Sunday's race was

rained out, the team packed up and fled to their hotel rooms for an extra night on the road.

The pit equipment remained covered and sat on pit road all night.

When the garage opened at 9:30 a.m. Monday, the local trio was ready to get back to it. Much of

Sunday's routine was repeated on Monday morning but in a much more compressed time frame

because Monday's green flag flew at noon.

With this year's event at The Glen finally in the books, the trio left their

native New York to head back to their homes in the stock-car racing mecca of Charlotte. They will find their way to next week's race at Michigan, where more work will need to be done.

The only regret on the day expressed by Waldron concerned his late mother Carol.

"My mother came to the tracks back home when I was involved with those local teams," he

said. "But she never got to come to a NASCAR Cup race since I've been here and she died two

years ago. I which she was still here to see this."

Gamble will next return to Western New York on Nov. 28 when he marries Kristen Tase of

Lockport. Fetters hopes to visit family around Christmas time.

For now, the Chase For the Cup is the matter at hand.