BROOKLYN, Mich. - Five wins in 15 races is a pretty good start to the season. Greg Biffle wants more.

"Believe it or not, we've had some lows this season," Biffle said Sunday after using late-race strategy to win the Batman Begins 400 at Michigan International Speedway. "I mean, we've won five races, but also, at the same time, we had a radiator bar through the grill at Phoenix and then, last week (at Pocono), we lost the brakes when I thought we could have won the race.

"I just hope we can eliminate some of those mistakes that we've made," he added. "We've only made a couple, but we've got to try to close in some more in the points."

If his Roush Racing No. 16 team does stop making mistakes, he could turn the entire season into a runaway.

Heading into next Sunday's road race in Sonoma, Calif., Biffle is second in the standings. With leader Jimmie Johnson struggling to a 19th-place finish Sunday, Biffle cut the deficit from 123 points to just 49.

He did it by outdueling and outfoxing runner-up Tony Stewart, staying on track with slightly worn tires and turning that decision into his eighth career victory.

The powerful Roush team, winner of the last two season championships, got its eighth victory of the season. It was another strong showing for the entire team, with three of Biffle's four teammates finishing in the top five and the fifth driver, defending series champ Kurt Busch, fading to 12th after running in the top 10 through most of the 200-lap event on the 2-mile, high-banked oval.

Stewart led a race-high 97 laps, but lost a strategy battle at the end.

Biffle, who led 63 laps, was running second to Stewart when he decided to stay on the track during a late caution as the front-runner and several other lead-lap cars pitted for fresh tires with 31 laps to go. Biffle and the rest of the leaders had pitted about a dozen laps earlier.

"It was my decision," Biffle said. "I wanted to lead and there was no doubt in my mind that we had a fast enough car to beat those guys. It's just so hard to pass here. And I was hoping enough of those guys would stay out with us that Tony would have to burn up his tires trying to get back to us.

"If everybody behind us had gone in, we could have been a sitting duck. But we had four or five of those guys stay out there with us."

The drivers who did stay out were Roush teammates Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Busch, as well as Elliott Sadler.

Playing into Biffle's hands, Joe Nemechek and Michael Waltrip also beat Stewart back onto the track, leaving him eighth for the restart on lap 174.

Stewart, trying for his first win since last August at Watkins Glen, got all the way to third by lap 178, but it took him until lap 198 to get past Kenseth, the 2003 series champion.

"I never would have imagined that we wouldn't have got to the front with 12-laps-fresher tires," Stewart said.

"They may have got us at the end, but we held our own today," he added. "We had fresher tires at the end but, for some reason, they didn't take off the way they had all day. I probably overdrove the car to try to get to the lead again."

Mark Martin, another Roush driver, finished third, followed by Kenseth and Edwards, Nemechek, Waltrip, Sadler and rookie Kyle Busch.

Martin, running his final season in the Cup series, said Roush's domination this year is no fluke.

"It's only my opinion," Martin said, "but Roush Racing has the hottest drivers in racing. We have great engines, great drivers and great crew chiefs. We've been working real hard for a long time and it's showing now."

Biffle, who also won the season-ending race last year at Homestead, Fla., flew back to Michigan late Saturday night after crashing and finishing 30th in a Busch Series race in Kentucky. He said he was in some pain Sunday from a sore foot, a cut wrist and an aching head.

"But winning cures everything," Biffle said, grinning.

Edwards, who won last week at Pocono, also won Saturday night in Kentucky.

Ryan Newman, who set a track qualifying record in winning the pole, lost the lead on the first lap to Casey Mears on Sunday and never got back in front, finishing 15th.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. continued to struggle. He started near the back of the 43-car field and worked his way up, but had to regain a lost lap late in the race and wound up 17th. It was the fifth straight race the fan favorite has been outside the top 10.

It was also rough day for the Hendrick Motorsports team, which has five wins this season.

Johnson was never in contention and teammate Jeff Gordon, a four-time series champion, continued his recent struggles, finishing 32nd, three laps behind Biffle, and falling all the way to 12th in the standings, 406 points behind Johnson.

Only the top 10 and any other drivers within 400 points of the leader after the 26th race of the season will be eligible to race for the Cup championship over the final 10 events.

While Kyle Busch did manage a top 10 finish for the team, the fourth Hendrick entry, Brian Vickers was knocked out early. Vickers, coming off a second-place run last week at Pocono, brought out the first of four caution flags when a deflating tire sent his car careening into the water barrels at the entrance to pit lane.