Greg Biffle

Greg Biffle

Born (1969-12-23) December 23, 1969
Vancouver, Washington,U.S.
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Weight 170 lb (77 kg)
Achievements 2002 NASCAR Busch Series Champion
2000 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion
2005, 2006 Southern 500 Winner
2015 Sprint Showdown Winner
Awards 2001 NASCAR Busch Series Rookie of the Year
1998 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year
2002 NASCAR Busch Series Most Popular Driver
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career
484 races run over 15 years
Car no., team No. 16 (Roush Fenway Racing)
2015 position 20th
Best finish 2nd (2005)
First race 2002 NAPA Auto Parts 500 (Fontana)
Last race 2016 GEICO 500 (Talladega)
First win 2003 Pepsi 400 (Daytona)
Last win 2013 Quicken Loans 400 (Michigan)
Wins Top tens Poles
19 171 12
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
244 races run over 11 years
Best finish 1st (2002)
First race 1996 AC-Delco 200 (Rockingham)
Last race 2010 TECH-NET Auto Service 300 powered by Carquest (Charlotte)
First win 2001 Pepsi 300 (Nashville)
Last win 2009 Bashas' Supermarkets 200 (Phoenix)
Wins Top tens Poles
20 149 14
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career
81 races run over 5 years
Best finish 1st (2000)
First race 1998 Chevy Trucks Challenge (Orlando)
Last race 2004 Ford 200 (Homestead)
First win 1999 Memphis 200 (Memphis)
Last win 2001 Chevy Silverado 150 (Phoenix)
Wins Top tens Poles
16 54 12
Statistics current as of May 1, 2016.

Gregory Jack "Greg" Biffle (born December 23, 1969) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He currently drives the No. 16 Ford Fusion for Roush Fenway Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. After racing in the NASCAR Winter Heat Series in the mid-90s, he was recommended to Jack Roush by former announcer Benny Parsons. He has won championships in both the Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck Series.

Racing career

Biffle was born in Camas, Washington.[1] He grew up in Camas, Washington and began his racing career driving on short tracks around the Pacific Northwest. He first gained attention as a driver when he raced in the nationally televised Winter Heat Series in the winter of 1995–1996. Biffle dominated the series championship that winter, leading former ESPN announcer and NASCAR champion, Benny Parsons, to recommend the driver to Jack Roush.[2]

Biffle entered the first two races of the 1996 Winston West Series, finishing 30th at Tucson and 4th at Altamont. His debut in one of NASCAR's national divisions came later that year when he ran the final two Busch Series races of the season. Driving a Chevrolet for Dick Bown, he finished 23rd at Rockingham but lost an engine the following race at Homestead and finished 36th.

In 1997, Biffle competed in the now-defunct NASCAR Northwest Series and won the Most Popular Driver Award.[3]

Truck Series

Roush Racing promoted Biffle to a full-time driver in the Craftsman Truck Series in 1998. Despite not winning a race that season, Biffle's four pole positions are the most by a Truck Series rookie to date and they helped him earn an 8th-place finish in the final standings and the Rookie of the Year Award. He followed it up with a stellar 1999 season in which he recorded nine wins, a single-season Truck Series record that still stands as of 2009. He finished second in the final standings, just eight points behind champion Jack Sprague.

In 2000, Biffle won the Truck Series title with another five-win season, beating his Roush teammate Kurt Busch by 230 points. It was Biffle's first championship in one of NASCAR's three major series. It was announced that Biffle would move up to the Busch Series for 2001; however, he ran four more Truck races for Roush that season and won at Phoenix. Biffle's last Truck Series start was in 2004 for another long-time Ford team, Circle Bar Racing, at Homestead.

Busch/Nationwide Series

Biffle joined the Busch Series full-time in 2001 and won the Rookie of the Year Award with five wins a fourth-place finish in the final standings. The following season, he won another four races and earned 20 top-five finishes out of 34 races en route to his first Busch Series title and the second NASCAR national championship of his career.

He ran only part-time in 2003 as Roush moved him up to a full-time ride in the Winston Cup Series for that season, but he returned to contend for the Busch Series championship again in 2004. He placed third in the standings behind Martin Truex, Jr. and Kyle Busch. From 2005 to 2009, Biffle raced part-time for Roush Fenway Racing in the Busch (now Xfinity Series) every year. He won twice in 2009, at Las Vegas and Phoenix, after going winless the previous two seasons. Biffle returned to the Nationwide Series in 2010, driving the #27 Ford for Baker Curb Racing.[4]

Cup Series

2008 Cup racecar

Biffle began his Cup Series career in the 2002 season. He attempted to qualify in a Roush Ford for the 2002 Daytona 500 but failed to make the race. He would make his first Cup debut nine races later at California, a race in which he finished 13th. That was his best finish in seven races that year as he also drove four in a Chevrolet for Andy Petree Racing and two in a Dodge for Petty Enterprises.

Biffle began competing full-time in NASCAR's top division in 2003, with a sponsorship from W. W. Grainger, who had previously sponsored him in the Busch and Truck Series. He earned his first win in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona that season and finished second to Jamie McMurray (who would later join him as a teammate at Roush) for Raybestos Rookie of the Year. Biffle placed 20th in the final points standings.

Biffle made an immediate impact in his sophomore season in 2004, earning the pole in the Daytona 500. However, Biffle was forced to start at the rear due to an engine change. Despite missing NASCAR's first-ever Chase for the NEXTEL Cup, Biffle won twice that season, at Michigan and Homestead en route to a 17th-place finish in the final points standings.

2005 was Biffle's breakout season. He won six races (at California Speedway, Texas, Darlington, Dover and Michigan along with the season finale at Homestead), the most of any driver that year, and qualified for the Chase for the first time in his career, bringing home a second-place finish in the standings, 35 points behind champion Tony Stewart; Biffle tied with his teammate Carl Edwards in points but won the tie-breaker based on race wins).

Biffle regressed in 2006, missing the Chase for the Cup despite winning twice at Darlington Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway (both of which were tracks at which he had also won in the previous season). He finished 13th in the standings, third-best of the drivers not to qualify for the Chase. He also missed the Chase the following year, in a season marred by the #16 team's new primary sponsor Ameriquest Mortgage suffering financial difficulty and having to sell off a number of its race sponsorships. Biffle won only one race in 2007, at Kansas Speedway. As Biffle was doing burnouts on the track, third place Jimmie Johnson accused Biffle of not maintaining speed under a final lap caution but this was denied by NASCAR who said Biffle had pace car speed.

For 2007 Biffle finished 14th in the standings, second-best of the non-Chase drivers as the Chase expanded to a 12-driver format that year.

In June 2008, Biffle signed a year-year contract extension with Roush Fenway Racing.[5] Despite going winless during the 26-race regular season, Biffle made for the Chase for the Sprint Cup that year and won the first two Chase races, at New Hampshire and Dover. In doing so, he became the first driver to win the first two Chase races in a season.

Biffle qualified for the Chase for the second year in a row in 2009 but, for the first time since 2002 (when he ran a limited schedule), failed to record a win. During a test in January 2009 Biffle managed to reach 218 miles per hour (351 km/h) in a test for Roush Fenway Racing as part of evading NASCAR's testing ban. This became the fastest time ever achieved on this track by any competitor (amateur or professional).

In 2010 Biffle qualified for the third year in a row for the Chase despite spotty performance in the regular season. He won twice at Pocono and Kansas. For 2011, Biffle's season improved, thanks in part to the implementation of Ford's new FR9 engine. However, crew chief Greg Erwin was replaced after Kentucky by Matt Puccia. The addition of Puccia helped Biffle's performance late in the season, despite the team missing the Chase and finishing 16th in points. Biffle missed the Chase in 2011 for the first time since 2007.[6]

Biffle competes in the 2013 STP Gas Booster 500

In 2012 Biffle and Puccia remained at RFR, and gained the points lead after Las Vegas after three consecutive third-place finishes. At the 2012 Daytona 500, Biffle found himself second coming to the white flag for the third time in two years and again finished third. Eerily, the third place at Vegas came in Biffle's 333rd Cup start. Biffle's first win of the 2012 season came at Texas Motor Speedway in the Samsung Mobile 500 after passing Jimmie Johnson with 30 laps left in the race.[7] Biffle won at Michigan holding off Brad Keselowski after Jimmie Johnson blew an engine.[8]

Biffle started off 2013 by being in the same position for the third time in four years; in second place coming to the white flag in the 2013 Daytona 500 but this time ended up sixth. In the 2013 Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan, Biffle won his fourth race at the track and the 1,000th victory for Ford.[9][10]

At the 2014 Coca-Cola 600, Biffle surpassed Clint Bowyer's record for most consecutive races without failing to finish with 84, tying Herman Beam's record, dating back to the 2011 Ford 400. The following week at the FedEx 400, he broke Beam's record by finishing the race 108 laps down in 38th.[11] Later in the season, he finished with a DNF for the first time in 89 races after a wreck in the Coke Zero 400, finishing 29th.

Biffle began the pre-season with an announcement that he would stay at Roush Fenway Racing to help the team. Biffle began 2015, with a 10th-place finish in the Daytona 500 with new primary sponsor, Ortho Bug-B-Gon. Unfortunately, that was as good as it could get for Biffle as he faded outside the top twenty in points. He struggled mightily before picking up a second-place finish in the 2015 Coca-Cola 600, after starting fourth. He went on to pick up a fifth-place finish at Pocono in the 2015 Windows 10 400 and a fourth-place at New Hampshire in the 2015 Sylvania 300, finishing twenty in points.

Ortho announced they would depart Roush following the 2015 season, leaving Biffle without a primary sponsor for the 2016 season. KFC then announced they would sponsor Biffle throughout speedweeks and in the Daytona 500.

Personal life

Biffle signs autographs along pit lane at Pocono Raceway

Biffle married Nicole (née Lunders) on October 17, 2007.[12] The couple separated in early 2015 and are now involved in legal proceedings.[13] Their daughter, Emma Elizabeth, was born on July 6, 2011. At birth, she weighed 7 lbs and 6 oz.[14]

Biffle is a fan of fishing and enjoys deep sea fishing in Mexico, where he keeps a factory sponsored Luhrs fishing boat. He formerly owned a pub in his hometown of Vancouver called "Biffle's Pub and Grill" located at 11500 NE 76th St. In 2010 Biffle announced that he had become part-owner of Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Oregon along with Sunset Speedway in Banks, Oregon.[15] He is also a private pilot and owns a Cessna 210, along with a Dassault Falcon 50 with the tail number N116GB, a Dassault Falcon 10 with the tail number N316GB, and a Bell 206 with tail number N216GB.[16] Greg owns an 2007 Ford GT and an 2007 Shelby Mustang GT500. The Shelby Mustang engine was rebuilt in 2013 and has 983 horsepower and 799 lb-ft of torque.[17]

Appearances in media

Biffle guest starred in a 2005 episode of CBS's situational comedy Yes, Dear entitled "On Your Marks, Get Set, Mow". He portrayed himself as a NASCAR racer moonlighting in a small-time lawnmower racing series.

Biffle appeared on a special features scene of the 2006 NASCAR-themed comedy film, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, but was not credited with appearing in the film itself.

On December 22, 2007, Biffle appeared on the Food Network show Paula's Party with cook Paula Deen to cook steak,[18] and took Deen for a ride in his 2007 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500.[19]

Biffle was a regular panelist on the Speed program This Week in NASCAR.[20] He also appeared on an episode of Speed Network TV's show "Pass Time" filmed in 2009, he ran his Mustang GT500 in 10.11 seconds.

Biffle appeared in the 22nd episode of season 3 of American Restoration (entitled "Dirt Bike Duel"), where he brought in a 1970s Montessa off-road motorcycle.[21]

Greg Biffle Foundation

Biffle also has a foundation in his name that he and Nicole, his wife, manage. Their primary goal is to create awareness and serve as an advocate to improve the well-being of animals by engaging the power and passion of the motorsports industry. The foundation donates to local Humane Societies, no-kill animal shelters, spay and neuter clinics and the Animal Adoption League.[22]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Sprint Cup Series

Daytona 500
Year Team Manufacturer Start Finish
2002 Roush Racing Ford DNQ
2003 27 21
2004 1 12
2005 23 25
2006 16 31
2007 Roush Fenway Racing 25 25
2008 18 10
2009 35 20
2010 23 3
2011 26 35
2012 2 3
2013 5 6
2014 25 8
2015 8 10
2016 15 34

Nationwide Series

Craftsman Truck Series

* Season still in progress.

** Not factored into total

International Race of Champions

(key) (Bold – Pole position. * – Most laps led.)

24 Hours of Daytona

(key)

See also

References

  1. http://nationwide.nascar.com/nationwide-series/drivers/dps/gbiffle00 Archived February 14, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  2. "Greg Biffle". Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  3. "– Greg Biffle Profile". Racingone.com. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  4. "Biffle back at Baker Curb, will drive No. 27 Ford". NASCAR.com. January 9, 2010. Archived from the original on January 12, 2010. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  5. "Biffle signs 3-year extension with Roush Fenway". Gnextinc.com. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  6. "Year in Review: Slow start in Chase cost Biffle chance at winning championship". NASCAR.com. December 12, 2012. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
  7. Jensen, Tom (April 14, 2012). "CUP: Biffle Makes Late Charge To Victory". Speedtv.com. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
  8. "Greg Biffle captures win at Michigan". ESPN. August 21, 2012. Retrieved 2013-08-29.
  9. Held, Scott (June 16, 2013). "Biffle emerges late, lands Michigan victory". NASCAR. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  10. Ryan, Nate (June 16, 2013). "Greg Biffle wins in Michigan, balance of power shifting". USA Today. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
  11. Long, Dustin (May 27, 2014). "NASCAR Notebook: A Look At Who Is Testing Where". Motor Racing Network. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  12. "Michigan Ann Arbor Bay City Detroit Flint Grand Rapids Jackson Kalamazoo Lansing Muskegon Saginaw All Michigan". Mlive.com. November 1, 2011. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  13. "MECKLENBURG COUNTY DISTRICT COURT DOMESTIC CALENDAR".
  14. "Greg Biffle, Wife Nicole Welcome Baby Daughter Emma Elizabeth". Sbnation.com. July 6, 2011. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
  15. "Greg Biffle becomes part-owner of Oregon dirt track - ESPN". ESPN.com.
  16. Marsh, Alton K. (March 1, 2009). "NASCAR drivers fly, too — Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association". Aopa.org. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  17. "Greg Biffle's 2008 SHELBY Mustang GT500". December 31, 2013. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
  18. Greg Biffle cooks steak with Paula Deen.
  19. Greg Biffle doing donuts with Paula Deen
  20. Arneson, Erik (February 8, 2008). "SPEED Puts Familiar Faces in New Places". Speed. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
  21. Hoppes, Lynn (June 6, 2012). "Greg Biffle is on 'American Restoration'". ESPN. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
  22. "About the Greg Biffle Foundation". Greg Biffle Foundation. Retrieved June 20, 2013.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Kevin Harvick
NASCAR Busch Series Champion
2002
Succeeded by
Brian Vickers
Preceded by
Jack Sprague
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion
2000
Succeeded by
Jack Sprague
Achievements
Preceded by
Kevin Harvick
NASCAR Busch Series Rookie of the Year
2001
Succeeded by
Scott Riggs
Preceded by
Kenny Irwin, Jr.
Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year
1998
Succeeded by
Mike Stefanik
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, May 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.