Gregory Jack Biffle (born December 23, 1969) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He last drove in 2016, last driving in the No. 16 Ford Fusion for Roush Fenway Racing. After racing in the NASCAR Winter Heat Series in the mid-1990s, he was recommended to Jack Roush by former announcer Benny Parsons. He was the 1998 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year. He won the 2000 Craftsman Truck championship. He reprised this progression in the NASCAR Busch Series, winning the 2001 Rookie of the Year, immediately followed by winning the 2002 championship. Biffle drove in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for Roush from 2003 until 2016, winning 19 races in the No. 16 Ford. He currently is an analyst for NBC Sports' show NASCAR America.
Biffle, who began his NASCAR career in 1995, is the first of only three drivers that have won a championship in both the Busch Series and the Craftsman Truck Series, and the sixth of only twenty-nine drivers to win a race in each of NASCAR's three national series.
Video Greg Biffle
Racing career
Biffle was born and raised in Camas, Washington. He 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.
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.
Craftsman 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 2018. 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 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.
Cup Series
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 and second place Clint Bowyer 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-long contract extension with Roush Fenway Racing. 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 at Texas World Speedway, 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.
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. Biffle won at Michigan holding off Brad Keselowski after Jimmie Johnson blew an engine.
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.
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. 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. He earned his first pole position in four seasons during qualifying for the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, and went on to finish eighth in the race.
After finishing 23rd in points in 2016, Biffle and Roush Fenway mutually parted ways, making Biffle a free agent for the upcoming 2017 season. He did not sign on with a ride for the 2017 season. Biffle has remained inactive (driving) since leaving RFR.
Maps Greg Biffle
Personal life
Greg is the son of Garland Jack Biffle II (1941-2016) and Sally Frye. He has a brother, Jeffrey. He is of German and English descent as his ancestor, Johannes Büffel (1728-1804) came from Contwig in Western Germany and settled in North Carolina.
Biffle married Nicole (née Lunders) on October 17, 2007. Their daughter, Emma Elizabeth, was born on July 6, 2011. At birth, she weighed 7 lbs and 6 oz. The couple separated in early 2015 and are now divorced as of early 2016.
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. 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. Biffle owns a 2007 Ford GT and a 2007 Shelby Mustang GT500. The Shelby Mustang engine was rebuilt in 2013 and has 983 horsepower and 799 lb-ft of torque.
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, and took Deen for a ride in his 2007 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500.
Biffle was a regular panelist on the Speed program This Week in NASCAR. 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.
On February 17, 2017, Biffle announced that instead of racing full-time in 2017, he would join NBC Sports' NASCAR America as an analyst beginning March 1, 2017.
Greg Biffle Foundation
Biffle also has a foundation in his name he managed. His 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.
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
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
- List of all-time NASCAR Cup Series winners
- List of animal rights advocates
- List of Daytona 500 pole position winners
- List of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champions
- List of NASCAR drivers who have won in each of top three series
- List of NASCAR Nationwide Series champions
- List of NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race drivers
- List of people from Washington (state)
References
External links
- Official website
- Greg Biffle driver statistics at Racing-Reference
- Greg Biffle at Roush Fenway Racing
- The Greg Biffle Foundation
Source of article : Wikipedia
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