View Chase Chronicle: Greg Biffle
Chase Chronicle: Greg Biffle
By Gregg Leary
Category:NASCAR -> Sprint Cup
Much hoopla has been made over Jimmie Johnson’s quest for his third straight Cup Championship. It would truly be a major accomplishment…but it is NOT unprecedented. Cale Yarborough won his third straight Cup crown 30 years ago.
Greg Biffle, on the other hand, is in the running to do something NOBODY has done before…win a championship in all three of NASCAR’s top series…Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Trucks. Biffle won the Truck championship in 2000 and the Busch/Nationwide trophy in 2002. He is the ONLY driver to have won both the Truck title and the Busch/Nationwide crown AND Rookie of the Year in both series. He is currently third in Cup points with only two races to go. Biffle trails Jimmie Johnson by 143 points with 322 points left on the pair of remaining racetracks.
The final two tracks in the Chase have been very good to Greg. Biffle has finished 2nd at Phoenix twice and won Homestead-Miami three times If he could duplicate his best finishes at these tracks and Jimmie Johnson encounter problems as he did at Texas...Biffle could snare the Cup Championship and be the FIRST Triple Crown Winner…Cup, Nationwide and Trucks.
Biffle has 6 wins in 48 Chase races. That’s 12.5%...nearly double his 6.4% Career Winning Percentage. He has 17 Chase Top Fives: 35% to his Career Average of 21%. His 22 Chase Top Tens is 46% compared to his Career Average of 35%. The numbers indicate that Greg cranks it up a notch when it comes to the Chase. Biffle won the first two races of this year’s Chase at Loudon and Dover and was third at Kansas. A 24th at Talladega set him back but he has rebounded since with three out of four Top Tens.
Greg Biffle is one of only 19 drivers who have won a race in all three of NASCAR’s premier series...Cup, Nationwide and Trucks. He is also one of 12 drivers who have won a pole and a race in all three series. Biffle is the ONLY driver with 10 or more wins in each of the three series. He has won 14 Cup races, 18 Nationwide races and 16 Truck races. (His 47 combined wins is second only to Mark Martin, who has 90 wins across the three series.) Biffle was Rookie of the Year in both the Truck and Busch/ Nationwide series. Greg finished 2nd in the 2005 Chase so he has been “oh so close” to the Triple Crown. 2008 COULD be his year.
DOB: 12-23-69 (38)
Hometown: Vancouver, WA
Residence: Mooresville, NC
Married: Nicole
Hobbies: Flying, fishing
First Cup Start: April 28, 2002 (California)
First Win: July 5, 2003 (Daytona)
#16 3M Roush Fenway Racing Ford
Crew Chief: Greg Erwin
Won first two Race of the 2008 Chase at Loudon, NH and Dover, DE
Snapped 33 race winless streak (since Kansas last September)
Currently 3rd in Points -143 to Jimmie Johnson
Best Cup Points Finish: 2nd in 2005 (6 Wins)
2004: Did FULL Cup and Busch Schedule
2003 Runner-up Cup Rookie of the Year (to Jamie McMurray)…top finishing rookie in 9 races.
The only driver to win Championships in Both Busch (2002) and Craftsman Truck (2000) AND was Rookie of the Year in Busch (2001) and Truck (1998)
2002 Busch Series Champ
2001 Busch ROY
2000 Truck Champion…ROUSH’s FIRST NASCAR Championship
1999 9 truck wins…2nd in Points
1998 Truck ROY
1997 Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series…1 win
1994-97…NASCAR Weekly Racing Series (Whelen All American Series)…in 1995 won 27 races in 43 starts.
Won Late Model track championships at Tri City Raceway in West Richland, WA and Portland, OR Speedway
Discovered by Benny Parsons
Dogs: Gracie and Foster (Boxers) See their portraits in “Pit Road Pets” by Karen Will Rogers and Laura Lacy and “Portraits of NASCAR,” by Anita Rich and Robin Dallenbach.
Foster locked himself in Greg’s car on the day of his adoption…Greg had to call a tow truck. Greg and his wife, Nicole are very active in “Friends of the Animals.”