Biffle, Roush Racing feted at Busch banquet

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Greg Biffle reaped the spoils of the 2002 NASCAR Busch Series championship Friday night -- including a record $1,016,244 champion's share -- in the Tuscan Ballroom of the Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Studios Florida.

	Greg Biffle (left) prepares to sit at the head table in the ballroom with team owner Jack Roush (far right).

The celebration was held in Orlando, about 60 miles from NASCAR's headquarters in Daytona Beach, for the first time after several years in Hollywood, Calif. It will be televised on TNT on Dec. 6 at 3 p.m., prior to that evening's Winston Cup awards ceremony.

Biffle, 32, who has been team owner Jack Roush's most prolific award winner -- in fact, the only Roush driver that has won a NASCAR series championship since Roush began stock car racing in 1988 -- celebrated his second series championship in the past three years.

The native of Vancouver, Wash., in 2000, with crew chief Randy Goss won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series crown before jumping into the Busch Series in 2001.

"This is the second phase of a three-part dream that's come true for me," Biffle said. "Hopefully I'll get to complete it in New York some year, but that's another story for another time.

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"I really need to thank everybody on my team, from the crew that goes to the track to all the guys back at the shop building chassis, rear ends, transmission and hanging bodies -- they are the ones that made this all happen.

"And more than anything, I am happy and proud to give Jack his first Busch Series championship and his second NASCAR championship, and more than anything else I am thankful he's here to celebrate it with us."

"I was having fun until I had to get up here," Goss, a former motorcycle racing champion said. "This was one of those engine war years when all the teams kept putting more gear to the engines. Every week I went to the engine shop asking for more power on the top end and the bottom end and they responded every time.

"This is the second Busch championship for the Roush engine shop in the last three years, and I just want to say thank you to them."

In addition to his other awards, Biffle won the coveted Busch Series Most Popular Driver Award, which was voted on by NASCAR.com users.

Biffle and Kerry Earnhardt, the son of seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt, each garnered 18 percent of the votes cast; but Biffle prevailed by 16 votes.

	Biffle and Roush have won two championships together in three years. Credit: Autostock

In 2001, Biffle won a record five times in his first Busch season and earned the Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award with his fourth place finish in the standings.

In 2002, Biffle broke out of a season in which he fell into fifth position -- 228 points behind -- at one point, to have an absolutely phenomenal stretch run that included four wins, 16 top-five and 19 top-10 finishes in the last 22 races of the season.

Biffle ended up with $1,275,410 in race winnings, keyed by a total of 20 top-five and 25 top-10 finishes. He also garnered the season's Bud Pole Award by winning five top starting spots.

Biffle, along with the second and third finishers in the championship, Jason Keller and Scott Wimmer, all scored four victories to lead the series in that category.

Otherwise, Roush's team and its manufacturer, Ford, accepted the bulk of the evening's awards.

Roush's chief engine builder, Edgar Aleman, was the Clevite Engine Builder of the Year while Ford won the Bill France Performance Cup signifying the top Busch Series manufacturer, for the second time.

ALSO  •  Biffle voted Most Popular Driver

Biffle, however, was the first Ford driver to win the Busch Series championship. Ford won the 2002 cup with 11 victories, scored by Biffle, Keller, Raybestos Rookie of the Year Scott Riggs and Bobby Hamilton Jr.

The top 10 in the Busch Series standings also accepted post-season award checks, including Gatorade Front Runner Award winner Keller ($508,122), Wimmer ($431,903), Mike McLaughlin ($381,091), Jack Sprague ($330,279), Jamie McMurray ($279,467), Kenny Wallace ($228,655), Hamilton Jr. ($190,545), Stacy Compton ($165,139) and Riggs ($149,846).

"Free food," Keller said when asked about the benefits of his sponsor, Albertson's Supermarkets. "It's been a big break for me to work with Albertson's, taking a South Carolina boy and making me big, so to speak.

"A good crew was what made this season. Steve Addington (crew chief) and I have been together 15 years and car owner Greg Pollex gives us everything we need to run up front. We get the glory, but it's all about the team."

"My crew chief, Bootie Barker, put a good car under me every week," said Wimmer, who ran a good part of the season in an unsponsored car and won four of the last eight races. "My car owners, Bill and Gail Davis, put a lot of faith in me. We were close to shutting down but we didn't want to do it and we came on for some wins at the end of the year."

"MBNA has been a good sponsor to work with for two years at Joe Gibbs Racing," McLaughlin said. "We've got a brand-new situation next season with Angela's Motorsports. Harold Holly is heading it up and I'll be driving Fords for the first time, which'll be interesting."

"As a whole, I think we're pretty satisfied with our season," Sprague said. "In my mind, (before the season) I figured if we could finish in the top-10 we'd be pretty successful. We ended up with a two-part mini-series -- good in the beginning and not so good at the end, but in the end we were better than I thought we'd've done."

"It's so busy, there's not really time even to think," said McMurray, who won not only his first two Busch Series events but also his first Winston Cup victory in only his second start, in the last two months of the season. "But it's been a good busy. Racing is so much more fun when you're running well, and the end of this season's been great."

	Credit: Autostock

"My car owner, George de Bidart and the team were responsible for the success we had on the race track," said Wallace, who led the series' overall laps completed chart but gained more fame for his catchy Stacker 2 TV commercials. "The Stacker 2 commercials were quite a surprise to me. When the season started I had no idea how that would turn out."

"I never showed up at the race track with a car that couldn't win," said Hamilton said, who cited his father, Winston Cup veteran Bobby Hamilton, as an influence on his success. "He gives you a sounding board and an alternative to everything. You might not go in that direction, but the option is there."

"It was a pretty good year for us -- and at the end of the year we really came on," Compton said after his first full year in the series. "This was my first year in the Busch Series and I certainly enjoyed it. I've enjoyed racing again."

"We still have a lot to prove," said Riggs, who won twice but for the last time at California in April. "Probably the biggest deal I had to wear a rookie stripe for was when my wife and I had our son -- it's the best experience I've ever had in my life."

Comedian Tom Cotter was the emcee and Darius Rucker, front man for the musical group Hootie and the Blowfish -- and an ardent NASCAR racing fan -- was the featured entertainer for the event, which lasted a little more than three hours.

Among the key announcements was the word that the Busch brand of Anheuser-Busch, the series sponsor since its inception in 1982 -- which also announced a five-year extension of its sponsorship at the Homestead season finale -- would also bump its contribution to the series' point fund by $400,000, to $2.9 million.

Video presentations honored the Busch Series officials and the track operators that conducted Busch Series events in 2002.