Greg Biffle will be back for a third Nextel Cup season with Roush in 2005. Credit: Autostock

Conversation: Greg Biffle

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- A poor start of the season -- which nearly drove him from Roush Racing -- has kept Greg Biffle out of the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

Audio Greg Biffle Listen to the Conversation

But in the last month, Biffle's turnaround has been remarkable. He didn't score his second top-10 of the year until Aug. 1, and since then, he's reeled off two more, including a win last week at Michigan, which he followed up with a solid run at Bristol.

Biffle spoke with NASCAR.COM's Ryan Smithson at Bristol about the Chase format, why he nearly left Roush and Sterling Marlin's "bug-eyed" comment at Watkins Glen.

Greg, in January, you didn't sound like a big fan of the Chase format. Have you changed your mind at all?

Well, yes and no. It's going to be good. Nobody likes change, and when you tell me you are going to change something, you know, I am like, not real excited about it.

Biffle is 11th in the standings in the last six races. Credit: Autostock

But you know, it has created a lot of excitement around this top 10 thing and gotten us a lot of exposure and that what we need to do.

We need to get our sport out there and we need to be the headline sport. We need to overtake football, baseball, those kinds of things for viewership and all that.

So that is what it is doing for our sport, which helps Jeff Gordon, helps Greg Biffle, helps Kurt Busch, helps everybody.

But, like I said, I have won two championships under the old format; in the Busch Series and the Truck Series and maybe this will aid me in winning a Nextel Cup title someday.

I am okay with the way it is, with the Chase, we are about to see for the first time how it is about to play out, the whole thing, and I am also obviously a fan of the old way as well.

I think it's good for our sport, but at the same time, I like the other way as well.

Would you advocate switching the format to the Busch Series as well?

In the Busch Series, I'd definitely have a chance to win the title. I think I could win the title.

But, it's not in the Busch Series, it's in the Nextel Cup Series, but I'd like to see it there.

I don't know if they are going to wait and see how it works for the Nextel Cup before they implement it (in Busch).

I think I would have been a proponent of doing it the other way around. Do it in the Busch Series and then maybe bring it to the Nextel Cup Series.

They are the ones making the decisions, so we'll see if they ever decide to bring it to the Busch Series.

Was all the Silly Season stuff overblown this summer, or were you actually close to leaving Roush Racing?

I was real close (to leaving). There is no hiding that. We weren't having the finishes we needed to.

Biffle: "Every driver wants the opportunity to win or run up front. I wasn't asking for something out of the ordinary."

We were breaking a lot of parts. We didn't have the best racecars at times and I just wanted to be more consistent, more competitive, where we needed to be.

We have worked hard over the last two months and we have gotten there. I don't want to show up every week and not know whether I am going to compete.

I didn't want that. No driver wants that. Every driver wants the opportunity to win or run up front. I wasn't asking for something out of the ordinary. We have been able to turn it around.

It's not like I wanted to go do something different, I was afraid that I was going to go have to in order to be competitive.

What is your sponsor situation for next year? Any idea?

I don't have any idea. When the talk was whether I was going to be here or not, all the sponsors were wanting to come back and being excited about it and everything else.

Now that we have determined that we are doing for sure, 100 percent, I am sure everyone's on board.

I know personally that that (Busch Series sponsor) Charter can't wait to sign on the dotted line for next year, coming back.

All the rest of them, you know, they are a lot bigger and more people involved, but I know they are all lined up, so to speak, to come back on the 6 car.

So you are going to cut back your Busch schedule.

Yes. Probably going to run 20, 22 or 25 races. Something around there.

This summer, while you were flip-flopping everywhere, how was your well being running all those races?

I was good. You know, I held up fine fatigue-wise or whatever you want to say. I enjoyed it.

What I didn't enjoy was putting all that effort in and having the engine blow up. Or putting in all that effort in and having the oil pump belt come off. Or putting in all that effort in and the wheel falls off.

That is what I was unhappy with more than anything doing all the double duty. I get my two (Nextel Cup) weekends off, and the motor blows up on Lap 15. I had a Nextel Cup weekend off.

Instead of taking the weekend off. You go there and do all this stuff, you have your motorhome there, you fly your plane there, you do everything, which costs a lot of money, and then you only make a few laps.

The same thing at St. Louis. A Cup off-weekend and we had a wheel loose at the beginning of the race. I had the fastest car. I ended up having to play catch up.

I came back from two laps down and finished seventh. That makes it a lot harder to swallow than running and finishing in the top three or something.

You know, like Colorado, it makes it worth it when you go and run good and have a solid finish. Like Kentucky.

Went there and fought for a win and ended up second because we didn't take four tires. It's fun doing that. It's not fun when you go and run like crap or you break and don't finish.

You ask yourself, "Why am I doing this?" I had fun doing it. I am not saying I won't ever do it again. I might do it again someday. But I think I am going to take some time off next year.

Are you going to follow Harvick and maybe start a Truck team?

You know, I thought about it, one week, I am wanting to do it. You know, I am just sitting on the couch daydreaming.

I haven't put a lot of effort in it or anything like that. I have researched it some more.

I enjoy my time right now away from the racetrack and days I am away from the shop, and I am not sure I want to complicate that by starting a race team. I look at Joe Nemechek, which is a perfect example of a guy (that does it).

Jack Roush (left) with Biffle

If I would do anything, I would try to do a Busch team where I would drive it. I have thought about it a lot and out myself as a team owner.

That would be different, having to hire a driver, it would be fun, but I think I would be pulling my hair out, not being in control of that.

If I did a Busch deal I would be the one driving it and I would be the owner and I'd hire all the people I wanted and I'd build the cars the way I wanted and I'd handle all that part of it.

But I look at how much time and effort that would take and I'd rather have a little more influence with the race team that I am driving for and spend a few hours here and there polishing that race team, the way I want it. I want this guy to work on this part of the cars.

I want these kind of cars. Let's test Talladega. Let's take this car to the wind tunnel. I'd rather point the fingers and not worry about the payroll or if the truck driver called in sick, your crew chief's wife is having a baby and is not going to make it this weekend. That is a lot of responsibility.

I have a shop right now that I go and fiddle and play at and do all my stuff. I have five employees, full-time people.

Motorhome driver, pilots, a guy that works in my shop, a secretary that lines up all my appearances and schedules and rental cars and all that.

That's enough. I can't imagine having 19 or 15 or 20 or however many it would take to have a race team. It would be fun but I think I have other hobbies right now.

Did Sterling's comment at Watkins Glen bother you at all?

No, no, it's just funny.

Greg Biffle Driver Page Ford Driver's Eye Merchandise

I was actually looking for some of those glasses that had the eyeballs on the springs and I was going to wear them to the driver's meeting in Michigan the next week but I couldn't find them.

I am not even worried about what Sterling Marlin thinks.

I didn't intentionally make contract with Sterling and intentionally spin him out, Sterling Marlin turned down on me in the corner, on purpose, to block the pass that I was trying to make rather than just "OK, he's got me, he's inside me on the racetrack, let him go and get in line," which is the speech Sterling Marlin gave me a year ago.

You know, that when there is a faster guy than you, cars are only 16 feet long. Let him go, and get in line. When the pit stop comes, work on your car.

And it was early in the race and he had smashed in the fender on the same corner of the two people in front of me. I saw it with my own eyes. I don't drive like that and I don't expect people to race me like that.

Are you going to race the Mexico City race next ear?

Depends on what it pays. That is the only thing that matters.

I mean, I am going to look at the travel, I am going to look at where we are going to stay, hotel-wise and whatnot, and then how much it pays to go, I am not going to Mexico City to race for 50 grand, you know what I mean?

Biffle in victory lane at the Fontana Busch event

It's just not worth it to me. By the time I split the money with the team, take my share of it and cover all my expenses - I mean, I love to race, don't get me wrong, but I don't want to do it just for a charitable event.

Some of the Busch races don't pay a lot of money. I raced at IRP in the Busch car and finished fifth and got $15,000. Or 12. I think I got $12,000 or something.

And it's a good thing I didn't go down there just for that race, it's a good thing I was racing across the street. It was 15. And my share of the money was six grand.

Then the government takes half it. So I end up with three thousand bucks. Flying back and forth in a helicopter.

I can't do that. We are there for fun and everything else, but we have to make a living as well, but it really depends on what they are going to pay to go down there. I want to go down there and do it bad. It would be fun.

But they are going to pay $80,000 or better to win that race, or pay show-up money or something, but I would love to do it. I would do it in a heartbeat.

Conversation runs every Monday at 3 p.m. ET on NASCAR.COM.