Greg Biffle: "I want to win races." Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Conversation: Greg Biffle

CONCORD, N.C. -- A new contract with Roush Racing will keep Greg Biffle in the No. 16 Fords for three more years. Good thing, too -- incessant rumors of his imminent departure were becoming a distraction.

Now that it's done, Biffle took a moment to hang out with NASCAR.COM's Marty Smith to discuss his rationale of choosing trophies over money, why Roush and Hendrick are dominating the 2005 season and his solution to Nextel Cup Series scheduling issues.

So first off, you signed a new three-year contract with Roush Racing, and were telling me the other day that it had started to become a distraction for the team. Elaborate.

GREG BIFFLE •   Driver Page •   2005 Statistics •   Superstore: Biffle gear! ALSO Nextel Cup Series driver Greg Biffle has renewed a multi-year agreement with Roush Racing to continue driving the No. 16 Ford Taurus.  "It just took a little while to iron out the details [of the contract] but I'm really happy to be making this announcement," Biffle said.  •   Complete story, click here

Yeah, it really did. Basically, other teams were in decision-making (situations). A lot of things are done six months, nine months ahead of time, and some other teams were inquiring about what I was going to do.

I kept telling them, 'Hey, I'm happy where I am.' Then other teams started having deadlines, I guess. So I was like, 'I need to get this thing done. And if I can't get it done, I need to pursue other opportunities, because now is the time to find out what's available and what I can do, or get this thing done and signed,' which I thought was going to be case.

I never went and shopped the market, so to speak, to find the biggest and best deal or greatest racecars out there. But I know for a fact that I could have gotten a bigger money deal somewhere else.

But the case, straight to the point, is this: I want to win races. I'm with a competitive team, I like my team, Roush gave me my opportunity to come into racing, and I got a fair package for three years.

They're going to let me be more involved more in the company to whatever level I want - help with the Truck Series, bringing drivers up, open arms, whatever I want to do within the deal. That's how it's sort of always been, but they've reassured me that I can come and participate as much as I want to.

That's me. That's where I want to be. That's the things I want to do. I go somewhere else, what's it going to be? There's a lot of great programs out there, but I'm comfortable with what I have.

When you get to a certain level, financially, I'm sure that winning probably carries the most weight. You're winning a lot of races now and contending for a championship. And yeah, you may go get a ton of money, but you may never run up front again.

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Yeah, that's always a factor. I figured there was a couple of those cars I get in and run up front. But you're right. The facts are, I started thinking about it the other day, was talking with a buddy of mine about it, and I said, 'Listen, it's $508,000 to win at Texas. It's 330-some thousand dollars to win at Darlington. You win a couple races a year, three or four, the Brickyard, shoot, now where's the money at?'

Besides, if you're winning those races and doing that stuff, people are out there at your souvenir trailer when you're out signing autographs, personal endorsements come along, fans are excited and rooting for you, all kinds of good things happen.

And certainly I don't want to say that wouldn't have happened with those other guys, but it's hard to leave what's proven.

Are Roush and Hendrick, those nine teams, dominating so much because of the depth of the organizations, because all of you guys can go test? Like, you might go test Charlotte and Mark Martin might go test Dover and Matt Kenseth might go to Pocono? Is that the main reason?

Yeah, that's some of it. The other thing is our driver lineup. We really compliment each other, and that really corresponds. And the guys building the racecars. That has a lot to do with it, the racecar itself.

So if go and drive the "03 car" or something, that's running 35th every week, or Jeff Gordon does or Jimmie Johnson does, we're not going to have any results.

The racecars we're able to produce for our five drivers to driver are really, really good. That gives us a leg-up. And a lot of things compile into that -- testing, organization itself, wind tunnel time the five teams have. All that stuff.

It seems like all teams want a 19-year old these days. You're 35. If you're coming in now, regardless how talented you are, are they going to choose youth?

ALSO Greg Biffle's recent swing through the Nextel Cup rumor mill sparked the realization that there is a shortage of driving talent available to prospective team owners.  "There's a shortage of drivers right now, I feel there is," Biffle said Thursday. "Who's going to drive the No. 2 car? Who's going to drive the No. 6 car?"  •   Complete story, click here

I don't know that for a fact. I can tell you one thing -- being the age I am, I got contacted by all but three race teams to drive for them. So I'd have to say they overlooked the age thing, or it didn't effect them.

Interesting.

And that was to replace some young drivers.

You know I want to ask you -- whom?

I can't say. But this whole craze came when Kyle (Busch) came in, or Kurt came in. Kurt was young. We were the first team to bring a young guy in. Then, it's 'Whoa, this young guy Kurt Busch can do it, so let's go get Casey Mears.' So all the sudden it started that.

There was really no proven method to the madness. Then we see Kasey Kahne. Well he got in the 9 car! Shoot! He's going to win races! Take Jimmy Spencer and put him in the 9 car or Mike Skinner, you're probably going to run up front and win races, or be in the hunt...

But marketing has that much to do with it?

Yeah, marketing has a lot to do with that stuff. It's a matter of finding those guys that can do it, but it's not because they're that age. You can't go get a 19-year old that's running Late Models and expect him to do very good.

I don't think age has a huge impact on our sport, at least as much as the craze got blown out about these young guys. I don't believe it had that big an impact.

There's all this talk now of building a racetrack where you grew up, but it might come at the expense of a place like Darlington, where you just won. Where do you stand on expansion versus tradition?

Well, first of all I'm a firm believer that a track in the Northwest will do very, very well. The other thing that I'm a big believer in is that we need to go to these racetracks one time.

It wouldn't have been my choice to take Rockingham off the schedule and still go to Pocono twice, still go to Martinsville twice.

Dodge Charger 500Greg Biffle won on a green-white-checkered restart to win 10 QuestionsNASCAR.COM goes one-on-one with Greg Biffle Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

You're a genius, son.

And Dover, still go to Dover twice. Why not go everywhere once instead of taking a date completely away from a racetrack? Darlington should never be up for losing another date until there are no dates left.

We don't need to go to Martinsville twice. They don't even sell the thing out. Pocono? It's the most-boring race there is. It's a fun racetrack but there's not a ton of fans there.

And at the very worst we should drop Pocono to 300 miles.

Absolutely! Or 400! And take one of those dates and go to the Northwest with it. Take one of the dates and go to a new racetrack with it instead of dropping them completely off the circuit. That's been my solution the whole time.

Now, are there places we need to go to twice? Yes, there probably is. The big, big markets that demand us to be there. But Pocono doesn't demand us to be there. Martinsville, Va., doesn't demand us to be there.

And this impound deal? How ludicrous is this thing time-wise? Like at Richmond, crew guys still had to be there at noon and the garage doesn't open until 3, and the race isn't until 7. Can't we do this in one day?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, let's talk about Dover for a minute. We got to Dover next week, the Busch cars are on the track at 2 p.m. We've got 2-to-3, 4-to-5 are our practices. That's it. That's all there is Thursday.

There's 25 people in the grandstands. I'll give them $250 if they just let me come a day later! I'll pay the whole bill! Know what I mean?! And then on Friday, the Busch cars qualify at 1:35 p.m. That's all they do on Friday. That's saving the team money?

I know it's a work in progress, but if that's the way they're going to run it, cut it down. Get us on the track at 8 in the morning, 8:30, give us an hour, another hour, qualify us, let's go racing. We can do it all I one day in some places. Surely we can do it in two (days). We don't need three.

There should be a new rule -- no three-day shows. Just two. If they want to bring Cup in for three days, fine. But Busch cars don't have the budgets. We never have.

The whole history of the sport, we've always come in Friday to practice and qualify and race on Saturday. Ninety percent of the time. And now that we're doing impound, we still have a three-day show!

Yeah, that doesn't make any sense.

Why would you have a three-day show for an impound race!?

Does that not completely contradict what they're trying to do in the first place?

Absolutely. One hundred percent. Now I'd have to look back at the schedule because my memory isn't very long, but I don't believe we went to Dover on Thursday before.

Now that we've got the impound, we go to Dover on Thursday. So they added a day to the schedule. I feel bad for my guys over in Kentucky.

That's hotels, meals ...

They're scratching to make ends meet and run this program work with the money they have, and keep up on the cars, and they're out of the shop another day.