Countdown: Washington

The Evergreen State is a land of extremes. The Olympic peninsula is one of the wettest places on earth, while Cascade Range keeps the eastern portion of the state high and dry.

Whether it's views of Mount Rainier, the San Juan Islands or Puget Sound, Bobby Sherman was right: The greenest green you've ever seen is in Seattle.

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The only state named after a president, Washington is famous for its forests, fishing, floating bridges, flying machines and fruit. It's as much about Bing cherries as Boeing, salmon and the Seahawks, mining and Microsoft.

What other state can claim a collection of musicians like Carol Channing, Kurt Cobain, Judy Collins, Bing Crosby, Kenny Loggins and Jimi Hendrix?

Game show host Bob Barker is from Washington, as is bowler Earl Anthony, stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, cartoonist Hank Ketcham and actor Adam West.

Some of NASCAR's top young talents -- and best short tracks -- have a Washington connection.

Best behind the wheel

• Greg Biffle, Vancouver

Sometimes your success isn't about what you know as much as who happens to see you, and who they know.

Greg Biffle was a talented driver with track championships at Portland Speedway and Tri-Cities Raceway but without any national exposure when he met Benny Parsons in the garage area of Tucson Raceway during the Winter Heat Series late in 1997. The conversation lasted no more than five minutes, but Parsons stayed long enough to watch Biffle blow away the competition on the track.

Parsons then called up Jack Roush and told him about Biffle -- and Roush promptly signed the young driver to a Craftsman Truck Series deal for the 1998 season. Two years later, Biffle won the championship -- and two years after that, added a Busch Series title.

	Kasey Kahne   Cup Busch Truck Years 2 4 1 Starts 72 106 2 Wins 1 3 2 Top-5s 18 19 2 Top-10s 22 35 2 Poles 6 6 0 Avg. Start 14.2 12.7 8.5 Avg. Finish 19.3 17.1 1.0 Greg Biffle   Cup Busch Truck Years 4 6 4 Starts 114 144 81 Wins 9 17 16 Top-5s 22 70 42 Top-10s 35 92 54 Poles 1 11 12 Avg. Start 15.9 11.5 7.4 Avg. Finish 17.6 11.9 9.1

Biffle made his Cup debut at Fontana in 2002, finishing 13th in Roush's No. 16 Ford. He would run six more races that season -- splitting time between Andy Petree's Chevrolets and Petty Enterprises' Dodges -- before joining Roush's Cup efforts full time in 2003.

The first of his nine Cup victories came in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona that season. In 2005, Biffle won six times and finished second to champion Tony Stewart.

Other noteworthy drivers from Washington

• Derrike Cope, Spanaway: Two victories in a 23-year Cup career, but one of those was the 1990 Daytona 500

• Harold Hardesty, Pasco: Half of his 16 starts between 1956 and 1969 resulted in top-10 finishes

• Kasey Kahne, Enumclaw: Went pole-to-pole at Richmond in 2005 for his first Nextel Cup victory

• Bob Keefe, Yakima: Three top-fives in 13 starts during NASCAR's west coast swings in the late '50s

• Chad Little, Spokane: 1987 Winston West champ had 16 top-10s in 217 Cup appearances, including a second at Texas in 1998

• Ed Negre, Kelso: 338-race career spanned 17 years, last top-five came at Nashville in 1973

We wish ...

Hydroplane racer Chip Hanauer had become a NASCAR driver.

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The Seattle native won 61 unlimited hydroplane races, including 11 Gold Cups, and seven national championships between 1979 and 1999.

Keeping it on track

• Evergreen Speedway

Located in Monroe and active since 1954, the combination three-eighths/five-eighths oval hosts the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series. Shane Harding won nine races in 2005 to finish 12th in the Division I standings.

• Wenatchee Valley Super Oval

Jeff Jefferson won both of the 2005 Northwest Series events at the paved high-banked quarter-mile in East Wenatchee.

• Yakima Speedway

The half-mile oval in Yakima hosted the Northwest Series three times in 2005, with Brandon Riehl winning two of the three races there.

Gone but not forgotten

• Bremerton Raceway, Bremerton

NASCAR's premier series made its only appearance in the Evergreen State at this .9-mile road course on the runways of the Kitsap County Airport in 1957. Open-wheel star Parnelli Jones won the 80-lap event, as 12 of the 14 cars were running at the finish.

A word from our sponsor

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