Greg Biffle is looking to duplicate his successful run from last year in the standings. Credit: Autostock

Q&A: Greg Biffle

Greg Biffle heads to Watkins Glen 12th in the points with only five races before the Chase begins. Time is running out, but Biffle is still hanging on and heads to a track where he is still searching for his first top-10 finish.

Greg Biffle has led 872 laps this year. Credit: Autostock

Inside the Numbers Greg Biffle's 2006 results Race Start Finish Status Daytona 16 31 running California 2 42 engine Las Vegas 1 8 running Atlanta 8 16 running Bristol 2 7 running Martinsville 10 31 running Texas 5 42 crash Phoenix 2 15 running Talladega 7 38 engine Richmond 1 4 running Darlington 9 1 running Charlotte 7 7 running Dover 20 8 running Pocono 7 6 running Michigan 10 4 running Sonoma 7 4 running Daytona 12 31 running Chicago 27 11 running Loudon 26 3 running Pocono 20 24 running Indianapolis 7 33 running Average 9.8 18.4

Q: Greg, what could you feel about your chances of such a late rally of getting into the Chase?

Biffle: Certainly I thought it was a lot better before this last weekend. We had a good weekend until four laps to go.

I still feel, you know, five races is a lot of time. We saw drivers go from being in the top five in points to being out and then back in in a matter of four races or three. Certainly people can move around a lot.

But this is the time of the season where teams and drivers are being more consistent, are getting their stride, so to speak, getting their consistency down. So that makes it difficult as well.

Q: When you look at the statistics, especially early in the season, you could look at everything and say it's been a pretty good year despite being 12th. How has that been to balance out the actual race results with the stats behind those results?

Biffle: Yeah, absolutely. It's been an up-and-down season for us. I was just looking at an e-mail that said Matt was 168 points out after Indy, had finishes of 18th, third, first, seventh and second and made the Chase. Certainly we need to average top-five finishes. It depends what the other guys do.

I feel like we have an opportunity to make it in. We're coming up on two good tracks for us, California, Michigan, we run very well at. We run very well at The Glen. We haven't had the finishes to show for that. We also run very good at Bristol and Richmond. These are good tracks for us.

Q: Have you seen the new movie about NASCAR, Talladega Nights, and what your feeling is about the film, how it portrayed drivers?

Biffle: Well, you know, I mean, I guess the general public has to understand that it's kind of a spoof. I mean, I think a lot of people do. It's kind of a joke. It's entertainment, it's a comedy. For those people that don't watch our sport, have no idea, go see the movie, maybe they could conceive that some drivers may be like that.

I think anybody that has ever watched a race or watched any interviews or watched anything about our sport, if they've got SPEED channel in their house, obviously they know it's a comedy.

Q: Still in the hunt for a top 10 spot, even though it might be a struggle, do you think NASCAR should consider relaxing some of the rules on who makes the Chase or do you think 10 is going to be the magic number for quite a while yet?

	Greg Biffle says his finishes at Watkins Glen have not shown how well he has run there. Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Greg Biffle at Watkins Glen Year Start Finish Status 2003 2 30 running 2004 21 35 engine 2005 3 38 running

Biffle: I like 10. I think 10 is a great number. They've talked about putting a wildcard driver in there, which I could agree with, that would be fine, somebody that's won the most races is not in the top 10 or something to that effect. They've talked about that. I wouldn't have a problem with that.

But I really think that 10 is a good number for people to run for the championship. Let's face it, a playoff, and that's what we're creating, a playoff is to eliminate teams. When you start a playoff in football, baseball, any other kind of sport, any other kind of anything, it eliminates the teams each week. There's less and less teams that compete for the magic prize.

We don't. We run all 10 weeks, all drivers do, all 10 drivers. In fact, the rest of the series still competes with us. So I really think that by narrowing it to 10 is really a good, balanced number, I believe.

Q: What are your thoughts on cautions at the end of the race? On one hand you can't blame NASCAR, they want to make sure there's no accidents. On the other hand, the caution affects the end of the race. Given the end of the race, can you talk us through your thoughts on that?

Biffle: Yeah, I mean, it's really tough. NASCAR has a tough spot. One is, you know, they can easily affect the outcome of the race by displaying a caution. Two, there are so many things going on that they have to take into consideration: debris, track safety, what's going on right now, is there a guy scraping the wall, is there possibly some pieces laying out on the racetrack that could injure another driver if he runs over it and gets a flat tire.

We say, 'Oh, what is that caution for? Is it just to help the 8 or the 48 or the 17 or the 16 because they're leading or they needed a caution?' I mean, I believe -- I believe in my mind that every caution they put out is for a valid reason.

But it's a difficult situation because they're sitting there, what if half the field is pitted, half is still out there, a guy spins out getting out of pit road, knocks the cone getting out on the track, but gets going again? Do you throw the caution or wait till everybody made their pit cycle? It's so hard. What is the right thing to do? It's so difficult.

	Greg Biffle and Robby Gordon wrecked on the last lap at Indianapolis. Credit: AP
	LAST-LAP PROBLEMS Rarely has one lap changed the Nextel Cup Series standings to the point that Sunday's last lap at Indianapolis did. In fact, that single circuit may have taken two drivers out of the Chase.  •   Complete story, click here Indy problemsTwo last-lap wrecks changed the finish at Indianapolis Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

But I feel that NASCAR takes safety first. Yes, they take into consideration how it affects the competition, I'm sure, but they have to make the decisions they do on a split second. They don't have a lot of time to think about it, as well. I mean, they don't have a few minutes to discuss it; it's got to be like, you know, right now.

I'm sure they've put the caution out and the guy got going again. They're like, 'Dang, I guess I didn't have to do that. Now the caution is out, now I got to open pit road, now I got to do all this.' I mean, we all are in that position, you know, whether in some capacity or another.

Q: Is there any suggestion you have for making it better, any way to change it?

Biffle: You know what, I mow my own grass. I couldn't even imagine. Kurt Busch at one point went up and watched them officiate a Busch race, I think. There's so many things going on at one time. You got lapped cars pitting under green, what is that guy doing. You know, just like watching the race at a 2.5-mile track, you got to have so many eyeballs all the way around it to watch 43 cars. It's a wonder they see half the stuff that goes on really.

Q: You mentioned Robby Gordon before. Could you sum up what happened at the end of Indy? You're obviously on one of the best teams in NASCAR. He's in a different spot. Can you put yourself in his shoes about how tough it must be each week on the series?

Biffle: Yeah, I mean, it's difficult, being a single-car team like that, trying to come up with all the information yourself. You know, I've rephrased what happened at the end of the race a couple times. The first time I said, well, it wasn't his fault, what happened. But I had to rephrase that. I mean, it was his fault, but he didn't mean to do it, you know. I mean, he didn't mean to go down in the corner, spin out, get a last-place finish. Certainly that wasn't his intention.

But he just got in the corner probably too hot, maybe needed to back off a hair earlier, and the car wouldn't have got out from under him. I don't know. I couldn't see what happened. I haven't seen a replay of it. I don't even know if they have it.

I left him plenty, plenty of room. We could have put three-wide. You could have put another car between us going in that corner so that I didn't affect his racecar. My object wasn't to try and drive in right on his right-side door and try and get him loose because my object was just to salvage the best finish I could.

I saw him starting to get lose underneath me. I saw him coming up. It was certainly nothing I could do to try and get out of the way or do anything. You know, like I said, I was a long ways out there. I was way out above him.

He just lost it, you know. I mean, maybe the 10 [Scott Riggs] was right up under his bumper, two inches off him. I have no idea. That certainly could have been possible. I saw that happen to a few guys. I got underneath the 07 [Clint Bowyer] at the beginning of the race and he almost wrecked. But he had a long ways up the racetrack to save it, where in this particular instance I was up there at some point.

I mean, I can't be upset about it really. I'm not happy it happened. I lost 10 spots probably or better, 15 maybe. But you know, it's all part of racing. I shouldn't have been there to start with, let's put it that way. I got myself in that position because I got in the fence coming off Turn 2 trying to pass my teammate for ninth.

Q: As far as The Glen goes, can you expound a little more? You won there in the truck. How have your experiences been? Do you like it there, hate it there? Talk about Watkins Glen.

Biffle: I really like Watkins Glen. I mean, it's the funnest road course that we go to that I've ever really been to. We have run extremely well there. If you look at our results, 38th, 31st, certainly doesn't spell success, but I sat outside front row to Jeff Gordon first time there in a Cup car by one-thousandth of a second he beat me by. That was our rookie year.

They told us in the rookie meeting that if you miss the chicane, you must slow down and not gain time or position. So I was passing Jimmie Johnson for fourth, and Rusty had a broken transmission going into the chicane. I could not stop in time. I was going to hit the 2 because I didn't know he was down there, cause a big accident. I went straight, lost from fourth to 12th in position on the racetrack, then they still black flagged me for not coming to a complete stop in the chicane. It was the updated rule after they had already told a small group of us behind closed doors not to gain time or position. So that was my first year.

Last year, we broke a transmission. The year before, Sterling Marlin and I had a little incident. He came back and retaliated and spun us out, put us out in the gravel trap. I think the oil pump belt came off, that's right. We went through the gravel and the oil pump belt came off.

Predominantly we've run very well at that racetrack. I expect to go there and run decent. We'll just keep our nose clean and hopefully come out of there with a top-five or top-six or seven.

Q: How much involved is a road course race mentally, physically? What is going on with the shifting, all that, than just a normal weekend at an oval?

Biffle: Well, I mean, it's a lot more -- it's a lot harder on the driver. Certainly you're going both directions. You're shifting a lot. There's lots more opportunities to make mistakes. We're shifting so many times a lap, getting on the brakes, downshifting, you know, turning at the right point. Normally we're used to four corners, and now we've got a whole bunch that are both directions.

There's certainly a lot more opportunities to make mistakes at a road course, a lot easier for things to happen.

Q: We hear a lot about the shifting on the road courses. Dumbing it down for everyone, can you take me through a corner, the mental process, hand-eye coordination of shifting through that?

Biffle: The thing about road racing for me, I don't know -- it appears like it's the same for other drivers. If you screw up in one corner, like three corners later your rhythm's off. It's like running down, doing that deal when two people got their legs tied together. The problems keep rippling forward.

For instance, going into Turn 1, you know, we shift down to second gear going into Turn 1, you make the corner, then you go from second, you shift to third, then you lift on the throttle and turn up the S's. You're trying to go flat on the throttle up through the S's. It's a pretty sharp right-hand corner, left, then back right again. You have to go back to high gear at the top.

For instance, if you get a little fast into Turn 1, then you're kind of up on the racetrack, sometimes you get up on the rubble strips. You don't quite have your speed. You're not quite to the point to shift to third by the time you get to the bottom of the S's, so now your speed is too slow, but you shift anyway. Now your corner entry has changed, you know. It multiplies so quickly when you make a small mistake on getting to the brakes in time or too early.

In fact, if you get to the brakes too early, you're going too slow around the corner, it can be detrimental to your rhythm as well because the car didn't do what you intended it was going to do. Your speed is slower so your gearing is off.

Man, there's just so many things, getting into a rhythm, doing the same thing lap after lap after lap. You know, when you pass cars, of course, it does the same thing.