Greg Biffle and Nicole Lunders run the Greg Biffle Foundation for Animals. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Biffle gets engaged to Lunders during holidays

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Highs and lows move at warp speed, even during a Nextel Cup driver's offseason.

For Greg Biffle -- who opens 2007 with a new chief and crew -- this week's Jackson Hewitt Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona International Speedway has been a welcome pause from December's excitement.

Which included popping "The Question."

Biffle and longtime girlfriend Nicole Lunders got engaged during the holidays in their home state of Washington -- eight years after the two met during Biffle's first season as a Craftsman Truck Series competitor.

He admitted he'd felt the commitment pressure in recent years.

"Plus," he said, "I'm getting to the age and point where I'm thinking about starting a family."

And so, on Christmas Eve among family members, Biffle popped the question. A little extra wrapping and tissue paper served as camouflage.

"I just wrapped it up as a Christmas present -- in a Victoria's Secret box," Biffle said of the engagement ring. "So she unwrapped it all not really paying attention, and when she got it all apart, it hit her what it was."

Hint: Lunders said yes.

And Biffle ensured the engagement ring didn't speak for him.

"I asked, too," he added.