Biffle wants supporters in Washington to speak (cont'd)

"I feel like we made a little bit of progress," Biffle said of the recent goodwill mission he participated in. "And the biggest progress I think we made, is we learned about what it's going to take to make it happen. And what I feel it's going to take to make it happen is, and it's kind of simple and you don't really put your thought into it at first, but everybody who is against the racetrack speaks out against it. The people who are for it aren't saying much. That has to change.

"When you see a zoning thing dug in the ground by your house, and you're OK with that zoning thing, you just don't say anything, right? You're like, 'OK, that'll be all right. Yeah, I'm OK with that.' Whereas the people who are against that new zoning law are all lined up, picketing and screaming, 'Hey, we don't like it! It sucks. It's terrible.'

Greg Biffle Credit: Autostock

Biffle, Petty meet with lawmakers

Greg Biffle, Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip went to Washington state to discuss with lawmakers the proposed building of a $368 million racetrack.

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"All the people who are in support of the racetrack are excited about it, but they're not saying anything. They're just coming up to us and saying, 'Hey, when's it gonna happen? Are we making progress?' Meanwhile, all the people who are against it are voicing their opinions. So all of the legislature and a lot of the people are hearing a lot of the negative, and not all of the positive."

Or much of any of it. Biffle said he already has embarked on a personal one-man campaign to help change that.

"So I've talked to a lot of people in the Northwest that I know, or anyone that I come in contact with or see that has asked me about the racetrack. And I say, 'Call 'em on the phone. Write them a letter. Tell them how excited you are, how you can't wait ... ask what you can do to support it,' " Biffle said. "These people don't understand. There are a hundred thousand people who want this racetrack, and not just 75 who don't want it.

"You don't ever think about that. I never even really considered it, until I went out there and saw what was sort of going on."

Biffle likened it to the recent furor some created regarding other issues in NASCAR.

"One lawmaker said, 'Well, we don't hear a bunch of people making a racket saying, 'We want this.' And I'm like, 'OK, that makes sense.' So only the people who are against it are the people who yell and kick and scream and cry. The people who are for it just don't say anything," Biffle said.

"It's just like rules changes in NASCAR or the Car of Tomorrow. All the guys who are alright with the Car of Tomorrow just don't say anything. But the guys who are upset about it make the most noise. It's the same deal with this. So we need to get behind the people of the Northwest. And I think it would even do good to hear from people in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, anywhere ... Kansas City. We need to hear them say, 'Man, we want to come to Washington. We want to vacation there. We want to come to Seattle and see a race and then go to the Columbia River Gorge or whatever. We want to come out there and watch the race, tow our motor home or our trailer, and vacation out there for a week.' That's what we need. They think the numbers will work [to support the racetrack after it is built], but we need a big push of support."

The key, Biffle added, is that a racetrack represents an economic engine that will bring streams of revenue into the state that otherwise would not exist.

"They looked at the business model and understand it, I think. This will make money," Biffle said. "I tried to explain to them that there will be a tremendous amount of people from other parts of the country that are going to come here. You build a stadium for your baseball team, who comes to your stadium? All these local people and maybe some fans from the opposing team will come. But this, people will come from all over the United States for this. Not just your state.

"I think they get it. I think they understand it. We're getting closer. We just need more support."