Greg Biffle Remembered at Daytona 500: Really Good Driver with 'Great Heart'

Daytona International Speedway (Daytona Beach, Fla.) — Kevin Harvick remembers Greg Biffle once drove so hard, he broke his leg. They were racing against each other at Mesa Marin Raceway, years before either was competing on Sundays on stock car’s biggest stage. "I was running first, and he was running second," Harvick said as he told me the story. "And he was pushing so hard that he bounced the car off the outside wall so hard that night and broke his leg, trying to get everything out of it. "And the Biffle legacy was just that. He was always pushing the car to the max. He had just unbelievable car control and just a racer’s racer." Biffle died in a plane crash Dec. 18 in North Carolina. Seven people died in the crash: Biffle, Biffle’s wife, Cristina; Biffle’s children Emma and Ryder; Biffle employee Craig Wadsworth and pilots Dennis Dutton and Jack Dutton. The crash rattled the NASCAR community. Biffle competed in 14 full-time Cup seasons, earning 19 wins. Prior to joining the Cup Series, he won titles in the Truck Series and O’Reilly (formerly Xfinity) Series. During "NASCAR RaceDay" on FOX, several of those who knew Biffle well shared their memories. Few times over the last couple of months has NASCAR had a media event where Biffle didn’t come up. We talked to several drivers who raced against Biffle during the FOX production days in January. "I’d never forget practice qualifying or the race. You didn't want to be Greg Biffle’s right rear corner panel," former Cup driver and FOX analyst Clint Bowyer told me. "He touched the wall every single time. Didn't crash, just barely scuffed the paint off of it, but that's how close to being on the edge he was capable of being. "There's not a lot of drivers in the history of NASCAR that had the car control Greg Biffle did." Biffle's aggressive style was a common memory for those who competed against him. "He was one of the first guys I feel like that I raced around that was just on the ragged edge all the time, like black marks off the rear tires just spinning them on exit. That was Biffle," three-time Cup champion Joey Logano told me. "Biffle was one of the guys that would run on the high side, and he would push it a little bit more, and he'd get caught up every now and again, he’d get in a wreck, but his car always looked like it was free, like he had his stuff loose all the time. "He was a very talented race car driver." Biffle’s former Roush Fenway Racing teammate, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., told me that Biffle was unique in his approach. "I felt like he could take a car and kind of put it on his back a little bit and hang it out there," Stenhouse said. "And I always enjoyed the way he described his car in our meetings. They were odd, but when he got done telling you, you knew exactly what he was talking about — like you could picture what his car was doing." There were times when Biffle’s on-the-edge racing ruffled a few drivers. "What I always will remember about Greg was whether we kind of hated racing each other, or we could argue about it, or want to fight after about it, within five minutes of that, he'd be talking to me like nothing ever happened," AJ Allmendinger told me. "And moving forward and even after he retired, he would always come up to me when he came to the track and talk." Biffle also had the respect on the track. Kyle Busch remembered he once got into Biffle to take the lead and then when Biffle got back to him, he let Biffle by. Busch then passed him clean. That’s the respect he had for Biffle. "We were always really, really great with one another," Busch told me and other reporters in a media session last month. "Him and I never had a problem on the race track." Busch talked about how much he enjoyed going with Biffle to the sand dunes and driving off-road vehicles. Bowyer, too, remembered Biffle as much for his friendship and impact off the track, which included significant helicopter flying as part of rescue and relief missions following Hurricane Helene. "He was living the American dream," Bowyer said. "He was the American dream. Came from nothing. Was an awesome competitor, a hell of a race car driver. Had an awesome career, awesome family, had awesome toys. Like he checked every box." Austin Dillon remembered Biffle for being a free spirit. "I loved his ambition to get outside of the NASCAR world and drive other types of vehicles," Dillon told me. "He had a love for the side-by-sides, the off-road trucks, the sand rails. "He was just a fun guy that just wanted to be behind the wheel of something fast." Logano summed it up perfectly. "He fit that mold of a normal guy that was a really good race car driver and had a great heart," Logano said.