NASCAR BGN: Greg Biffle finds early succes in the Busch Series
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
April 18, 2001Greg Biffle took the checkered flag for the first time in his Busch Series career, capturing Saturday's Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway. Biffle won in just his eighth race, and closed the gap to points leader Kevin Harvick in the championship race as he led 133 of the 225 laps around the concrete oval. Biffle spoke about his first win and how that has changed the team's early-season goals.
GREG BIFFLE-60-Grainger Ford Taurus - A LOT OF PEOPLE EXPECTED YOU TO GET IN THE FAMED NO. 60 BUSCH CAR AND PICK UP WHERE MARK LEFT OFF, BUT THIS IS A NEW RACE TEAM. "It certainly is. You know, of course, we brought Randy Goss and Kevin Starland with us from our truck team, but we've got a whole new group of guys and all new cars. In fact, we built all new cars, moved into a new shop, so we have a lot of new things going on, but we do have Mark Martin and all of his notes from the years that he raced. Some of that stuff is changing over and some of it isn't with the new tire that we're on, but it certainly is helping having them to fall back on for information."
OF COURSE, THE PACE OF THE BUSCH SERIES HAS CHANGED IN 2001 AND MAYBE PLAYED INTO YOUR HAND A LITTLE BIT WITH YOUR TRUCK SERIES EXPERIENCE GOING TO THE NEW ENGINE PACKAGE, WHICH INCREASED THE HORSEPOWER. "It does make quite a difference. Believe it or not, I heard a rumor that after they ran our cars on the chassis dyno after the Texas race, they're saying that the engines are within 60 horsepower of the Cup engines, so that's definitely an increase in power in the Busch cars. I don't have a lot of experience of driving them without the less power, but I'm adapting fairly well from the trucks over to the cars. Actually, Terry (Cook) might be happy to hear this, the cars seem to easier to drive for me than the trucks. The competition is tough, but the adapting over wasn't as nearly as hard I expected it to be."
TELL US ABOUT THE NEW NASHVILLE SUPERSPEEDWAY. IS THE TRACK GOING TO BE LIKE DARLINGTON? "Yes, I this it is. I think it will come around with rubber getting built on the race track and in a few races it may get some rubber down and get some grip into that race track. Of course, Goodyear will work with the tire that they brought to see if there are any other tires in their fleet that would have better grip at that place, but with it being a brand-new race track and the first time there, it posed a few problems. It has a few slick spots in (Turns) 1 and 2, but every race track has got its little niches. Like at Kentucky, it's got a bump going into (Turn) 3 and some things like that, but overall it's a beautiful facility. They did a fantastic job, and I think with a little work, it's going to be a real fun place to run in the future."
ARE YOU SURPRISED HOW WELL YOU'VE BEEN RUNNING IN THE BUSCH SERIES? "Yeah, I am a little bit surprised with how fast we've adapted over. We're starting to get a good selection of cars built up; I think we have seven now. We started out the season with four and we're trying to fix our wrecks and get new cars in our fleet. We've been working real hard at it, but we're getting right on track and things are going good for us. I'm pretty surprised with our quick found success."
HAVE YOU RECONSIDERED YOUR TWO-YEAR TENURE IN THE BUSCH SERIES? "It's about a 90 percent solid commitment with Grainger because they have to delegate funds, and it's over double the money to go from the situation we're in to Winston Cup. That makes it difficult for someone who has done the budget to more than double that budget, really unexpectedly. As far as sitting back and looking at it as racers, yeah, we'd like to move that process up but looking at it as business, which is how we have to look at the sport today, that's probably not likely to move that up any quicker."
WILL THERE BE ANY INFORMATION TRANSFER BETWEEN NASHVILLE AND DOVER? "I don't think there is a lot other than just the common bit of concrete data, you could say. Just kinda the feel, the mindset, getting yourself prepared for being on concrete, but nothing that we learned over at Nashville is going to help you at a place like Dover. It's a little bit faster at Dover, higher banked, things like that. It gets you a feel for what your're about to expect in the future."
YOUR TRUCK TEAMMATES, CHUCK HOSSFELD AND NATHAN HASELEU, WERE ALSO IN NASHVILLE TO OBSERVE. WHAT WERE THEIR FEELING OF THE RACE TRACK AND HOW WELL ARE THEY ADAPTING TO THE TRUCK SERIES? "I think that they're adapting fairly well. I think that those guys are right on track. I think for their first year in the trucks, I think they got a really good look at the race track. I was able to give them quite a bit of information about qualifying and what to race there in the truck, so I think that they're going to be relatively close. I just told them to be careful getting up to speed, to let some rubber get down and work yourself into it, but I think those guys will be decent."
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON TALLADEGA AND CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY, THE NEXT TWO TRACKS ON THE CIRCUIT? "I'll tell you, I'm much more looking for to California than Talladega. The Ford Taurus in the Busch Series, as far as that goes, hasn't been a great superspeedway car, but it's real great. I say superspeedway, but in terms I mean restrictor plate-type cars. I think it's decent at 2-mile race track where you have to lift on the throttle, but Talladega and Daytona, they aren't the greatest car for drag and being slick. But they are good for downforce, the combination of drag and downforce that you need at the two-miles, mile-and-a-half and mile-and-a-thirds. We've reassessed our goals for Talladega and we're hoping to qualify in the top 20, which hasn't been our MO since the season started, except for Daytona where we started 24th. We're expecting to be at the same position in Talladega. That's just all the better that we could get our bodies, we're building more power than they are, that's just as good as we can get. I've tested a great deal there. I've tested Mark Martin's car there. I've tested Chad Little's, Elliott Sadler's and I driven the Busch car there twice in testing, but never racing with any other cars or doing any drafting. But California, I'm real excited to go there. I've had some great runs there in the trucks and I think that's a place that we can get back up eligible for a win, and I really feel that that may be an opportunity for us to win."
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON KURT BUSCH AND HIS LEVEL OF SUCCESS ON THE WINSTON CUP CIRCUIT? "I think his season has been going OK. The Winston Cup Series is really tough; you've got to have a team behind you 100 percent. I know they've had some trouble with people, a little bit. I know that they've moved a crew chief. I don't know if those were all the right decisions, the right thing to happen to make that program successful, but nevertheless, it takes a tremendous amount of support from fabrication people, guys that prep the cars at the shop, travel crew and the driver. It is a team sport and you have got to have everybody lined up 100 percent. If you have someone who is not happy or not their heart is not into the whole program, you're just not going to be successful. It takes a tremendous amount to be competitive in the Winston Cup Series, and all of the ingredients aren't there right now."
HAVE YOU HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT THE NEW TRACK IN CHICAGO? "No, but I may have an opportunity to go up there. They've requested me to come up the Wednesday after Talladega and maybe help with the truck teams; they are going to be testing there. That might get me a look at the new race track, what it looks like. I've heard great things about it, so I'm excited to get up there and race with the Busch car. I don't know a whole lot about it, but maybe by next week, I might know a little bit more."
DO YOU HAVE A PREFERENCE BETWEEN DAY AND NIGHT RACES? "Absolutely night races. They are a way better show for the fans to enjoy the sport. It gives people a chance to do outdoor activities during the day and still come and watch a great race in the afternoon. It's cooler temperatures for us to race in and it makes the conditions better. I think it's a lot better, night racing, and I wish we had a lot more night races."
Text provided by Greg Shea
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