NASCAR Trucks: After scheduled weekend off, Biffle ready for return

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

September 20, 2001

After a scheduled weekend off, the Busch Series competitors head back into action this week at the one-mile Dover Downs International Speedway. The week didn't pass, however, without any news on the Busch Series front, as NASCAR announced on Wednesday that Greg Biffle would be fined $15,000 and penalized 100 driver points for his incident with Jay Sauter at Richmond International Raceway one week prior. Now with seven races remaining in the 2001 season, Biffle finds himself in fourth place in the driver point standings, trailing first-place Kevin Harvick by 502 points and third-place Jeff Green by 126 points. Biffle spoke about the penalty and additional topics surrounding this week's race at Dover.

GREG BIFFLE-60-Grainger Ford Taurus - THERE ARE ONLY SEVEN EVENTS LEFT ON THE 33-RACE BUSCH SCHEDULE, BUT IN THE TRUCK SERIES YOU WERE ONLY ACCUSTOMED TO RUNNING 24 RACES. PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY, IS THE 33-RACE SCHEDULE A FAR CRY FROM THE 24 RACES YOU RAN IN YEARS PAST? "It's a little bit different. You really race more times over the same span of time, which means you don't have the weeks off here and there. It's pretty steady the whole way through on the Busch side. I've stepped up some of my training activities, so I'm in better shape this year and I think that not only helps with the number of races, but the fact that the Busch races are generally longer in length than the truck races."

IS THE BUSCH SERIES SCHEDULE MORE FORGIVING WHEN YOU HAVE A BAD RACE BECAUSE YOU HAVE MORE RACES TO MAKE UP GROUND, OR DO YOU FEEL THAT THE INTERMITTENT WEEKS OFF HELPED MORE TO REGAIN YOUR COMPOSURE? "I think that it's helpful to have more races. If you're in Harvick's situation this year, I think he would want to have 24, but in our situation, we want to have 40 to give us an opportunity to catch him. We're kinda into that homestretch right now. We're really fighting for second. We're still focusing on the championship, of course, but in reality it may be that we're racing for second, especially after last week."

YOU TOOK A HIT IN THE POINTS LAST WEEK AND WERE PENALIZED 100 DRIVER POINTS FOR THE INCIDENT IN RICHMOND. NOW THAT YOU'VE HAD A WEEK TO REFLECT ON IT, HAVE YOUR FEELINGS CHANGED? "I certainly don't feel that it is fair by any means. I saw Tony Stewart punch Kenny Irwin through the window, and it didn't cost them this much. This was only my first incidence, my warning or reprimand, and I feel like it's certainly excessive."

DO YOU FEEL THAT THIS IS A WARNING TO THE OTHER DRIVERS? "They said that obviously fining people wasn't working, so they used me as the example of what they're going to do if you continue to fight or retaliate on each other or spin each other out. I guess I've become the poster child of what they intend to do in the future."

YOU'VE HAD TWO WEEKS TO COOL OFF FROM THE EVENTS AT RICHMOND. DO YOU EXPECT ANY CARRYOVER FROM RICHMOND INTO THIS WEEK'S RACE AT DOVER? "There were a lot of tempers flaring at Richmond, but we seemed to be the ones in the spotlight. I know that on my end, this is a done deal. I told several people when the 63 and I got in that scuffle on the race track at St. Louis, I told several people that I do not retaliate or get back at people with my job. Racing is what I do for a living. I'm never going to go out and intentionally wreck somebody or try to wreck somebody. That could end my career. The 63 tried to wreck me at St. Louis intentionally, and the 43 wrecked me intentionally at Richmond. These people have no respect for what they're doing. Yes, I spun the 43 out, but that was totally short-track racing. I didn't mean to do it, and I didn't do it on purpose. It just frustrates me that people can take their equipment and go ram into somebody because they're mad at them. I know that my owner wouldn't let me get away with that, and I know that my sponsor doesn't want me to do that. Most people don't have self control. I didn't have self control when I got out of the car, but that was me and him, not everybody's equipment and hard work that they've worked week-in and week-out putting together. I take responsibility for my actions, and I've had my share of run-ins with other drivers, but I've never used my car or truck as a weapon to retaliate. It just scares me that others would."

IN LIGHT OF THE RECENT ACTIVITIES IN THE UNITED STATES, DO YOU FEEL SAFE RETURNING TO RACING THIS WEEKEND." I think so. I feel safe going there, I don't think any thing is going to happen. I have been watching the news closely to see what is going on there because I know that there's the Air Force base less than five miles away. I don't know if I'm too excited about that, but I don't feel that my safety is in jeopardy by racing at Dover Downs. I'm certainly not flying up there on a commercial flight. If the trip is within 10 hours, I think a lot of guys will re-think how they get there; some might start driving more and some teams may charter planes. I'm taking the next seven races week by week, and as the event dictates, we'll have to adjust our schedule. It would be silly of me to say anything less. There are a lot of important decisions left to be made by our government and our sport may be impacted further by those decisions."

THE LAST VISIT TO DOVER WAS A WET ONE. YOU WERE BIT BY A COMBINATION OF PIT STRATEGY AND WEATHER. "Dover is always a race of pit strategy. In the spring, the weather dictated our strategy, but it's usually a fuel mileage race. We know that going there, and we're certainly prepared. We won a race on fuel strategy (Milwaukee) and we lost a race on fuel strategy (California), so we'll be flexible on our game plan and adjust accordingly. You'll lose more than you'll win by playing those games, though. But, what really happened to us there earlier was that Buckshot Jones started to wreck and cut down the track and a scuffle went on, and I got my right-front fender pushed in a little bit and knocked the toe out. That's why I only got up to ninth. That pit stop did hurt us as well because a lot of guys came in before the red flag and didn't need to stop again. There were a couple of combinations that sorta put us out of the race that day. On the other hand, I'm certainly excited about going back because we had a strong run going, so it wasn't one of those races where our finished illustrated the type of car we had. Dover is a fast place, and unfortunately, you can get caught up in somebody else's mess pretty quick."

Text provided by Greg Shea

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