November 30, 2005

By Rebecca Gladden

Greg Biffle

NASCAR driver Greg Biffle did just about everything he could to try to win the 2005 Nextel Cup title.

He won more races than any other driver on the circuit this year - even more than Champ Tony Stewart. Biffle won a total of six races; Stewart won five.

He ended the season in dominant fashion, barely missing a win in the penultimate race at Phoenix, where he finished second, and victorious in the last race at Homestead. He lead 198 laps during the final two races - 198 more than Tony Stewart during the same time frame.

But over the entirety of the 36-race season, Stewart outdid Biffle in several important categories, with two more top-5's, four more top-10's, and 523 more laps led. While both drivers had just one DNF, Stewart's average finish of 9.9 was two places higher than Biffle's.

Still, it was a remarkable year for Greg Biffle, a 36-year-old Washington state native competing in his third full Cup season. Last year, he was 20th in points when the Chase field was set after 26 races - nowhere near the top-10 cutoff mark. This year, the question was not whether Biffle would make the Chase, but whether he would win the championship - a feat that would have made him the first driver in history to earn titles in NASCAR's Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck series. He won the truck title in 2000 and the Busch championship in 2002, but his previous best Cup finish was 17th in 2004.

Greg was second to Tony Stewart in points at the start of the 2005 Chase, but had fallen to fourth heading into the season finale at Homestead. His win there, coupled with Jimmie Johnson's 40th-place finish, boosted him back up to second, passing both Johnson and teammate Carl Edwards in the standings, but 35 points short of Stewart in the final tally.

Looking back on his team's performance in the final ten races, Biffle believes that a loose wheel in the eighth Chase race at Texas was the undoing of his championship bid. The 16 team had won the April race on the fast 1½-mile oval, but in November, a defective spring forced a green-flag pit stop from which they never fully recovered. Biffle finished the race 20th and dropped from third to fourth in the standings, falling further behind points leader Tony Stewart with just two races to go.

After losing the title by 35 points at Homestead, Biffle reflected on the trouble in Texas: "It's something I'm going to think about for a long, long time. I lost the (truck) championship by eight points in 1999 and lost one this year by 35, and we lost over 50 with the loose wheel. When it happened, I didn't think anything of it because I figured we'd get back on the lead lap, no problem, you know? But just no cautions. It was an unusual race. Even if had been a race like tonight, we would've been able to get back on the lead lap. But that's the way it goes. Things happen for a reason. It wasn't our year."

Despite Biffle's obvious disappointment, the tenacious hard-charger is looking forward enthusiastically - and impatiently - to the 2006 season. "I can't wait for the Chase next year," he said. "I don't want to race for 26 races. I want to race the Chase again because it's so much fun."

Typically, the driver who wins the season's final race at Homestead carries strong momentum into the new season. For the past two years, that driver has been Greg Biffle. On the heels of an impressive six-win season, look for Biffle to finish strong at Daytona and beyond.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN. Although we may not always agree with what is said, we do feel it's our duty to give a voice to those who have something relevant to say about the sport of auto racing.