DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — It was a normal Daytona 500 media day scuffle including the familiar drone of conversation mixed with the common NASCAR driver soundbite on Wednesday, Feb. 11.
But there was a slightly somber tone injected in this year.
The sudden and tragic loss of former NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Greg Biffle in December shook the NASCAR world. Nearly three months later, some NASCAR Cup Series drivers shared their fondest memories – both on and off the track – of the late champion
Jimmie Johnson
As the driver that competed with the late Biffle the most out of the media day field, Jimmie Johnson had plenty of examples of memories to choose from. In fact, Johnson recollected a time where he witnessed the Washington native race in the early days of the Truck Series.
“I think the first thing I remember is when the Craftsman Truck Series was getting started,” Johnson began. “I was trying to work on a couple of trucks and hanging out on the west coast and … this plain white truck, young guy, sideways, hauling butt, and I knew he was like a local kind of short track guy, but you’re out there with [Ron] Hornaday Jr. and [Mike] Skinner and [Jack] Sprague and all these guys.
“And there’s this young guy just ripping it.”
The seven-time Cup champion also recalled one of his most famous battles with Biffle – the 2009 Cup race at Michigan International Speedway.
“Another one that comes to mind is running each other out of gas at Michigan,” Johnson recalled. “I thought I was saving fuel, leading, doing a great job, and I ran out of gas. Greg thought he did a great job, and he ran out of gas about a half a lap later. Mark Martin was the only one saving fuel and went along and won.
“We had a huge laugh about that once the sting went away after losing the race.”
Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin, now entering his 21st full-time Cup Series season, has also had his fair share of racing against The Biff in the lower-tier series.
“My favorite memory was racing against him in the [NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series] 20 some years ago,” Hamlin recalled. “I was a rookie. He was one of the guys that would come down and race on Saturdays. Trying to beat that guy was just incredibly difficult, if not impossible.
“He was just the gold standard for me when I came into the sport in 2004.”
Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch, another NASCAR seasoned veteran known for his aggressive racing and numerous rivalries, believed Biffle was one of the few drivers over the years that he didn’t have any run-ins with.
“We had a lot of good times,” Busch said to media. “I think one of the best times we had, we were out in the sand dunes. It was New Year’s, and there was a lot of people out there, but we may or may not have snuck some fireworks in and were lighting off some fireworks. We had a Crown Vic out there as well, too. Just a regular streetcar, and we were beating the heck out of that thing over the dunes and seeing how far we could get up the mountains before it would get stuck and towing each other out after guys would roll over or flip over in their cars and whatnot.
“Just great times with him and doing all that sort of stuff we’ve had.”
Busch and Biffle had their share of on-track battles too.
“I remember knocking him out of the way for the lead at Darlington [Raceway] one time, and I didn’t mean to do it,” Busch said. “I was kind of like, ‘Oops,’ so I let him back by and gave him the lead back, and then I was able to get back by him a few laps later the right way.
“He was probably one of the few drivers that I never had any issues with.”
Ryan Blaney
While Ryan Blaney didn’t enter the Cup Series scene until late in Biffle’s career in 2014, he still shared a few moments and gained respect for him.
“I loved watching Greg growing up,” Blaney said. “He’s one of my favorite drivers. When I got into the Cup Series, … he was still racing, and I did a lot of Ford events with him, so he was always at those, and he was always just a genuinely good human being and was always very kind to me when I was younger whether I was competing.”
As a third-generation racer, Blaney’s father, Dave Blaney, shared the same amount of fondness for Biffle through their on-track interactions.
“I remember being on driver intro stage with my dad and Greg being there, and my dad had a ton of respect for Greg,” the Team Penske driver said. “I became a fan of him before I even started racing or things like that because my dad would always talk about Greg and how much he respected him and how good he was.”
Even after Biffle’s retirement, Blaney still interacted with him on a few occasions.
“When he got out of the sport, I bought a jet ski from him one time. He was like, ‘Yeah, come out to my lake house, and you can test drive jet skis.’
“So, I have a lot of good memories about Greg both as a competitor, and as a person.”
Noah Gragson
Noah Gragson, who is in his fourth full-time year of Cup Series competition, flew to Daytona from the same airport as Biffle’s plane. He couldn’t help but think of the late racer while departing from the runway.
“We flew out yesterday from Statesville,” Gragson said. “I don’t ever really get scared flying or nervous at all, but we flew out of the same spot that he flew out of and took off, and I was just thinking, ‘Man, like, that’s kind of right before his last moments and his family and everybody else that was on board. It’s super, super sad and tragic.”
While he has very little on-track experience with Biffle, Gragson still interacted with the former Truck Series champion off the track through Freedom Factory.
“I spent time with [Biffle] down at the Freedom Factory Racing with [Travis] Pastrana, and Greg was always awesome. He never knew me but acted like he knew me forever. He was just a really laid back, cool guy.
“I just remember racing as him on NASCAR Inside Line as a kid after a legend car practice. We had an Xbox, and we’d race on there before the next qualifying practice and Zane [Smith] and I and Riley [Herbst], playing flip cup and beer pong with him at Talladega [Superspeedway]. He’s just an awesome guy.”
AJ Allmendinger
Now entering his 11th year of full-time Cup Series competition and 18th year overall, AJ Allmendinger shared the track with Biffle on many occasions. Now he shares the same number with No. 16 and likewise will be sporting the late driver’s stylized number for this weekend’s Daytona 500.
However, at one point the two were pseudo-teammates as Ford drivers. Allmendinger, who drove for Richard Petty Motorsports, would be in meetings with Roush Racing drivers such as Biffle often.
And according to the Kaulig Racing driver, the two had an altercation.
“We had a competition meeting when I used to drive for Petty,” Allmendinger said. “We’d have competition meetings with Roush, and we got in a massive, heated argument. Like, it was big, and it was like it could get [physical]. We’re almost maybe walking outside, and we get all calmed down and, literally, I go into my spiel about my race car and two minutes later, he says, ‘I thought the same thing,’ like nothing that just happened, happened. I just remember walking out, we just started laughing, and that’s how Greg was.
“I mean we would have some heated debates, and we’d have some moments on the racetrack, and then within a couple of minutes, we’d both forget about it, and it was like it never happened.”
Justin Allgaier
JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier raced with Biffle in the Cup Series on a handful of occasions, but what he remembers most of the Ford driver was during his time in the NOAPS.
“I wouldn’t call it a favorite memory, but probably one of my best Biffle moments was Las Vegas [Motor Speedway],” Allgaier said. “It was the Nationwide Series back then and kind of the first time that, to be honest with you, I’d actually started to like figure my life out and understand how to get around the racetrack, and Greg and I were actually battling for the lead. I got a little bit of a hip check [from him] and ended up getting the wall off of turn 4.
“And what’s funny about it was I wasn’t even upset, right? Because I put myself in the bad spot, but I learned really quickly that just kind of who Greg was as a competitor, and really, as odd as it sounds, I had a lot of respect for him even through that moment. … He didn’t abide by the rules of anybody else’s rules. He had his own like he wanted to win every time he went to the racetrack, and he wanted to be successful, and he was always big on giving 100%.
Casey Mears
Casey Mears shared a rookie Cup season with Biffle in 2003 and had his fair share of stories about his Rookie of the Year rival.
But one compliment from Biffle at EchoPark Speedway in those early years is one he will never forget.
“I got to know Greg slowly over the years,” Mears began. “At first, we were competitors. One of the first times Greg came up to me, it was after Atlanta, and I was fairly new in the sport. It might have been my rookie year or my second year, and I’m running third or something pretty good. He’s running me down, and I’m running right up against the fence off of [turn] 4, and he came up to me after the race and he was like, ‘Gosh dang man, you hit the exact same spot right up next to the fence for like 150 laps in a row,’ and he walked off. I thought that was one of the hugest compliments, right?
“A guy that’s been in the sport and doing as well as he has to come up and say something to me like that was really cool.”
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT
Do any of their memories involve remembering the guy put cameras in his mother in-laws bedroom and bathroom.