Gregory Jack Biffle, nicknamed "the Biff", (born December 23, 1969) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 44 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for NY Racing Team and full-time in the Superstar Racing Experience, driving the No. 69 car.
After racing in the NASCAR Winter Heat Series in the mid-1990s, he was recommended to Jack Roush by former racer and announcer Benny Parsons. With Roush Racing, he was the 1998 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year. He won the 2000 Craftsman Truck championship. He reprised this progression in the NASCAR Busch Series, winning the 2001 Rookie of the Year, immediately followed by winning the 2002 championship. Biffle drove in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for Roush from 2003 until 2016, winning 19 races in the No. 16 Ford.
Biffle, who began his NASCAR career in 1995, is the first of only three drivers that have won a championship in both the Busch Series and the Craftsman Truck Series, and the sixth of only thirty-six drivers to win a race in each of NASCAR's three national series. Biffle returned to NASCAR in 2019 when he ran the 2019 SpeedyCash.com 400 for Kyle Busch Motorsports, which he won.
Racing career
Biffle was born and raised in Camas, Washington. He began his racing career driving on short tracks around the Pacific Northwest. He first gained attention as a driver when he raced in the nationally televised Winter Heat Series in the winter of 1995–1996. Biffle dominated the series championship that winter, leading former ESPN announcer and NASCAR champion, Benny Parsons, to recommend the driver to Jack Roush.
Biffle entered the first two races of the 1996 Winston West Series, finishing 30th at Tucson and 4th at Altamont. His debut in one of NASCAR's national divisions came later that year when he ran the final two Busch Series races of the season. Driving a Chevrolet for Dick Bown, he finished 23rd at Rockingham but lost an engine the following race at Homestead and finished 36th. In 1997, Biffle competed in the now-defunct NASCAR Northwest Series and won the Most Popular Driver Award.
Craftsman Truck Series
Roush Racing promoted Biffle to a full-time driver in the Craftsman Truck Series in 1998. Despite not winning a race that season, Biffle's four pole positions are the most by a Truck Series rookie to date and they helped him earn an 8th-place finish in the final standings and the Rookie of the Year Award. He followed it up with a stellar 1999 season in which he recorded nine wins, a single-season Truck Series record that still stands . He finished second in the final standings, just eight points behind champion Jack Sprague. In 2000, Biffle won the Truck Series title with another five-win season, beating his Roush teammate Kurt Busch by 230 points. It was Biffle's first championship in one of NASCAR's three major series. It was announced that Biffle would move up to the Busch Series for 2001, however, he ran four more Truck races for Roush that season and won at Phoenix. Biffle made a Truck Series start in 2004 for another long-time Ford team, Circle Bar Racing, at Homestead.
On March 28, 2019, Biffle announced he would be testing with Kyle Busch Motorsports the next day at Texas Motor Speedway in the No. 51 truck. He was eventually tabbed to drive the truck for the SpeedyCash.com 400 at Texas. Biffle started sixth and won in his series return, leading 18 laps and holding off Matt Crafton while winning $50,000 in a promotion with Gander Outdoors; it was his first Truck victory since 2001.
On August 27, 2020, it was announced that Biffle would make another one-off start in the Truck Series, this time in the No. 24 for GMS Racing at Darlington. He went on to finish 19th.
Nationwide Series
Biffle joined the Busch Series full-time in 2001 and won the Rookie of the Year Award with five wins a fourth-place finish in the final standings. The following season, he won another four races and earned 20 top-five finishes out of 34 races en route to his first Busch Series title and the second NASCAR national championship of his career.