Former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and his family died in a plane crash in North Carolina.
Biffle was a decorated driver, winning championships in NASCAR’s second and third-tier series.
He won 19 races and was a runner-up for the Cup Series championship in 2005.
Known as ‘the Biff,’ he was named one of NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers in 2023.
NASCAR lost of one its most decorated and beloved drivers Dec. 18. Greg Biffle, his wife and two children were among those who died in a plane crash in Statesville, North Carolina.
The 55-year-old Biffle and his family were in a Cessna C550 which crashed about 10:15 a.m. local time during landing at Statesville Regional Airport north of Charlotte. Members of the Biffle family confirmed the loss in a joint statement.
Biffle spent nearly two decades at the highest level of stock car racing in the U.S. A native of Vancouver, Washington, Biffle started like many of the best drivers of his day by racing in regional stock car series. He got his big break in the NASCAR Winter Heat Series, a stock car racing series in the 1990s that showcased late model racing during the offseason for NASCAR’s top series.
Biffle won the inaugural championship in the 1995-1996 season and caught the eye of Jack Roush, owner of Roush Racing (now RFK Racing).
Roush brought Biffle on to his team in NASCAR’s third tier of racing, the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series (now the Craftsman Truck Series). Biffle earned Rookie of the Year honors in 1998 despite not winning a race. He took a record four pole positions out of 27 races.
That was the start of a long and storied career for the man known as ‘the Biff.’ Here are some of the top highlights:
Greg Biffle career highlights
2000: First NASCAR championship
Biffle repaid Roush’s faith in him with the team owner’s first championship in the third-tier series. Biffle won five races with 18 top-10 finishes, including fifth in Fontana to secure the title. He won that year’s championship over future Cup Series champion Kurt Busch.
2002: Historic second championship
Roush Racing didn’t waste time promoting Biffle up the ranks. The team brought him up a level to NASCAR’s second tier in 2001 following his title victory.
As he did in the third tier, Biffle won Rookie of the Year honors ahead of a title-winning season. He overcame a slow start to win four races and finish in the top 10 in nine of the last 11 races and secure the championship. In doing so, Biffle became the first driver to win a championship in both NASCAR’s third- and second-tier series.
2003: A thrilling first Cup Series win
Daytona International Speedway is a place in which every NASCAR driver wants to win. It’s an iconic place to get your first Cup Series victory – as a rookie, no less.
Biffle did so in 2003 in an unusual race at Daytona. It was marked by just two yellow periods for a total of 10 laps; a remarkably clean race considering the high speeds at the superspeedway. Biffle notched the upset win for Roush Racing after leader Bobby Labonte ran out of gas in the closing stage of the race.
2005: Cup Series contender
This time it took Biffle two years to truly get up to speed in a new series. The 2005 season featured a dominant campaign by Tony Stewart, but Biffle was his closest competitor. He was an early favorite thanks to five wins by the halfway point in the season. Stewart pulled away down the stretch but won the title by just 35 points over Biffle.
2013: A final Cup Series victory
Almost a decade on from his near-title campaign in 2005, Biffle hadn’t made good on the promise from that runner-up finish. He had the unfortunate timing of reaching the top level of NASCAR racing just as one of the best drivers of all time, Jimmie Johnson, did the same.
Biffle continued to be a fixture at the top of the standings but never won that elusive Cup Series championship. The 2013 featured his final Cup Series win of his career at Michigan in the Quicken Loans 400.
He’d race another three years in the Cup Series and make a few spot appearances after that.
When he called it a career, Biffle had notched 515 Cup Series races over 16 years. He’d earned 19 wins, 13 pole positions and 175 top-10 results. That earned him the honor of being named one of NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers ever in 2023.
A popular paddock figure
In addition to his prolific performances on the track, a theme throughout Biffle’s career was how well-liked he was across the paddock when his helmet was off.
The now-defunct NASCAR Northwest Series named him the Most Popular Driver in 1997, an honor he’d receive in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2000 and the Busch Series in 2002.