Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 U.S. Census Ford Fusion, has
registered four straight top-10 finishes to start the 2010 NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series season and comes into this weekend's race ranked
third in the point standings. He spoke with the media on Friday
afternoon before practice.
"I love this place.
It's a lot of fun. We run extremely well here and have been really
lucky so far, hopefully that continues and we can get good track
position, stay up front and qualify well. It's overall been a great
track for us and I really enjoy coming here. It's a lot of excitement
and a lot of fun - a lot of racing - and I'm looking forward to
Sunday."
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO COME OUT OF THE CARL AND BRAD MEETING
TOMORROW? "I think maybe a little clearing of the air and a little
understanding between the two drivers that maybe they need to give
each other a little bit more room and anticipate a little bit more on
what's gonna happen when they tangle next time, probably. I doubt
whether that's gonna happen, obviously, but they've got little issues
and they'll get it ironed out, I think."
HOW CLOSELY WILL NASCAR
WATCH EVERYBODY ON SUNDAY? "From the looks of it, I don't think
they're gonna be looking at us any differently."
WITH THE ADDED SAFER
BARRIER TAKING UP MORE OF THE TRACK, WILL THE GUYS WHO RUN NATIONWIDE
HAVE ANY SORT OF ADVANTAGE? "Maybe a tiny bit, but I don't think it's
gonna be that big of a deal. We've got all day today and two practice
sessions tomorrow, so by then we're gonna be pretty comfortable with
the narrower race track. I think where it would possibly be a slight
advantage is if the Nationwide practice was first today and getting a
chance to see it before Cup practice started, but I think we're gonna
adapt pretty quick."
HAVE YOU MAILED YOURS BACK YET (CENSUS FORM)?
"Yes, I did. I did it today before I came."
AS A TEAMMATE TO CARL DO
WE SOMETIMES HAVE THE WRONG IMPRESSION OF HIM? IS HE MORE
INTIMIDATING THAN WE SEE OR MORE CALCULATING, OR WAS IT MORE
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES? "I really don't know. Carl lives in
Missouri, and I'm not saying that's bad, but unlike me spending a
little time because we're teammates behind the scenes, I'm not going
to Missouri anytime soon and I don't think he's coming to Mooresville
anytime soon. It's not by choice, just by different areas of where we
live. Like for instance, David Ragan lives over on the other side of
town and we don't really see each other. We see each other at the
shop sometimes, but on a personal note I really don't know Carl a lot
more than being in team meetings with him and doing Christmas party
functions and all that kind of stuff. He seems fine to me, so I don't
know. I'm not with him all the time, so I don't know what to say."
WHAT DOES THE TERM, 'HAVE AT IT BOYS' MEAN TO YOU? "I really feel
like they were talking about restrictor-plate racing because that's
the start of the season at the Daytona 500. 'Have at it. Bump draft.
Do whatever you want. Police yourself.' That's really what I think
they meant by it and then by the way I interpreted it. We're gonna do
what we're gonna do on local short tracks or at Atlanta or wherever
else. We're gonna race hard and we're gonna do what we can do. Now,
maybe they've backed off of it. They've never really penalized people
before. If you get into a guy and spin him out, they don't put you a
lap down. So, unless it's intentional payback, they've always done
that, so I don't really see anything different than what it's been -
other than restrictor-plate racing. They're like they've washed their
hands of the deal. It's like, 'You guys are on your own. You police
yourself. Bump draft all you want and do all your business and don't
come whining to us.' That's the message I got on that, and wait until
Talladega. It will be interesting, I promise."
SHOULD A DRIVER DOWN BY 150 LAPS BE ALLOWED
TO RE-ENTER THE RACE? "That's been a discussion all along, but the
other thing that you have to keep in mind is the sponsor viewership.
3M wants their car on the race track, and if we get in a wreck on Lap
2 and it takes us 40 laps to fix it, and we just put it in the trailer
and go home, the Biffle fans, the 3M fans - the 3M corporate - doesn't
get to see their car going around, whether it's 150 laps down or not.
That's one issue. The other thing that we've talked about is cut the
points off at 30 or 35 so you don't go back to the garage and do this
mad thrash and get a car on the track with bearer bond flying off of
it and metal is falling off of it. It's unsafe. It's leaking
whatever. It's too slow and can't get up to minimum speed. The
theory is don't give any points for going back out. Cut it off at
that level, so you get the same amount of points whether you go on the
track or not. We get back out there for the one spot we're gonna gain
on position, so that is a good point and that is a discussion that may
go somewhere in the future, but I don't know."
DO YOU HAVE ANY RIGHT
OF PASSAGE STORY ABOUT A VETERAN TALKING TO A NEWCOMER. DO YOU HAVE
ONE? "Sterling Marlin came over to me one time after the race and was
all mad and said, 'The car is only 16-feel long. All you've got to do
is get out of the throttle for that much time and let a guy in line.'
I was racing like you race a late model car - you race every lap
because the race is only 30 laps long. Well, a Cup race is 500 miles
and the moral of the story was, like Mark Martin, if a guy shows up in
your mirror from a straightaway back, he's probably faster than you
and you're probably not gonna race him like the devil for the next 450
laps. You've got six more pit stops and a long time to give the guy a
break and get racing. That's the best criticism I've taken from a
veteran guy, and I consider a veteran like Mark Martin or somebody
like that. It's funny they say veteran and Carl and I have been in
the sport the same amount of time. I don't consider myself too much."
WHAT DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE TRACK THE WAY IT IS NOW FROM A RACING
STANDPOINT? "I like racing on the race track now, but I liked it more
before. It was harder to race on before. It was a lot more difficult
to get around here before. When they smoothed the corners out and
smoothed the transition out, the track got wider and however they did
the banking that made it easier. And then a lot of the cars became
the same speed than the old Bristol. The old Bristol was a little
tougher than this. They're both fun to drive and both fun to race.
This is a little bit more difficult to pass because the cars run the
same speed and there is sort of that preferred line, and it's hard to
go around on the top of them and it's hard to get around on the bottom
of them. It's difficult. By narrowing the walls and doing all those
things, you're not gonna recreate something that had character like
that - like Atlanta. Atlanta has a lot of character and that
character will be gone when they fix it and repave the whole place.
It's just evolution. That's what happens."
HAS LIFE CHANGED SINCE
BECOMING A RACE TRACK OWNER? "It's gotten a little bit busier. I
recently became a partner in a dirt track back close to home in Banks,
Oregon - just about 20 minutes outside of Portland - and we're also
putting together a small late model series that races out there - a
west coast spec motor series with dirt late models - just to give
those guys a little bit to race for - give them a point fund - give
them $1,000 to win on Saturday night, which is not a bunch of money
but it's more than what they were getting, and a little bit of
structure, so it's kind of fun to do that. I care about local racing.
That's where I started. That's where I grew up and where other
people have to get their start, and I feel like supporting that more
from a fun perspective and kind of giving back to the sport more than
anything for me."
ARE YOU GOING TO MISS THE WING? DOES A
SPOILER LOOK MORE LIKE A REAL STOCK CAR? "I think NASCAR changed it
because the fans didn't like the look or the appearance, more than the
driver. I really felt they did double-file restarts because the fans
love that action on the restart. They got a lot of criticism like,
'It doesn't look like a race car. We want a spoiler back on it.'
NASCAR consulted us on what our opinion was and we thought we were OK
with the spoiler and thought the car might be better with the spoiler,
so they pursued that and obviously determined to put it back on the
car. But I think it was driven from the fans and the popularity.
That's what people want to see. I have to admit, when we tested it at
Texas, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Brian Vickers and myself were the
first ones with the thing on the car and I think it's gonna be better
racing. I think the car showed signs of a little better corner exit,
which is where this car really struggled to get turning and racing
each other was that corner exit. We'll just have to wait and see. I
was by myself and felt the difference, so I think it'll be better
overall. We'll know next week for sure."
DOES IT LOOK BETTER FROM
YOUR PERSPECTIVE? "I think it looks better, yeah. It's more of the
old stock car and what we've seen forever."
-source: ford racing
