DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — “The Biff” is back for his first Daytona 500 since 2016.
Greg Biffle, a 19-time NASCAR Cup Series winner, drove for team owner Jack Roush throughout his career. The 2016 NASCAR Cup Series season was his final full year racing in NASCAR, but he’s run a few Truck races and competed in the Superstar Racing Experience last summer.
A late edition to the Daytona 500 entry list, Biffle is driving the No. 44 Chevrolet for NY Racing. His car is sponsored by Grambling State University and HBCU League Pass Plus.
Because the team does not have a charter, he will have to race his way into the starting lineup through tonight’s Bluegreen Vacations Duel races that set the field for Sunday’s 64th Daytona 500.
Jay Guy is crew chief for the team, which has an alliance with Richard Childress Racing.
“I’m excited for my rookie season,” Biffle quipped. “The story is lengthy, but we had been talking for a couple of years. Fast-forward to coming down to the Daytona 500 and a plan was put together with Chevy supporting it, an RCR car and Hendrick engines.
“This is serious now, so I had to live up to my word.
“It was certainly last-minute and it’s a huge challenge with this being a Next Gen car.”
Biffle said the team got the car last Friday and it had to be wrapped and loaded in order to make it to Daytona by Monday.
“Here I am, trying to race my way into the Daytona 500,” Biffle said.
Biffle won the pole for the 2004 Daytona 500 and won the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona Int’l Speedway in 2003.
John Cohen is the NY Racing team owner and a former Grambling State football player. The African American hopes to bring an HBCU audience to NASCAR.
“I don’t want to drive a start-and-park car or drive something that is not competitive or safe,” Biffle said. “John came to this deal with the right car and the right support to run it. I admire that effort.
“I want to support somebody that wants to come into NASCAR like that.”
Biffle believes his experience can help this team over the weekend, but to get to Sunday’s race, he will have to advance through the second Bluegreen Vacations Duel. The highest finishing open car in each Duel will qualify for the Daytona 500, but Jacques Villeneuve and Noah Gragson have both already locked into the race based on speed should they not advance via the Duel races.
Villenueve is in the second Duel with Biffle and the third open driver, Timmy Hill. If Biffle finishes ahead of both drivers, he’ll be guaranteed race in the Daytona 500. If Gragson and Villenueve both advance into the Daytona 500 via the Duel races and don’t need to rely on their qualifying times, then Biffle will make the race based on his speed in Wednesday’s qualifying session alongside Kaz Grala.
However, if only one of Villeneuve or Gragson race their way in, the next spot based on speed would go to Grala. Biffle would be the first driver out.
“With this car, there is a lot more drag and if you poke your nose out of line, you better have someone go out there with you,” Biffle said. “We’re going to be as aggressive as we have to be. We have to go across this line. We need to race and figure out how the car races in the pack.
“We’re not as concerned where we are going to start in the 500. We have to make sure we start in the 500. Getting in is important and we will race as hard as we have to.”
Biffle has returned to Daytona every year since 2016 except for last year, when COVID limited garage access. It was the first time in 22 years that he did not come to Daytona Beach, Fla., in February.
Even with all of his experience, the new car presents a lot of unknowns.
“The goosebumps this weekend is I don’t know how the car drives, I don’t know how to start it and I don’t know how to shift it,” Biffle said. “I do know how to get on and off the race track, but we only have one engine. I can’t make mistakes with the gearbox. This isn’t a natural transmission to shift, but my off-road car has a sequential gear shift so that helped me yesterday.
“There is a lot new, but I don’t want to make a mistake that costs the team. But I do know how to start the car now.
“It’s a little button on the dash.”