A tribute to NASCAR great Greg Biffle
- Brian Cleary
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
When you've been photographing motorsports for 40 years it is amazing the number of people who pass by your camera. At some point you begin to realize that there are many drivers whose career you've covered from beginning to end. For me, NASCAR great Greg Biffle was one of these drivers, so the recent tragic news that he and his family had perished in a North Carolina aviation accident hit particularly hard.
Biffle seemingly appeared out of nowhere back in 1998 when he showed up at Disney World Speedway in a Jack Roush prepared NASCAR Craftsman truck. He came home 5th in that race, a hint of things to come. Just 2 years later he captured the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship and a couple of years after that he was crowned the 2002 NASCAR Busch Series Champion. In 2005 he finished runner-up to Tony Stewart in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race, thereby coming closer than any driver ever has to winning all 3 of NASCAR's major championships.
While I never worked closely with any of the teams for which he raced, I will always remember him being a quiet professional who always seemed to race near the front without the accompanying drama that seems to surround many of the top names in motorsport. Also he was never going to put himself, his team or his sport in a bad light.
I was lucky enough to cover his entire full time NASCAR career and was there for many of his racing highlights. And always felt a wave of happiness when he was able to prevail and steal the headlines from some of the all-time greats as he often did at a hugely competitive era of the sport, racing against guys like Earnhardt Jr., Martin, Gordon, Harvick, Newman, Johnson, Stewart, Hamlin, the Busch brothers and many more.
Greg seemed to be a perfect fit for the Roush Racing organization at a time when they were among the sport's elite, quietly getting his job done and winning 19 Cup races, tying him with the likes of Davey Allison, Buddy Baker and Fonty Flock. Had he arrived a few years earlier than the advanced age of 28, who knows how many trophies he may have claimed. Hopefully this tally can earn him a spot in NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in the not too distant future.
When it was time to wind down his career he did so without a lot of hoopla and moved on with his life, most recently using his aviation skills to help those affected by Hurricane Helene, finding fulfillment in helping others.
In Greg Biffle's memory I've created a small gallery of images from archive, trying to focus on his triumphs, which can be viewed clicking here.
Greg Biffle's tragic passing, along with his wife Cristina, his children Emma and Ryder, as well as passengers Dennis Dutton, Jack Dutton and Craig Wadsworth serve as a reminder of how tragic and fleeting our lives are. He leaves a legacy that should remind us that we can all achieve are dreams with hard work and persistence. If we take a lesson from Greg we will all be kinder and better people, overlooking our own comfort to help each other in times of need.
R.I.P.
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