DAYTONA BEACH, Fla: It seemed like a longshot when John Cohen’s NY Racing Team filed an entry for Greg Biffle to attempt Sunday’s Daytona 500.
The gamble, however, paid off in Thursday night’s Bluegreen Vacations Duel at Daytona when the Vancouver, Wash. native kept his No. 44 Grambling University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE out of trouble and overcame a series of fumbles to secure the 28th starting position in Sunday’s “Great American Race.”
Biffle did not carry the speed in his No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet from Wednesday night’s Daytona 500 qualifying session to lock him into the field forcing the team to be one of two non-chartered Cup organizations to fight for one available position in the 60-lap duel race.
The qualifying race started off the right foot for Biffle but during the team’s routine green flag pit stop, the team had trouble fueling their car which cost the team precious time to stay in a part of the lead draft and nestled inside the top-10.
The extra seconds on pit road, unable to fill the car full of fuel saw Biffle run out of gas in the closing laps of the duel, but when leader Joey Logano crashed coming out of Turn 2 on the final lap, the race shifted from green to yellow – allowing “The Biff” to cruise to the checkered flag in 13th and three laps ahead of his nearest challenger Timmy Hill – securing the team a spot in the Daytona 500 for the first time since 2015 with driver Reed Sorenson.
Biffle, 50, will make his first Cup start the season-finale at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway at the end of the 2016 season and hopes to secure his seventh top-10 finish in the Daytona 500.
“It feels really good,” said Biffle. “I’ll tell you; I have not slept much in the last couple days just trying to keep a cool composure. I’ve been nervous about this race because there’s so many things that can happen and so many ways it can go.
“We’ve talked the scenarios all the way, and I watched the first race and I saw the 62 car was in the lead of the cars, and I thought, well, if he finishes in front of those guys and the 50 actually runs in the second race, we’ll be in on time.
“Just figuring all those scenarios. But the car drove really, really good. We ran up in the top 10 there, 12th or whatever, ended up finishing 13th. We had a little bit of a hiccup trying to put fuel in on pit road and lost the draft, so we were able to kind of work our way back in there.
“Really excited for Grambling University, and this Childress-Hendrick combination really worked for us. We’re excited about it.”
Biffle explained Thursday night that the team’s decision last minute to attempt NASCAR’s Super Bowl event hasn’t gone as smooth as he or the team had hoped, they have together remained relentless and were determined to overcome the hurdles they faced to earn one of the 40 starting positions available.
“Yeah, you know, let’s face it, when you start a program, there’s a lot of things you need,” explained Biffle. “One analogy that comes to my mind is you’re going to go camping for the weekend, you need everything. You don’t have anything, right? Down to every last piece. You don’t know that until you get there, and you know, oh, no, we don’t have this or we don’t have that.
“We had a lot of equipment, but do we have the right equipment for this new car, and that’s what posed a big problem for us. We only got 10 minutes of practice in the first practice because some of those new car issues that we weren’t quite ready for.
“It’s been a challenge all weekend, but I think we got our feet under us now, especially with the way the car drove. The car drove amazing. Really, really good. I watched some guys that looked like they were too free and have handling issues, and I didn’t experience that.
“Anyway, it’s been a challenge for us all the way around.”
Biffle said that despite the forks in the road, it doesn’t matter anymore – because the team is in the show and is trying to put their setbacks behind them and focus forward.
For Biffle, it’s focusing forward not only on racing but everyday life too.
“Makes me feel good for the 500 on Sunday that I’ve got a competitive car that I can challenge for the win. You know, it’s a humbling experience. It’s challenging. I’m used to coming down here, being in the 500. You’re a charter team or you’re high enough in points. It definitely has been a lot of pressure.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for the guys that come down here and have to do it every year. It’s tough. I’ve done it once before a long time ago. I won’t mention how long ago that was. I’ve had to do it once before, try and race my way in.
“It’ll be a nice night tonight, but I’ve got to get up at 7:00 in the morning and go do a charity fishing tournament on Lake Lloyd, so I’m excited about that. No sleeping in tomorrow. And when you have a year-and-a-half old, you get up at 6:00, 5:30 every day anyway.”
The 19-time Cup Series winner skirted around the issue on whether he would compete in more races with the NY Racing Team following Daytona, but he did make it evident the team wants to make sure they are in a good place to compete before they attempt to qualify for other races.
“Well, I think the important thing will be that we’ve got to have cars that are capable of running competitively at the racetrack,” sounded Biffle. “That’s the most important thing. I certainly don’t want to come and run 38th and try and stay out of the way. I’ve already done that before at different times in my career.
“If we can get a program put together, get the proper alliance with some teams, get some help, which I have to say Chevy and RCR and Hendrick have been a huge help to this team so far, and I know there’s other Chevy teams that could maybe help, as well.
“It’s really up in the air. It really depends on — I know it’s difficult to get cars and parts, so every team is facing that, so it’s kind of a waiting game, wait and see. I’m willing to continue to try and help them if we can put the right program together.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
