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Sprint Cup
CUP: Biffle Not Looking Back, Focused On Better 2012
Greg Biffle's 16th-place finish in points last season was his lowest since 2004...
Greg Biffle posted just three top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in 36 points races last year. (Photo: Getty Images)
Greg Biffle has been around the block, or in this case the race track, a few times, and one thing he says he’s learned is that as a competitor, you make your own luck.
So it’s difficult for him, he said, to get his arms around what exactly led to a 2011 season that saw the Roush Fenway Racing driver go winless for just the second time in his NASCAR Cup career.
While teammates Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth were enjoying consistent finishes and qualifying for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Biffle and his No. 16 team found the going uncharacteristically inconsistent, with just three top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in 36 points races. His 16th-place finish in points was his lowest since the 2004 season.
“Last year, we had the crappiest luck that I’ve ever seen in my life. Ever,” Biffle said.
A former champion in both the Nationwide and truck series, Biffle, 42, can recount with ease the races that got away a year ago. Fueling issues bit the team early in the season at Las Vegas, and a few other places as well, he said. A shot at the win at Charlotte went by the boards thanks to a late caution that wiped out his lead with two laps remaining.
Similar issues at Michigan followed.
“Luck, coincidence, whatever it was,” he said, “it just happened. It was like we couldn’t do anything right.”
In April, Biffle and primary sponsor 3M each re-signed with Roush and by July, a personnel shakeup saw Matt Puccia replace Greg Erwin as crew chief.
While he missed making the Chase, Biffle and his team were neck and neck with eventual champion Tony Stewart heading into the closing weeks of the regular season.
“That gives you an idea of how tides can turn,” he said. “A perfect example. That just needs to happen to the 16 team. ... That just gives me confidence that we can do that.”
Robbie Reiser, the former crew chief who now serves as general manager, said the chemistry from 2010 “had worn out a little bit” for the 16 team and necessitated the crew chief change. At the time, the rest of the team remained intact.
“Whenever you change management of a team, you change the character of it,” Reiser said. “I think with us getting to the end of the season, we were able to downsize some of our personnel, and that allowed us to pick some of that personnel apart and change that team dramatically.
“The 3M team over the last couple of years has been a competitive team, but not a championship-driven team. We had to sit down and say, ‘What are some of the things we need to change?’ We went back and we changed our whole travel group. A lot of it was just to put some enthusiasm, some younger guys in, a different look than they had had before.
“The other thing, we looked at the over-the-wall group, did an evaluation of some of our younger talent compared to some of our veterans, split that up and put that into that team.”
Biffle said he likes the new combination of personnel, several of whom came over from the organizaton's No. 6 team that has been put on the shelf, and doesn’t worry about what has happened in the past. His focus, he said, is on looking ahead.
“It’s always looking at the next race,” he said. “Because the longer you dwell on what happened last week, the more it just drags you down. Take the positive from it. Look at how fast our cars are, how good we ran. There’s noting I can do about that [other stuff]. Otherwise, it will just eat you up.”
A 16-time winner in the Cup series, Biffle has finished inside the top 10 in points four times in his nine full seasons. And Reiser says he doesn’t see why the driver can’t contend for a title once again in 2012. If more changes are needed, he said, then those steps will be taken.
“We had to sit down and look at his team, take it apart and then put it back together,” Reiser said. “We just looked at the weaknesses and what would work best with Matt and his style, give him two engineers around him [that are] a little better than what they [previously] had.
“Did we do the right thing? Let’s go into the season and see what we’ve got. I will tell you that I’m not going to be afraid to change some of this stuff. If we start out the year and we don’t have what we need on the 17 [of Kenseth] or the 99 [of Edwards] or the 16, we’re going to make some changes.
“That’s just part of the sport and we need to be aggressive with that if that’s what we need.”
SceneDaily.com • Crew chiefs preparing cars but anticipate more changes to Daytona rules
So it’s difficult for him, he said, to get his arms around what exactly led to a 2011 season that saw the Roush Fenway Racing driver go winless for just the second time in his NASCAR Cup career.
While teammates Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth were enjoying consistent finishes and qualifying for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Biffle and his No. 16 team found the going uncharacteristically inconsistent, with just three top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in 36 points races. His 16th-place finish in points was his lowest since the 2004 season.
“Last year, we had the crappiest luck that I’ve ever seen in my life. Ever,” Biffle said.
A former champion in both the Nationwide and truck series, Biffle, 42, can recount with ease the races that got away a year ago. Fueling issues bit the team early in the season at Las Vegas, and a few other places as well, he said. A shot at the win at Charlotte went by the boards thanks to a late caution that wiped out his lead with two laps remaining.
Similar issues at Michigan followed.
“Luck, coincidence, whatever it was,” he said, “it just happened. It was like we couldn’t do anything right.”
In April, Biffle and primary sponsor 3M each re-signed with Roush and by July, a personnel shakeup saw Matt Puccia replace Greg Erwin as crew chief.
While he missed making the Chase, Biffle and his team were neck and neck with eventual champion Tony Stewart heading into the closing weeks of the regular season.
“That gives you an idea of how tides can turn,” he said. “A perfect example. That just needs to happen to the 16 team. ... That just gives me confidence that we can do that.”
Robbie Reiser, the former crew chief who now serves as general manager, said the chemistry from 2010 “had worn out a little bit” for the 16 team and necessitated the crew chief change. At the time, the rest of the team remained intact.
“Whenever you change management of a team, you change the character of it,” Reiser said. “I think with us getting to the end of the season, we were able to downsize some of our personnel, and that allowed us to pick some of that personnel apart and change that team dramatically.
“The 3M team over the last couple of years has been a competitive team, but not a championship-driven team. We had to sit down and say, ‘What are some of the things we need to change?’ We went back and we changed our whole travel group. A lot of it was just to put some enthusiasm, some younger guys in, a different look than they had had before.
“The other thing, we looked at the over-the-wall group, did an evaluation of some of our younger talent compared to some of our veterans, split that up and put that into that team.”
Biffle said he likes the new combination of personnel, several of whom came over from the organizaton's No. 6 team that has been put on the shelf, and doesn’t worry about what has happened in the past. His focus, he said, is on looking ahead.
“It’s always looking at the next race,” he said. “Because the longer you dwell on what happened last week, the more it just drags you down. Take the positive from it. Look at how fast our cars are, how good we ran. There’s noting I can do about that [other stuff]. Otherwise, it will just eat you up.”
A 16-time winner in the Cup series, Biffle has finished inside the top 10 in points four times in his nine full seasons. And Reiser says he doesn’t see why the driver can’t contend for a title once again in 2012. If more changes are needed, he said, then those steps will be taken.
“We had to sit down and look at his team, take it apart and then put it back together,” Reiser said. “We just looked at the weaknesses and what would work best with Matt and his style, give him two engineers around him [that are] a little better than what they [previously] had.
“Did we do the right thing? Let’s go into the season and see what we’ve got. I will tell you that I’m not going to be afraid to change some of this stuff. If we start out the year and we don’t have what we need on the 17 [of Kenseth] or the 99 [of Edwards] or the 16, we’re going to make some changes.
“That’s just part of the sport and we need to be aggressive with that if that’s what we need.”
SceneDaily.com • Crew chiefs preparing cars but anticipate more changes to Daytona rules
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