Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Greg Biffle Talks NASCAR, North Carolina Hurricane Relief, Cleetus McFarland & More | Lights Out With John Roberts

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Greg Biffle Talks NASCAR, North Carolina Hurricane Relief, Cleetus McFarland & More | Lights Out With John Roberts · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:05
  It is time once again to go lights out with the BIFF.
• 0:10
  Greg Biffle is with us. And Greg, you are coming off a
• 0:13
  pretty cool weekend where you got an opportunity to go back to
• 0:16
  Darlington to drive the pace car.
• 0:19
  When NASCAR invites you to do something like that, how big of
• 0:22
  an honor is that? Man, it's a huge honor.
• 0:25
  I'm telling you, it's a, it's a great opportunity.
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  And I think I've driven the, I think I've driven the pace car
• 0:35
  one time before. I think it was an Xfinity race,
• 0:40
  but this is definitely my first time at a Cup race.
• 0:44
  So it was, it was pretty special getting to, you know, getting to
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  make laps around Darlington again.
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  So it was a lot of fun. In a slightly slower vehicle
• 0:54
  than you're used to. But you know, NASCAR BIFF does a
• 0:57
  great job these days of keeping the alumni around.
• 1:01
  They have the new alumni program and that's got to be a great
• 1:04
  opportunity also, not only to get out every once in a while,
• 1:07
  but also to catch up with guys you basically lived with for a
• 1:11
  long time. It is the guys that I didn't get
• 1:14
  the race with got Lake Speed, Robert Presley, you know, all
• 1:23
  these guys at the at the racetrack get to see and trade
• 1:27
  stories and visit with. It's so nice to see all of them
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  and catch up. I'm telling you it, I'm starting
• 1:35
  to enjoy that more than anything at the track.
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  Then sitting in that beautiful room that NASCAR and Darlington
• 1:44
  put together, big screen TV, air conditioned food.
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  And I mean, we get to sit there and trade stories and talk about
• 1:53
  the old days and, and get to go outside and participate with all
• 1:57
  the all the events and all the things that going on.
• 2:00
  I'm telling you, they're doing it right and it's fun to be a
• 2:03
  part of. So speaking about doing things
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  right, Greg, you got a lot of notoriety, but I, I know that
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  wasn't your goal. I'm glad people paid attention
• 2:12
  to what you were doing. But you were one of the first
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  guys before anybody else before, you know, elected officials
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  jumped out to help the people in Western Carolina.
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  What was going through your mind at that time that you jumped on
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  your helicopter and started trying to rescue people and help
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  people out? What, what spurred you into
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  that? You know, it's funny, John, it,
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  it, I was working on this little 20 foot skip boat getting ready
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  to go to the Bahamas the next day for like an 8 day trip.
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  I was all excited about it and I got this message, two or three
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  different people sent me this message that a family with a
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  young couple of young children, you know, infants were stuck up
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  at Boone or Banner Elk. And we're in Airbnb.
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  So of course they didn't have tons of supplies in the pantry
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  like, you know, normal people would that live there.
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  So they were out of food, out of baby formula, out of diapers
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  because they'd gone through the supply they brought.
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  They were supposed to be leaving right when that storm hit.
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  So now the power's out. They're stuck there.
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  And I'm telling you, it's going to be weeks before they could
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  get out because the roads are washed out.
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  There's a tree down about every 30 feet for 25 miles.
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  And on top of that, the bridge is gone, the roads are washed
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  out and infrastructure is gone. So I, I felt like they had no
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  way out unless I dropped what I was doing.
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  Delayed my trip for a day at that point.
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  That's what I thought until I went up to the airport.
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  Power's out, so I had to use the tug to get the hangar door open.
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  Got the helicopter out and got in the air.
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  Once I got in the air and up near there, I was blown away and
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  shocked by the devastation I saw.
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  And right away I realized this is a much bigger situation than
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  a lot of people know about because all communication was
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  lost. So really there was no reporting
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  on it, not from the fact that people didn't want to report it,
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  just they had no way of reporting it.
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  So once we started showing photos and videos and, and I
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  made a message or a post that I was going up there, we got like
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  4000 messages in a matter of, I don't know, an hour of I haven't
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  heard from my neighbor, haven't heard from my parents, haven't
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  heard from my kids. It's just, it was incredible
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  what had happened and what had taken place.
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  And I don't think anybody really knew.
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  So I made the point, Greg, and you know, a lot of people were
• 5:02
  saying it was great that you did that, but I just want to make
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  the point. And I put it on social media
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  that, you know, you and I have known each other a long time and
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  this is always been your nature. This was not unusual for you.
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  And people said, oh, how surprising it is that Biff's
• 5:17
  going up and doing this. I said, no, it's not.
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  I said it's what he always does. You know, I, I felt like I did
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  what anybody else in my situation would have done.
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  They had the means, they had the opportunity in front of them.
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  And I just said, you know, if I don't go, who's going to go?
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  And that's really the way I looked at it.
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  And I felt like at that point in my life, I was blessed to be in
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  the situation I'm in and have that opportunity.
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  So, you know, I said I'm going to go and and try and help these
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  folks. What turned into what I thought
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  was going to be one day turned into 11 days in a row sun up to
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  sundown and about 60 hours in that helicopter, which I had had
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  about 13 or 14 hours in total until that point.
• 6:12
  Unbelievable, Greg Well, I know there's a lot of people that are
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  real thankful and what what what you started, you did what a
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  leader is supposed to do. But switching gears here a
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  little bit biff to what's going on on the race track lately.
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  There's a couple drivers who have been, well, we'll get a lot
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  of heck, for lack of a better term on that, about the driving
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  and the respect on the on the racetrack.
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  You were out there for many years and saw many different
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  drivers drive different ways. Do you think there's a lack of
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  respect on the racetrack these days?
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  You know, it, it, there is in some instances, I think, and you
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  know, I've got, I've got kind of my take on it or my, my
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  principle when it comes to driving is it, it doesn't take
• 7:03
  any talent whatsoever or any skill to just wreck another guy.
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  It it, it doesn't, we can all go to the go Kart track on on
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  Friday night or whatever and you can just plow into the guy in
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  front of you and knock him out of the way and and run him into
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  the guard rail and go by. Anyone can do that.
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  The the guy that can come up, rub on his bumper, get him, move
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  him up off out of the way a little bit and go by him or work
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  the angle until you get an opportunity.
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  Now Robin's racing, but to, to clean a guy out for a win or, or
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  a position or whatever it might be.
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  I just, it just sort of crosses the line.
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  I want to see action. I want to see contact.
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  I want to see them pushing and shoving and doing all that.
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  But you know, you can't cross the line.
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  Now I will say sometimes when you push and shove, somebody's
• 8:08
  going to get wrecked. That's just part of it.
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  That's that's part of the that's part of the nature.
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  It's part of racing. But and intentionally just, you
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  know, parking a guy doesn't doesn't really take a lot of
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  skill level and it's disrespectful.
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  So another thing Greg has been talked about a lot is this
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  driver approval process. It's very, very coveted spot to
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  be in one of the cars that gets to race in the Cup Series any
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  given Sunday or Saturday night. It's a privilege, it's an honor,
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  and it's a testament to your talent behind the wheel when you
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  saw it. Now, you would have to go
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  through this right now, I believe an approval process if
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  you wanted to get back in the race car.
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  You've done it before. But what do you think of
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  NASCAR's approval process when you look and the name that comes
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  up a lot right now is Catherine Leg and what happened at Phoenix
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  with her. And NASCAR has said each person
• 9:06
  is an individual situation, but do you think their approval
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  process is working right now? You know, it's a difficult
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  situation to be in for NASCAR because you want to be
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  consistent, OK? But everybody has different
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  backgrounds and and I think I think that the approval process
• 9:30
  should be different slightly for each individual.
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  So let's take for instance, Garrett Mitchell or a lot of
• 9:39
  people know him as Cletus McFarlane.
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  OK, What's his background? His background is drag racing,
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  racing crown vics on a on a Oval, drifting, you know, other
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  other types of of driving things.
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  So what would his, you know, approval process look like?
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  What about a a off road champion or, you know, somebody to that
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  nature that has a a ton of driving experience, car control
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  talent, you know, you think of, you know, rallycross champion or
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  V8 supercar guy coming over so or, or open wheel person.
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  I think that what I'm trying to say is I think every situation
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  is slightly different from the the amount of skill level they
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  bring. How much background do they have
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  in cars? What kind of cars?
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  How are they going to handle this car on these these race
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  tracks? And I think that there's kind of
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  a testing process, but let's get them on a short track, let's get
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  them on a one mile track or, or a mile and 1/2 or, or something
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  to that effect. So I think each process, each
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  person can be different. It's not like going and getting
• 11:00
  your driver's license. You have to do this and take the
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  driving test. I think each person brings a
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  slightly different background and that needs to be considered
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  when approving or disapproving of a driver in my opinion.
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  So one of the guys that believed in you, Greg, and I think
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  everybody has to have that one person that believes in them and
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  and gives them opportunity is the late great Benny Parsons.
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  We all love Benny, but he also had an eye for helping people
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  out as well. How did that whole process
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  happen with you and Benny and and, and Benny getting you in
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  touch with Jack Rash? What was that process like?
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  Yeah, so I met Benny Parsons at A at a series out in Phoenix or
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  out in Arizona, Tucson Raceway Park.
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  So he was doing the TV commentating and I won a couple
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  of those events, ran that. I won the three race series.
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  And I became friends with him over the year, year and a half.
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  I was racing that three race series in the winter time when
• 12:02
  when NASCAR was in their offseason.
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  And I said, hey, how do you what, what should I do about
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  getting an opportunity to get in the Truck Series?
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  And, you know, Benny liked me. We got along well.
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  And he passed my name around the garage.
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  And, and one day he was with, you know, talking with Jack
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  Roush in the garage at Michigan. And Jack was looking for a
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  driver for his third truck team. And he said, hey, don't forget
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  about that kid I told you about out in Washington state.
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  I think he'll do you a good job. And that's all it took, Jack
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  Roush told Jeff Smith, which was the president of Roush at the
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  time. Call and hire that kid.
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  It was no resume, no interview, no test.
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  It was call and hire him. And it was like winning the
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  lottery. It it truly was.
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  And because of that and because of my success, I often think
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  about other drivers across the US that that are in a similar,
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  similar situation as mine that may or may not ever get that
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  opportunity. And and how do you get that
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  opportunity when you are just scraping together enough money
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  to race on Friday or Saturday? Yeah, and I remember Tony
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  Stewart telling us that once back in the day.
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  He said, oh, there's a ton of drivers better than me and this
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  was Tony Stewart. You know, it's like a three time
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  champion telling us that, you know, there's better drivers out
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  there. But man, Biff, when you look at
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  the number of people that are playing professional baseball on
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  any given weekend, but professional basketball or
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  football, there's a ton of people out there right now.
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  There's only about 3638 drivers behind the wheel of a cup car on
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  any given weekend. And I, I think that makes it
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  really special. I think that makes it very, very
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  unique and an elite group of people that gets to race at this
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  level. Yeah, you, you, you, you hit on
• 14:01
  a good point, John. And it's something that I talk
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  about a lot is how many players are in the NFL, how many players
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  are in the MLB? Like you're saying there's only
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  38 players Technically in NASCAR you can count the Xfinity and
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  Truck Series. But in to my point, who gets an
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  opportunity? The baseball, get the game of
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  baseball or the game of football doesn't have a car involved in
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  it. Where the car is a major factor
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  and whether the driver is going to succeed or not.
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  And I've said this forever, you could take Jeff Gordon or myself
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  or Matt Kenseth or Tony Stewart and put him in the lousiest car
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  you can find and we're not going to win.
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  It's just not going to happen. The car is not physically
• 14:53
  capable of winning. Now, in a football situation or
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  baseball, they don't have that obstacle in front of them.
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  So whether you're racing on a Friday or Saturday night in a
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  hobby stock or limited sportsman or a late model or super late
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  model, whatever that might be, or you get an opportunity to ark
• 15:13
  a car. You may be the best driver in
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  the world and you're not, your talent is not going to show
• 15:20
  through because maybe you run 11th in the lousiest car on the
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  racetrack. And so it's very, I'm very
• 15:29
  intrigued by our sport and, and how guys are recognized and, and
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  and of course not recognized. So Biff, I love the you.
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  You send me a picture the other day of your daughter playing
• 15:45
  tennis. It was heartwarming and it just
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  made me think back to what we talked about past couple years
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  about you being able now to have some fun.
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  I know you got your hands at a lot of different things.
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  You're always helping people out, but you got some time for
• 16:00
  yourself these days, don't you? Do enjoy family.
• 16:03
  I do. I'm having a great time.
• 16:05
  I'm telling you, I love John. I love the Bahamas and I, I
• 16:10
  haven't been there since December and I'm getting ready
• 16:13
  to go down there tomorrow. My son's able to go because he's
• 16:18
  able to miss school. But my daughter's that age, she
• 16:21
  can't miss, you know, four or five days of school.
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  I get to spend time with the family and I'm working hard and
• 16:28
  enjoying making YouTube videos and, and playing with stuff in
• 16:32
  my shop and getting ready to do a challenge here in a couple
• 16:35
  weeks with with Cletus and that gang.
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  So I'm having a lot of fun and getting to spend time with the
• 16:41
  family and really enjoying life. Well, I'm so glad to hear that,
• 16:46
  Biff, because of all the years, what you sacrificed on the
• 16:50
  racetrack and racing every weekend and being away for so
• 16:54
  long, I think you guys, all you guys really earn it that reached
• 16:57
  the top of your profession like that.
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  Thanks for joining us, Biff. I appreciate it.
• 17:02
  Absolutely, thanks for the invite and I look forward to the
• 17:04
  next time. OK, we'll see the racetrack
• 17:07
  soon. Yes, Sir.