GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE WEEKEND? “I’m feeling really good. We run good here at Chicago. Unfortunately, we’ve had three 11th-place finishes in a row, but there’s really nothing wrong with an 11th-place finish, we’d just certainly like to get in the top five, and we feel like we can do that. We run very good at these mile-and-a-halfs, we’ve had some great finishes on mile-and-a-halfs this year, and I like the track. I like the way it drives. I think our chances of a top-five are very good.”
THERE IS NEWS TODAY CONCERNING TONY STEWART. HAS OWNING A TEAM EVER CROSSED YOUR MIND? “Yes, it certainly has. I had some of those same offers prior to re-signing with Roush Fenway. You know, I enjoy racing, I love the sport, I love Nationwide cars, I love the Sprint Cup cars, but right now, I’ve thought several times about Truck, Nationwide teams, and I think I’m going to focus on driving right now, and then maybe consider that later on. That certainly interests me, but it didn’t interest me at the time that, right now, in my career. To each his own. Kevin Harvick loves it. Tony may love it, would be looking forward to it, I’m sure he is, with owning a race track in Eldora and things like that. I enjoy doing what I do away from the business. I do a little bit of business stuff, but I’m going to stick to focusing on this, and focus on driving right now, and maybe look at some other way to be involved in the sport in the future, as I go on maybe after I get done driving.”
YOU MENTIONED THAT YOU LIKE THIS TRACK, BUT THIS WILL BE THE FIRST RACE HERE UNDER THE LIGHTS. WHAT CHANGES DO YOU EXPECT? “I expect a good race. Normally, night racing puts on great races. The track’s got a little bit better grip, and we’re in the middle of summer, the heat of summer. More grip typically means better racing, and more passing and all those things. So, I definitely think it’s a good move for Chicagoland Speedway to move this race under the lights. I think the fans and TV are going to see a great race.”
SINCE YOU HAD MADE SIMILAR CONSIDERATIONS, WHAT WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT OR TREPIDATION WOULD YOU HAVE FOR TONY STEWART? “It’s certainly an exciting prospect to be involved in that. And I thought about it seriously. And it’s intriguing, it’s fun. But I just felt like right now wasn’t the time for me. Right now might be the time for Tony. Now, if I had two Spring Cup titles, would I have done that? There’s a good possibility. There’s a good possibility that my consideration would be different. With not having a title at this point in my career, and no champion’s provisional, that may not be the best thing for me. And I thought the best thing for me was to stick with the organization that I feel I have stock in, and they have stock in me. We have a great team, the 16 car, great people, great sponsor – couldn’t ask for a better sponsor with 3M and their association with American Red Cross and all that they do. I feel like that was the best thing for me right now. Tony’s been with Home Depot for 10 years. I’ve been with 3M for four or five years – actually this is the first full-time season on the Sprint Cup side. So, there’s a lot of elements involved. Something new. Rarely do we see in this sport a sponsor with a driver for more than that 10-year period. I think Jeff Gordon is an exception, and there are probably a few others. So, there’s lots of things that were, I would consider, in someone’s favor to go do something different. And, keep in mind, a lot of people can look at this from the outside and say, ‘Man, that’s a big undertaking to go do something like this.’ It is, but you look at the car performance – that team is basically an extension of Hendrick Motorsports, and they have Hendrick technology, cars, engines, set-ups – just like, you know, someone would have access to all of our stuff, well that doesn’t scare me a bit about going and trying something new, if you know you have that information line. And this is very important to have that wealth of information and engineering support. If you go to a brand-new team or a two-car team that doesn’t have access to that, it makes it much more difficult to compete in this arena. And those are things you have to consider.”
EIGHTH THROUGH 13TH PLACE IN THE STANDINGS IS VERY CLOSE. ARE YOU FEELING MORE PRESSURE AS THE SEASON GETS CLOSER TO RICHMOND? “Yeah, I mean, last week was dismal. We finished 43rd. I wish we could go back and rewind the clock, but we can’t. I got to worry about Chicago and these races coming up. Very disappointed with where we’re at. We were second in points and now we’re 11th, on the fringe of being out. But our team is strong enough to make the Chase. That’s one positive thing about it, is we’re competitive enough, we’re running good enough to make the Chase. That’s what I feel we’re going to get in the Chase on.”