May 8, 1999 – Greg Biffle speeds to first career NCTS win at Memphis

Greg Biffle speeds to first career NCTS win at
Memphis

Greg Biffle,
#50 Grainger Ford F-150: (Started first, finished first) “I
don’t know what to say. Every time that I came into the pits, I
went back out number one. The Grainger Ford was just awesome today.
We got a monkey off of our backs. I have to thank all the people
that gave me the opportunity, Benny Parsons, Jack Roush and all the
guys and Grainger too. The guys did a great job today. I couldn’t
have done it without them.”

Greg Biffle: COMMENT ON THE EXCITING RACE TODAY. “We had a
pretty good truck early on. But I’ll tell you what, I give a lot of
credit to the #98 truck. I had no idea that he was going to be that
good today. He started getting loose out in front of me and I
thought that I’d give him 10 or 15 laps and then go after him. I
wanted to save my stuff and then go after him and the lead. I just
decided to take care of my tires and let race run on and let the
Grainger guys in the pits do the work for me and get us out in front
of him. And sure enough that is what happened. We came in for the
first pit stop and we went out in first place. The guys just did an
awesome job. I never had to use my tires the whole day for track
position because I came out of the pits first every time.

DOES YOUR JUBILATION THIS YEAR ERASE THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF LAST
YEAR? “Not really because we made bad mistakes last year that were
really just common sense. We just really blew it huge last year.
We should have been able to win here last year. The truck that we
had here last year was twice as fast as the truck that we had today.
I could do just about anything that I wanted to last year. Today I
had to really work for it and had to count on the guys to make some
chassis adjustments and to put tires on it to stay where I was.”

IS IT GRATIFYING TO GET YOUR FIRST WIN AT THE PLACE WHERE YOU
THOUGHT YOUR FIRST WIN WAS GOING TO BE? “Yeah it really is. I told
a lot of people back home that you really need to watch this race.
I told everybody that out of anywhere, I thought we had the best
chance of winning here than anywhere else on the circuit. We were
so fast here last year that nobody could beat us this year. There
was a handful of trucks up there that were really fast.”

IS THIS WIN MORE MEANINGFUL? ” Yeah it was. This year I had to
work a lot harder but the guys did a tremendous job. I keep going
back to that point. The engine program that Roush has and the
bodywork, you can’t forget all the guys that give us this equipment
to win with. They’ve all done a tremendous job for us.”

IS THIS
AS RELIEF FOR RANDY (GOSS, CREW CHIEF) AS WELL? “It’s a relief for
the whole team. I’m happier for the team than I am for myself. The
guys work so hard. We drivers do work hard at the track and doing
all the media things but those guys work year round on those trucks
and they got to have something to look forward to when they get up
in the morning and go to work. You work year round to win races and
that is what we all strive for. So they get rewarded when we can
bring a win home.”

COMMENT ON YOUR NEED TO BE PATIENT OUT ON THE TRACK TODAY. “I
think that I did a fairly good job of being patient and laying back
off of the #98 truck and taking my time with the traffic. I think
that I gauged myself so that I would have enough tire at the end of
the race. It was really close. I did save enough to have enough at
the end.”

WAS IT GOOD TO GET YOUR FIRST WIN WITH JACK ROUSH HERE TO SEE IT?
“Yeah it’s great because Benny Parsons was the one who really got me
my opportunity by telling Jack Roush about me after seeing me at the
Tucson Winter Heat Series. So it was great that both Jack and Benny
were here for my first win.”

DID JACK (ROUSH) TALK TO YOU OVER THE RADIO TODAY? “No not until
the end of the race. He was very supportive. He said that I was
doing a great job and to keep my cool. I had 25 laps to go or
whatever it was at the time. He said to take care of our stuff and
stay out in front.”

DOES IT ADD TO THE PRESSURE WHEN JACK IS HERE? “Not really
because I put so much pressure on myself to win for the team. Last
year added a little pressure when he was here. I don’t think it
does anymore though. I’m pretty comfortable with him. I wish that
he could attend more races. But of course he needs to go to all the
Winston Cup races so unfortunately he can’t be at many of our races.
It was great that he spent some of his valuable time to come to
Memphis.”

Jack Roush, #50 team owner: “I think that Benny Parsons
may have had it right after all. Benny did a good job bringing Greg
to our attention and now it looks like he is ready to go and maybe
win a championship.”

Randy Goss, #50 crew chief: “This has been the longest
year of my life. We screwed up here last year and didn’t come in to
pit. He has deserved this win for a long time. I’d like to thank
all the people back at Roush in Livonia. They stuck with us for a
long time and we finally got the win for them.”

 
Kevin Harvick, #98
Porter-Cable Power Tools Ford F-150: (Started third, finished
second) “We probably needed some left side tires but that is the way
it goes. We made the call and we have to live with it. But it was
a good day for the Porter-Cable Ford. We had a hometown crowd here
today and we gave them a good show. We gained a lot of points back.
We dug ourselves a hole in the first two races and now we’re gaining
them back. Four top-10 finishes in a row, we can’t complain. We’ll
get us a win here pretty soon. We’re real close today but it just
got away from us at the end. That’s good, competitive truck series
racing.”

HOW GOOD WAS YOUR TRUCK AT THE START OF THE RACE? “My truck was
flawless. We thought we had a good truck. Obviously it needed left
side tires more than we thought it did and like I said that is the
way it goes. We’ll go on to Pikes Peak and we’ll get us a win here
pretty soon.”

Kevin Harvick: DID YOUR TRUCK GET BETTER AS THE DAY WENT ON?
“I don’t think that our truck got any better but I think that it
stayed consistent and kept on going. Greg’s truck was loose too.
It was just one of those deals. If he would have made a mistake, I
would have won the race. I didn’t want to get third and I didn’t
want to make a mistake. Different pit sequences work out better is
some situations and some don’t. Maybe we learned something today.
There was nothing bad that happened today. There are a couple of
more things that will make us better in the future. We need to put
the right brakes on it and when you can get tires, you get tires.
We’ll keep learning and go on.”

Mike Stefanik,
#66 Carlin Burners & Controls Ford F-150: (Started
25^th, finished 11th) “We made a ton of changes to the
truck coming into this weekend. We had the same basic Ford F-Series
truck but we put in a whole new front clip. That might not sound
like a lot, but believe me that is changing everything from the
firewall forward to the front that is under the hood geometry-wise.
We improved fourteen spots in the race but we could have been better
than that. We chose a different pit strategy and we were coming.
My wife (Julie) was giving me the split times of the pack over the
radio and we were gaining. We would have liked it to work out a
little better but I’m not going to cry in my beer. Our pit stops
were great and we were right on with the big boys on our stops. We
picked up spots every time, one or two or more. That was great. We
worked together. We now have a good foundation truck that we hadn’t
had until now. I would get out of the old truck and the crew would
ask me what I thought and I would say Oh my God, I don’t know what
to tell you! I wouldn’t know where to start to make the truck
better. Now I feel that I can help them with good information. We
have a good foundation to build on now. It’s like we’re starting
over, but I’m a rookie, so I’m going to use that as my excuse.”

Mike Bliss,
#99 Exide Batteries Ford F-150: (Started eighth, finished 12th)
“We had a real good truck all day long. I was just riding along and
the #86 kept putting their right rear tire out there. I hit it once
so we went over and told them to pull their right rear in. Then it
happened again and I caved the nose of the truck in and that just
killed the handling of the truck. It was very tight at the end of
the race. The fender actually punched the tire. We should have
been higher today, but knocking that front end in just killed us.
We had to run 60 laps after that happened.”

COMMENT ON YOUR TEAMMATE WINNING THE RACE? “It is good for Greg
and good for Roush Racing. Jack was here so it puts a star in
Greg’s notebook. Both teams ran well this weekend, so we’re looking
good going to Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak is like this track and we’ve
learned so much from this track that we feel good about going
there.”