Promoting the Coke Zero 400 with Greg Biffle & his Encounters at the Florida Aquarium, Tampa, FL
By Debbi Willis, Another Viewpoint and StockCar Review.com
with Marisa Jimenez, Photographer
(June 9, 2009-Tampa, FL) The Florida Aquarium welcomed Greg Biffle on Tuesday in Tampa, Florida to promote the 51st annual Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola on Saturday, July 4 at Daytona International Speedway. As part of the 2009 Coke Zero 400 Media Day, the Roush Fenway driver was laid back but straightforward in an easy-going question and answer session with the media. Greg fielded queries about the sport, its biggest stars and his team’s performance this season. The first questions immediately addressed the recent trophy event fresh on everyone’s minds, and Greg admitted he’d broken a trophy, once – unintentionally, when shelving at home failed and a crystal trophy crashed. Of course, he had it replaced. Putting everyone at ease with a great sense of humor, Biffle continued to field questions.
When asked about Tony Stewart’s success this season, Greg answered directly, “Here’s the thing: not to take anything away from Tony, Tony does a fantastic job, but…you know what I’m saying, ‘owner-driver’ it’s a different context today. And I don’t think we’re ever gonna see a true, just driver, you know, just go out and start his completely own team from scratch and go. And I’m not saying, certainly don’t want to take anything there again away from Tony because basically they’ve started from scratch but you know that building equipment some personnel, some cars, to hell, having an alliance already, you know.” Biffle continued to say, “But people were like, aw, he’s crazy, is he gonna be able to do this or that or everything else, oh absolutely! I knew he was going to have success. If the alliance is a true alliance like a lot of these teams are and you’re gonna get the same equipment the 48, the 24, the 5 and the 88 have, why wouldn’t you be successful?”
I asked about changes being talked about for the COT after the town hall meeting with the drivers and Greg replied, “I think they’re gonna make good changes, definitely and, that meeting, you know, I wanna see that progress, that move forward and go.” When I asked if he was happy with that meeting, Greg stated, “Yeah, yeah, I think it was good for NASCAR to get together and get our input. What we want, to feel like we want to make a difference and to help in some of this decision-making for things on the cars that maybe we could possibly make some better ideas. You know maybe have meetings that we have an influence. When you have a meeting and they say we’re gonna do this that really doesn’t work as a negotiation point, that’s not a negotiation point.” Greg said the meeting was pretty positive, and commented that, “…the only thing that we weren’t told but kind of caught the drift about the single file-double file restarts.”
When I asked if he like the double file restarts, Greg has some thoughts about that overall. “I think it’s going to be good, good for our sport. I would tend to argue with the fact that not having the single file with ten to go,” he said. But he feels the last ten laps still need to stay single file, “You know everybody thinks back to the AllStar Race you know double file restart. That’s what we’re basing this, our decision on. Well, that was 10 to go, no points, a million dollars to win, and it doesn’t matter if you wreck your car. That’s why we can’t just go out there and run out stuff into things and smack someone else, we gotta get points. And now we’re trying to win a title. “
Biffle was pensive considering the sports degree of competitiveness and a measure of tradition that should be preserved for those who have earned their way into position by the race’s end. He continued his explanation, “It’s getting tougher. You start thinking about some of these things that are adding up and it’s getting tougher. I really feel like the single file restart, those guys have EARNED that right, that opportunity. We still see good racing, right? It’s just the leaders, they’re single file. We still see ‘em fanning out, passing, dropping still that you know. You’re gonna race 500 miles, have a green, white, checkers and the 5th place guy’s gonna win but maybe that’s what we want, that excitement we want, it just seems like maybe a little bit of that tradition in the sport and the guys who have that position, the guy who has the best pit stop on and off pit road first you know."
Greg gave everyone the ageless formula for success in any season while discussing the success the 14 team has had this season already. He told everyone, “I mean all you have to do at that point is put together a great pit crew, a great set of mechanics, a great driver, a great crew chief and he’s got all those people. And that’s what it takes to win races today, no different than me or whoever else; you have to have all those pieces. I don’t care who you are, where you came from, rules, cars, you gotta have those ingredients.”
During lunch, I’d had the opportunity to talk with Greg about the Chase and last weekend’s race and with Greg’s usual tongue and cheek humor, he pointed out there just wasn’t a well timed caution for the end of the race (so he’d have had enough fuel). When I asked him about being in the Chase or out of the Chase, he said, “If you’re not in the Chase, you’re NOBODY.” I found that a very sad feeling to think that of the 43 regular drivers every week on that track, after week 26, 31 other drivers will pretty much feel like NOBODIES because they didn’t make the Chase. There’s something wrong with this picture and I suspect it’s the root of sponsorship woes too as who would want to sponsor a driver who might end up a “NOBODY” after 75% of the season?
After meeting with the media, Greg met the Florida Aquariums host, Pebbles, very cute Penguin who like radios. From there, Greg donned a wetsuit and dove in with the fish, sea turtles and eels in the aquarium for lots of aquatic wildlife time. Greg thoroughly enjoyed his visit and after his dive said, “It’s been a great day. I’m so excited! They call this work for me. I have to come to work and do these things. This is really fun to get to swim with these great creatures, all these animals and fish. It’s pretty neat to get an opportunity to be able to do that. I’m having a great day so far.”
Today, July 4th, Greg will hope to have another great day and add another victory to his record books by winning the 51st annual Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway.
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