By Devoun Cetoute, Miami Herald
MIAMI — NASCAR star Greg Biffle, his wife and two of his children were among the dead when a plane registered to him crashed Thursday shortly after takeoff in North Carolina, reports say. During the prime of his career, he broke records locally as a three-time consecutive champion at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Garrett Mitchell, also known as YouTube star Cleetus McFarland, said in a social media post that Biffle, 55, his wife, daughter and son were en route to visit him in Sarasota, Fla., when the crash occurred, the Bradenton Herald reported. Authorities have yet to confirm the identities of the deceased.
Around 10:15 a.m., the plane, a Cessna Citation C550 jet, crashed at Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina, where Biffle and his family reside, the Charlotte Observer reported. There was a heavy drizzle and clouds were low around the time the jet took off.
According to Flight Aware, the plane was scheduled to fly to Sarasota, then Treasure Cay, then Fort Lauderdale before returning to Statesville.
Biffle began his NASCAR career in 1995, driving his first race in NASCAR’s top series, the Cup Series, in 2002. Over 515 Cup Series races, Biffle won 19 times and had 175 top-10 finishes.
While he never won a Cup Series season title — the closest he came was in 2005, when he won a season-high six races, but finished second to Tony Stewart — he was selected as one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023.
He became a legend at Homestead-Miami Speedway when he crossed the checkered line first in three consecutive years from 2004 to 2006. He is the only NASCAR driver to three-peat at the speedway since it opened in 1995.
Speaking on the 2006 trophy win, Biffle told the Miami Herald at the time it was one of his most difficult races.
“I was nervous as can be and I was just scared to death I wouldn’t be able to hold them off,” Biffle said.
Read the Miami Herald’s coverage of his third 2006 win in Homestead written by former writer Cammy Clark:
Getting Lost in Traffic
Nobody knows the route to Homestead-Miami Speedway’s black-and-white checkered Victory Lane better than Greg Biffle.
But on his third consecutive trip, the Roush Racing driver had trouble finding the opening to the Ford 400’s celebration spot because of the mass of people gathered on pit road and the track’s front stretch to watch Jimmie Johnson’s championship ceremony.
“I couldn’t see anything inside my car,” Biffle said.
For every other Cup race, the winner gets the limelight. But at the season-ending Ford 400, the big stage is for the season’s champion. The race winner is in the shadows — literally — and out of view of many in the grandstands.
“But I still get the check and I still get the trophy,” Biffle said with some red, white and blue confetti still falling off his National Guard uniform. “And when I go to Daytona, I’ll be the most recent winner.”
After a season that began with high expectations but turned quickly into a huge disappointment that included missing the Chase, the victory in the finale will give Biffle‘s No. 16 Ford team a boost to take into next season — when it will switch crew chiefs.
Biffle, who won six races and finished second in the championship last season, limped into the Ford 400 with only one triumph and 13th in the points.
“It seems like we haven’t been in the right place at the right time and then haven’t had fast enough race cars and have had a few mechanical failures,” Biffle said. “But this is something else. To come down here to Miami and win again for the third year in a row is pretty incredible.”
Owner Jack Roush said the organization made the mistake of not wanting to mess with success and didn’t adapt enough to the changes during last year’s offseason.
But Biffle always seems to find the magic at Homestead, where he has three of his career 11 victories in only five starts.
Biffle made Sunday’s victory look easy — at least at the end. Biffle was in the lead when the last caution came out. On the final restart that set up a green-white-checkered finished, Biffle got a jump on second-place Kasey Kahne. The only question became: Who would finish second?
But Biffle said it was one of his most difficult wins. He didn’t have as strong a car as he did in the past. He started only 22nd, becoming the lowest qualifier to win the race.
Then there was the incident on pit road, when Scott Rigg’s car knocked Biffle‘s tire out of his tire changer’s hand.
“I went back to 20th and had to work my way all the way back to the front by passing cars on the race track,” he said. “And we were constantly changing things on the race car. … We were trying everything, every stop.”
But Biffle conceded this ending was easier than his previous Homestead victory last season when he bumped door-to-door with Roush racing teammate Mark Martin.
“I was nervous as can be and I was just scared to death I wouldn’t be able to hold them off,” Biffle said.
But Kahne spun his tires on the restart and Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin passed, battling for second while Biffle cruised to the win.
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Miami Herald staff writer David J. Neal contributed to this report.
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