Why Changing Crew Chiefs Won’t Save Greg Biffle

By: Darius Goodman

Listen up Greg Biffle fans. His career is over. Roush-Fenway Racing needs to face the fact that Biffle isn’t racing up to his previous potential.
In 2015, Biffle didn’t perform well, he hasn’t picked up a championship and has become so poor of a driver he has the racing vision of an ARCA driver. Want to know who is doing better than Biffle? The trivia isn’t hard. Jamie McMurray the 2003 NASCAR Rookie of the Year winner. With fewer wins (7), less top tens (131) and fewer pole positions (11), Jamie McMurray would have been a better driver for Roush racing when they had to trim down to 4 teams over Greg Biffle.

Biffle has gone through a few crew chiefs in his time, but this won’t help him regain the form that he had in 2005 when he finished in a tie behind the soon to retire Tony Stewart. Has he won? Yes! Has he been consistent? No.

A 20th place finish in points pretty much tells me that he won’t make it with the new wave of talent coming in. From the looks of it, Roush-Fenway racing is grooming the replacement for Biffle and that change may come sooner rather than many people want to think. However, according to a post from earlier in the year, Biffle might be in the #16 until the 2017 season.

“I’ve got my own plan. I’m enjoying driving these cars and love what I do,” said Biffle, “I feel like we’ve got still something left to accomplish. I’m looking forward to the new body that we’re going to get, and the downforce (with the 2016 rules package) and the changes we’ve made in the company. I want to see Roush Fenway winning races when I hang my helmet up for the last time, and I think we can do that. I know we can do that.” [i]

As far as I can see, adding a new crew chief will not change the aging Biffle’s racing career and bring him a championship. It will be a long time coming but with Jeff Gordon gone, Tony Stewart leaving in 2016, it will be a matter of time before Biffle hangs it up willingly or gets replaced by one of Roush’s more suitable candidates, like Chris Buescher who has been groomed in the Xfinity series for a long time prior to earning himself a Cup ride with the smaller Front Row Motorsports team.

My prediction for Biffle, he will continue to have poor finishes and won’t really excite the way he did in his earlier years. 1 Win and 11 top 10s. Falls out of the Chase in the first round with inconsistent finishes in key situations.

[i] http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/story/greg-biffle-says-of-retirement-i-ve-got-my-own-plan-101715

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