Biffle reminisces about Kentucky Speedway

In June of 2000, while yours truly was dead stopped on the highway three miles from the exit for Kentucky Speedway, Greg Biffle was on his way to winning the inaugural race in Sparta.

“It was a lot of fun in the truck series doing that. It was all new. I went to Memphis for the first time and here, it was a lot of fun,” he said.

“We were kind of pioneering in the sport. The sport was changing dramatically then.”

In 2002, Biffle once again had a shot to win at Kentucky. He came off of turn four, side-by-side with Todd Bodine, beating and banging off Bodine’s car.

“We were wrecking coming across the line and he beat me, which wasn’t a good memory, but it was fun,” Biffle said

It’s that kind of finish that has the current Cup driver fired up about returning to the Bluegrass State.

“This racetrack will promote that kind of racing. This racetrack will be side by side racetrack. Every time the speeds seems to be slower, or not as high, it promotes more side by side racing and this track will definitely do that,” he said.

“There are so many bumps around this place,” said Joey Logano. “Turns one and two, mainly on the bottom, there’s a good one into three and the front straightaway is pretty bumpy, but I like it. I think it gives [the track] good character.”

And when Joey Logano says he likes Kentucky Speedway, he means it. He’s won the past three Nationwide Series races at Kentucky.

Biffle knows the track’s character that Logano referenced will make the “Quaker State 400” a lot of fun in July.

“A racetrack has to have character and this racetrack has character. The progressive banking off of turn four makes it a lot of fun to race here,” Biffle noted. “It’s going to be an exciting race, it’s going to be really fun.”

However, Biffle noted that testing at a track hasn’t always helped him out.

“The track is so different now than what it will be because the groove is going to move out and move around and when the speeds pick up the set ups have to change to accommodate the faster speeds,” Biffle said.

“We got to a point a few years ago that when we went and tested somewhere we were worse when we went back to race than when we didn’t test. It gave us a false sense of security.”

But when Logano and Biffle come back to Kentucky in July I wouldn’t be surprised to see them at the top of the charts throughout the weekend. The winner of the inaugural race at Kentucky would certainly love to be the inaugural Cup race winner.

“Number one, I love going to new racetracks because nobody has an advantage,” he said. “The 48 hasn’t raced here a dozen times or Mark or whatever else, so that’s a lot of fun when there’s a level playing field when we all come here the first time or second time or whatever.”

To win though?

He stated, “That would be fun.”