Gregg Biffle went from local ‘hellraiser’ to NASCAR champion

Jim Peebles was a friend of NASCAR driver Greg Biffle while growing up in Camas in the 1980s.

The two attended Camas High School together and even got into a little mischief from time to time.

In 2014, when Peebles was a co-owner of the Camas Gallery, he helped commission Camas artist Maria Grazia Repetto to paint a mural of Biffle on the walls of the gallery in downtown Camas.

“The city of Camas is very proud of him,” Peebles said at the time. “We haven’t had very many people who are famous come out of Camas. When we do, we latch on to them.”

The people of Camas and Clark County suffered a big loss Thursday when Biffle and his family died in airplane crash in Statesville, N.C.

“Greg was one of the most accomplished racing drivers in NASCAR history and a champion in multiple series and celebrated as one of the sport’s greats,” Camas Mayor Steve Hogan said in a statement Thursday. “But he was more than that to us. He was also a proud son of Camas and a graduate of Camas High School, whose achievements brought immense pride to our community.”

In 2006, the city of Camas dedicated a quarter-mile stretch of Lake Road and gave it the honorary name of Greg Biffle Boulevard.

“This is right up there with the top things for me,” Biffle said at the time. “I suppose this is comparable to winning a (NASCAR Cup) race.”

Biffle was born in Vancouver. And while the house he grew up in had a Vancouver address, it was located in rural Clark County east of Proebstel and north of Fern Prairie. That would lead Biffle to attend Camas High School, where he graduated from in 1988.

Biffle lived in Vancouver in the 1990s and operated a couple of local businesses — J&S Racing, a high-performance parts and accessory store in Orchards, and Greg Biffle Pub and Grill, also in Orchards.

In 2023, Biffle was selected to NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers list for his success in NASCAR Trucks, Xfinity (then called Busch) and Cup series from the late 1990s to 2016.

Biffle started racing in the NASCAR Winston Series at the old Portland Speedway while still in high school. But his racing days go back further than that.

“Ever since I was 13, 14, 15, I’ve been into cars, building motors and street rods,” Biffle told The Columbian in 1995. “I got into a lot of trouble driving fast, drag racing on the street.

“I lost my license for three years. Got about 25 tickets — six or seven for speeding. I was a hellraiser.”

In fact, the first time Greg Biffle’s name appeared in The Columbian was in 1984 when, at the age of 14, he was arrested along with four other youths for vandalism after causing large ruts by driving a car on the grass at Marine Park in Vancouver.

He later found a better outlet on the race track.

In 1993, Biffle went from racing weekends at Portland Speedway to joining the Northwest Tour, which held races around the Pacific Northwest.

A string of victories, each with $500 prize, helped Biffle keep racing in 1994.

“I’ve been on a shoestring,” Biffle said in 1994. “Thank God I’ve been winning, otherwise I don’t know if I could have continued racing.”

A couple of wins in the nationally televised NASCAR Winter Heat Series during the winter of 1995-96 got Biffle noticed.

He raced in two NASCAR Busch Grand National events in 1996, and in September 1997, he signed a four-year contract to drive for Roush Racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 1998.

“The goal my first year is to win a race,” Biffle said at the time.

He didn’t win a race in 1998, but he earned four pole positions and finished eighth in the season standings, earning him the Rookie of the Year award.

The victories came in 1999 — nine of them — as he finished second in the season points standings. In 2000, Biffle won the Truck Series title, beating out Roush teammate Kurt Busch.

Biffle joined the NASCAR Busch Series in 2001, won five races and was the Rookie of the Year. The following season, he won four races and had 20 top-five finishes out 34 races, leading to Busch Series title.

Biffle made his move to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2003, where he would post 19 victories over the next 14 seasons. He posted three wins at Homestead-Miami Speedway and four at Michigan International Speedway, including his final Cup win in 2013.

Biffle’s final year at full-time Cup racer was in 2016.

Biffle married Nicole Lunders in 2007, and they had a daughter, Emma, in 2011. The couple divorced in 2016.

Biffle’s second child, Ryder, was born in 2020 with fiancée Cristina Grossu. The couple married in 2023.

Biffle’s wife, daughter and son were all with him in the plane that crashed Thursday.

Biffle was a private pilot and has owned multiple aircraft, although it was not clear if Biffle was flying the plane that crashed Thursday. Two others on the plane were also pilots.

Biffle got a helicopter pilot’s license in the early 2000. In 2024 in the wake of Hurricane Helene, Biffle used his helicopter to help people stranded in parts of North Carolina, delivering food, water, medical supplies and communication equipment to mountain communities cut off by washed-out roads.

“I’ll tell you, the feeling you get when you win a race, you can only ask drivers, right?” Biffle told NASCAR.com. “Because the feeling you get when you win that race, that’s the feeling you get when you’re able to help people in need.”

That part of Biffle’s life filled Camas residents with as much pride as anything he accomplished on the track, the city’s mayor said.

“Beyond the racetrack, Greg was known for his generous spirit and commitment to helping others,” Hogan said. “He used his resources and skills to give back in meaningful ways, including humanitarian missions and disaster relief efforts. His legacy of service and compassion touched lives far beyond Camas.

“On behalf of all our residents, I extend a heartfelt condolences to the Biffle family and loved ones of all those affected by this tragedy. Greg’s passion, courage and kindness embodied the very best of our community, and his loss will be felt deeply by many. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and all whose lives he enriched.”