Offseason capsule: Greg Biffle
Yahoo! Sports is spending the offseason breaking down the Nextel Cup field as the season-opening Daytona 500 approaches.
We continue to count down through the standings to No. 1: 2005 Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart.
 | Greg Biffle  | |
2005 Recap
Biffle had an outstanding season, leading all drivers with six wins (one-sixth of the schedule) and falling just 35 points shy of the championship. Had it not been for a pit road mistake at Texas in the fall, the Vancouver, Wash., native easily could have been the Nextel Cup champ.
2006 Outlook
What's next
With last season's success, Biffle established himself as one of Nextel Cup's elite and now is considered one of the favorites to win the championship. Biffle and crew chief Doug Richert are one of the most formidable driver/crew chief combinations in the business. Richert led Dale Earnhardt to his first career Cup championship in 1980; don't be surprised if he does the same with Biffle 26 years later.
Best case scenario: Biffle wins the championship, capturing five or more victories along the way. If he does win the Cup title, Biffle would become the first driver ever to win championships in all of NASCAR's top levels: Craftsman Truck (2000), Busch (2002) and Cup.
Likely scenario: If he fails to win the title, Biffle is pretty much a lock for a top-five finish – possibly in the form of a second consecutive runner-up performance. At 36, time is slowly starting to run out on Biffle's Cup career. If he's going to strike, this is the time to do so.
Beware: Biffle became a proven winner in 2005, but he'll get in major trouble if he rests on his laurels or thinks he can have the same kind of season in '06 without putting forth the same hard-nosed effort. This is not a time to relax; Biffle has to work even harder to not only equal what he did last season, but to exceed it.
