Biffle: Future Part-Time Ride Just A Pipe Dream

(Originally published on June 11, 2008)

Greg Biffle would certainly like more time to hang out with wife Nicole and rescue puppies.

But he admitted Wednesday on Long Island that seeking a Mark Martin-like schedule before too long-which he's mentioned in the past-is more wishful thinking than long-term objective.

The Biffles were at the Garden City Hotel accepting the Just One Award at the Lewyt Humane Awards Luncheon, hosted by the North Shore Animal League America. The driver, who is about to sign a new contract with Roush-Fenway Racing, is a realist about how busy his schedule will be for many years to come.

"I think I was stating the fact that any driver would love to be able to make the money that you can make and have all the weekends off," the 38-year-old Biffle said. "Not [just] drivers. You, me and everybody else. If they said, 'Hey, you know what. We're going to pay you the same but we only want you to work half the time. Just go ahead and take long vacations and do what you want.' I mean, that would be the ultimate. So I think I made that statement saying everybody would love to have that deal. I've got two to three, at least, contracts worth of [full-time] driving [to go]."

As for the present, there is a certain irony: Fulfilling the sponsor obligations of the current contract can make inking the next one darn near impossible.

"Absolutely. If you can't get to the office, there's no way you can sit down and work out details," said Biffle, who added that the deal might have gotten done this week if not for the trip to LI. "So that's been one of our things. In May, I had one day off in May. We had something going every day. So it makes it difficult to actually get to sit down and think about it and look it over."

But the hectic schedule has not slowed the Biffles' crusade to find homes for animals that need one. The work of the Greg Biffle Foundation includes a monthly transport in which puppies in the Carolinas-where there is more of an overpopulation problem-are taken to North Shore's no-kill facility in Port Washington. Biffle explained that North Shore educating the public on spaying and neutering on LI has made it possible to accept animals from another area.

"They have a platform that nobody else does," Biffle said of North Shore. "They've been able to really, really perfect it. We hope that other organizations can somewhat model themselves after North Shore Animal League or work with these guys."