Back-to-Back Southern 500 Winner Greg Biffle Uncovers Darlington’s Irresistible Grip on NASCAR Drivers

Neha Dwivedi | 02/09/2025
NASCAR Cup Series driver Greg Biffle (44) talks to the press during Daytona 500 media day at Daytona International Speedway.

Daytona, Talladega, Charlotte, and a handful of other venues carry prestige that cements a driver’s name in NASCAR lore. Yet Darlington stands apart, loved even by those who rarely tame it. For two-time Southern 500 winner Greg Biffle, that admiration comes not only from its history but from the brutal challenge it dishes out every lap.

Biffle believes Darlington is unlike any other circuit on the schedule, which is exactly why drivers feel compelled to test themselves there.

“I think you like it because of how nostalgic and how difficult it is and the prestige about just racing here and the history it has, right? If you win here, you definitely earned it. And just to run here is enjoyable, just because of what it is, but it is very difficult,” he said.

At the “Lady in Black,” drivers spend 367 laps glued to the wall with no margin for error. Few tracks offer that thin line between win and disaster. Most, Biffle explained, have morphed into pack-style racing like Homestead, but Darlington remains its own beast.

He added, “This racetrack, you drive down in the corner and you let off the gas and turn in. At that point, you’ve committed whether I’m going to hit the wall or not. Now it’s wait and see, and that’s it.

“So, we don’t race at other racetracks really like that, where you’re lifting on the straightaway and you turn down in the corner and it’s just decelerating. It compresses and slides up, and you’re just praying. And you have to do that lap after lap after lap, and it’s just hard to do. It really is.”

History backs up his view. Five times, the driver who captured Darlington’s playoff opener went on to win the Cup championship: Kurt Busch in 2004, Tony Stewart in 2011, Brad Keselowski in 2012, Martin Truex Jr. in 2017, and Joey Logano in 2024.

Yet in the last seven Darlington races before Briscoe’s record-breaking win on Sunday, seven different winners had taken the checkered flag, stressing Biffle’s point that the track spares no one.

Post Edited By: Abhishek Ramesh
Darlington Raceway Greg Biffle Southern 500

About the author

Neha Dwivedi

Neha Dwivedi is an experienced NASCAR Journalist at The SportsRush, having penned over 5500 articles on the sport to date. She was a seasoned writer long before she got into the world of NASCAR. Although she loves to see Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch win the races, she equally supports the emerging talents in the CARS Late Model and ARCA Menards Series.. For her work in NASCAR she has earned accolades from journalists like Susan Wade of The Athletic, as well as NASCAR drivers including Thad Moffit and Corey Lajoie. Her favorite moment from NASCAR was witnessing Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. win the championship trophies. Outside the racetrack world, Neha immerses herself in the literary world, exploring both fiction and non-fiction.

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