Biffle talks about recent plane incident & what he paid $19 for on recent flight

A recent incident to Greg Biffle’s plane has left the driver hitchhiking with other drivers on their planes and he even flew commercial to California last week.

 

Biffle, who said this week he’s close to signing a contract extension with Roush Fenway Racing, has been without his plane since an incident March 9 in Lexington, Ky., when the wheels didn’t lock on landing and the plane skidded to a stop.

 

Biffle talked about the incident:

 

Q: Was the incident a scary situation?

 

Biffle: Very scary. When it happened, it didn’t really set in. I don’t think you really register what is happening. When it stopped and I was like, “Man, what happened.’ (One of the pilots) is like, “the gear didn’t lock or something, hurry up, let’s evacuate the aircraft.’ Evacuate was a word that kind of scared me. So I opened the door and we get out and the reality kind of set in, this is bad. This could have been bad. That wing was 6 feet from the edge of the runaway.

 

"When that wing gets in the grass or the runway lights, it does two things. One, it instantly flips it upside down because (the wing) digs in (to the grass) and cartwheels it. Or, two, the runaway lights just slit the wing open and that’s where the fuel tank is, so it catches on fire. My pilots did a fantastic job. They did everything by the book. Things happened for a reason. We were going to go to Morehead City (N.C.), it was a 4,000-foot runway, and I had a meeting that popped up in Lexington, Kentucky, so I went there and it was a 7,500-foot runway. We stopped 500 feet from the end. If you do the math, that’s about 3,000 foot short of being across the road, through the chain-link fence and out in the water. That’s what Morehead City is. I’m lucky I wnet (to Lexington) prior to going to the coast.

 

Q: How have you been getting around?

 

Biffle: Hitchhiking. You don’t realize how many friends you have until something like that happens. Jamie (McMurray) sent his airplane over to pick me up (from Lexington after the incident). Matt (Kenseth) has given me rides. Denny Hamlin has given me rides. Elliott Sadler said just to call him if I needed the airplane and several other people, Kasey Kahne. Everybody has been real helpful. I flew commercial to California and hitched a ride home. I flew to Vegas (for an appearance) and then I flew Vegas to California on Southwest. I sat in the back. (sit in a middle seat?) No, I paid $19 to get a window seat.’’

 

Q: Is your plane too damaged to fix?

 

Biffle: It’s not damaged too much but what happens now is you have to look at what aircraft is worth repaired vs. what it’s going to cost to repair it vs. it has a lot of value as salvage, which sounds crazy. Like part it out. Aviation parts are super expensive. Windows are like $10,000 a piece and crazy stuff like that. I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I love that airplane. I hope that we fix it, but economics may not.

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