Former NASCAR champion Greg Biffle died in a plane crash Thursday in Statesville, North Carolina, the family revealed in a released statement. He was 55.
Biffle’s wife, Cristina, was also killed in the crash, as was their son, Ryder, and Greg Biffle’s daughter from his previous marriage, Emma, according to the statement. Dennis Dutton and his son, Jack, and Chad Wadsworth also died in the crash, which was confirmed in a statement from NASCAR.
A Cessna C550 business jet owned by a company connected to Biffle, according to FAA records, took off from Statesville Regional Airport shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday before quickly circling back and attempting to land. The aircraft crashed at the end of the runway.
Investigations about the incident are ongoing.
Biffle was born Dec. 23, 1969, in Vancouver, Washington, and grew up driving on short tracks in the Pacific Northwest.
In October 1996, he debuted at NASCAR’s national level, finishing 23rd in the AC-Delco 200 at Rockingham Speedway in what was then called the Busch Series, NASCAR’s second-tier division.
He joined the Truck Series in 1998, earning the Rookie of the Year award. Two years later, he won the series title and was labeled its most popular driver. Biffle rose to a full-time Busch Series seat in 2001 and repeated as Rookie of the Year. Big-time success followed in 2002 with a series championship and another most popular driver nod.
From there, he was on to the Cup Series with team owner Jack Roush.
Biffle raced full-time at the Cup level from 2003 to 2016, collecting 19 wins, 92 top-fives and 175 top-10s. He finished as the season-long runner-up in 2005 when he led all drivers with six wins. He placed third in 2008.
In 2023, Biffle was named one of the 75 greatest NASCAR drivers of all time.
Greg Biffle celebrates his victory in the Pepsi 400 on July 5, 2003 at Daytona International Speedway.
The first of his 19 career Cup Series victories came in July 2003 at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Though he never prevailed in the Daytona 500, Biffle earned the pole position for the 2004 Great American Race.
He also competed in the 2005 Rolex 24 at Daytona.
In recent years, Biffle raced sporadically in Stadium Super Trucks and Superstar Racing Experience.
He returned to the Cup Series following a six-year hiatus for five races with NY Racing Team in 2022. His final Cup event was the 2022 Geico 500 at Talladega, nine years after his last victory, in the 2013 Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan.
But Biffle never formally retired.
In 2024, he joined the Let’s Go Racing podcast with David Starr and said he wanted to run another Daytona 500 “in a good, competitive car,” but that ride did not materialize for the 2025 race.
He ran two races in the ARCA Menards Series West in August, finishing third and fourth.
Biffle was a licensed pilot. In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, he used his helicopter to deliver supplies to stricken residents in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. He received the 2024 National Motorsports Press Association Myers Brothers Award for his efforts.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR driver Greg Biffle, three family members dead after plane crash
