Greg Biffle revels in Tri-City’s revival as he returns for another shot at a West Series victory

Plenty of memories came flooding in for Greg Biffle when he arrived at Tri-City Raceway in West Richland, Washington last year to participate in the facility’s first ARCA Menards Series West event since 2003.

Tri-City is where it all began for the 19-time NASCAR Cup Series winner a little more than three decades ago. Biffle’s accolades at the half-mile oval include two track championships in 1995 and 1996, all of which helped springboard a successful career at the top levels of NASCAR.

Biffle did not get the result he wanted at Tri-City last year, but he more than enjoyed interacting with fans and observing all the positive changes made at the track. When he saw Tri-City would return to the West Series schedule in 2025, Biffle knew he needed to make another trip to the facility that shaped him as a driver.

“It’s fun to go back to [Tri-City],” Biffle said. “I hadn’t been there in a long time, and last year was the first time in maybe 20 years. I had a great time and had a good race. We didn’t make the right adjustments at the halfway point, but we were competitive. I’m looking forward to coming back and redeeming myself a little bit.”

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The time Biffle spent at Tri-City during his youth only amounts to about four years. After winning his two track championships, Biffle received opportunities to compete in the West Series and NASCAR Northwest Tour before embarking on a full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series campaign in 1998.

Yet even as Biffle progressed forward and tackled tracks like Darlington Raceway, Daytona International Speedway and others, he always considered Tri-City one of the most difficult tracks. Biffle attested Tri-City’s arduous nature to its unorthodox layout that kept drivers vigilant.

Those obstacles were laborious at times, but Biffle believes they helped expedite his development into a driver who could win titles at the national level, something he eventually accomplished in both the Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series.

“[Tri-City] is a challenging place,” Biffle said. “It has three distinct corners, [like] a mini-Pocono or Nazareth. As drivers, we know hardly any race track is the same on each end. [Tri-City] has a really tight Turn 1 with the banking flattening off. Then there’s a fairly tight kink down the backstretch with a sweeping Turn 3 and 4.

“Those types of things build characters and teach lessons behind the wheel; you have to adapt to the conditions.”

Although Tri-City was beloved by Biffle and many other stock-car competitors in the northwest, the facility began to endure financial issues during the early 2000s. After Jeff Jefferson won a Northwest Series race there in September of 2004, Tri-City ceased operations, ending a proud racing culture that spanned more than four decades.

Biffle, who was in his second full-time NASCAR Cup Series season with what was then Roush Racing at the time, had been closely monitoring Tri-City’s situation prior to its closure. Not wanting to see one of his favorite tracks get lost to redevelopment, Biffle was determined to use his resources to keep Tri-City open for fans and competitors.

“I was working on trying to buy [Tri-City],” Biffle said. “We were medium close to having a deal done, but some of the hesitation for me was that it was a long ways away from where I was. I enjoyed the race track that much that I was looking into potentially purchasing it. I thought it was going to be a development or shopping mall, but obviously that fell through after it closed.”

Although Tri-City remained dormant into the 2010s, a lack of redevelopment on the site left open the possibility that racing could return. Momentum gradually built toward a Tri-City revival when the city of West Richland purchased the complex, but work was needed to restore the infrastructure that had been left to the elements.

By the fall of 2021, Tri-City was ready to host major racing events once again with Greg Walden, the son of long-time track promoter Wayne, assuming his father’s role. Biffle was eager to help Greg and track management any way he could with generating publicity for Tri-City.

Among the ideas Biffle suggested was suiting up for his first touring race at Tri-City. That proposal became a reality with the West Series’ return in 2024.

Biffle worked out a deal with Sigma Performance Services to drive their No. 23 Chevrolet in last year’s West Series event. The day started out strong for Biffle with a fourth-place qualifying run, but the adjustments made at the intermission did not favor his car, and he faded to ninth at the checkered flag, the last car on the lead lap.

One aspect that surprised Biffle about Tri-City was how unfamiliar the track felt after he had not run a major event there since 1997. The layout and the heavy West Series cars threw Biffle similar surprises to what he experienced as a rookie, effectively making Tri-City feel like a new venue.

“I thought I would have some kind of advantage from winning a championship and all the races I had run [at Tri-City],” Biffle said. “But it had literally been so long that I didn’t remember the race track as well as I thought I would. It had been so many years since I put laps down at the track that it took me a little while to come back.

“It wasn’t like riding a bike.”

For Biffle, the 150-lap West Series feature was only part of the adventure that weekend. He made sure to take in every part of the atmosphere, from the renovations Walden and his team installed at Tri-City to the capacity crowd in attendance.

There were times last year when Biffle genuinely felt he time travelled to the 1990s, back when he was still trying to prove himself as a competitor. The faces and cars had changed, but modern Tri-City bore a striking resemblance to the place he fell in love with, showing no signs of having been abandoned for nearly 20 years.

Now that he is somewhat re-acclimated to Tri-City, Biffle has his eyes set on a much better performance with SPS on Saturday. He does not plan to over adjust at the halfway break like last year, but Biffle still expects a tough challenge from a crop of West Series competitors that includes title contenders Trevor Huddleston, Tanner Reif and Kyle Keller.

Biffle has always been an ardent supporter of racing culture in the Pacific Northwest. With Tri-City now thriving and the West Series having a presence there, Biffle hopes more attention can be brought to the region and the local drivers trying to make a name for themselves, just like he did at Tri-City 30 years ago.

“This is huge for the entire northwest to have racing at this level,” Biffle said. “There’s kind of a lack of oval track events and venues out there, so this is a good opportunity for all those people to come out and see great racing.

“I think [Tri-City] is in a great spot.”