One day after retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and his family died in a private plane crash in North Carolina, his mother in-law said the family doesn’t know how they’re going to fill the “huge hole” left behind. Biffle, his wife, Christina Grossu Biffle, their son Ryder and Biffle’s daughter Emma were among the seven people killed when a Cessna C550 crashed while landing at Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina on Friday morning. The other three people aboard the flight were identified as Craig Wadsworth and Dennis and Jack Dutton.Cathy Grossu said she and her daughter were texting “all day long,” including during the flight. “Then she said something like ‘We’re in trouble, emergency landing.’ And I texted back, ‘What’s wrong with the plane?'” Grossu told CBS News. “Then the next thing was (the SOS alert) that you get from your automatic Apple phones when you have an accident or something. And so I knew that something was wrong.” Grossu called the airport. She said she was told there was a fire. “That’s when we knew that they crashed,” Grossu said. A picture of the plane shows the craft engulfed in flames. Debris fell along a nearby golf course, witnesses said. A flight path available on the tracking website FlightAware appears to show that the plane departed, then looped back towards the airport. North Carolina State Highway Patrol confirmed that the plane had departed and was returning to the airport on reapproach, but did not say why. The cause of the crash has not been determined. Grossu said she had last seen the family on the day before the crash, but didn’t remember what her final words to them had been. “It’s a cliche, people say to say ‘I love you’ to your loved ones all the time, and to embrace them and everything else. And that’s the other regret I have, is I know when we said goodbye on Wednesday, we hugged. I don’t know what my last words were,” Grossu said, through tears. “Maybe it was ‘I love you.’ I don’t know. I don’t remember.” Grossu remembered the family as “good people” who “lived life to the fullest.” “It was way too soon for all of them to lose their lives, but they didn’t hold back and they were always giving,” Grossu said. Grossu said 14-year-old Emma, whom Biffle shared with her mother Nicole Lunders, was a “good girl.” Ryder, 5, was a “bundle of energy” who called his grandparents Mimi and Baba. He was at Grossu’s house all the time, she said. He dreamed of being an F1 driver. “All of his presents under the tree were in that regard. And he asked me on Wednesday, he said, ‘Mimi, can I open up one of my presents?’ And I said ‘No, you gotta wait till Christmas,'” Grossu said. “And I regret that, saying that, every hour since this happened, why I didn’t let him open one present. I didn’t, and I feel so badly about that.” Tributes from the racing community and beyond have been pouring in since the family’s deaths were confirmed. NASCAR remembered Biffle as “more than a champion driver” and a “friend to so many.” North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson wrote on X that Biffle was a “great NASCAR champion” and “extraordinary person as well.” A family statement called Biffle and his wife, devoted parents who built their lives around their children. The statement also said Dennis Dutton and his son, Jack, were “deeply loved” and that Craig Wadsworth was “beloved by many” in the NASCAR community. “It’s hard. We’re devastated,” Grossu said. “We’re just taking it one minute at a time,” Grossu continued. “I can’t talk about it without bawling. I try not to, but it’s impossible.”
