In the October, 2006, NEXTEL Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, Jeff Green qualified eighth and finished eighth, marking his second top-10 finish of the 2006 season.
Earlier in the week, the management of Haas CNC Racing promoted Holly to the crew chief position with Green’s No. 66 Best Buy Chevrolet team. Holly had been working as crew chief of Johnny Sauter’s No. 00 Haas CNC Racing NASCAR Busch Series team.
That race marked the first weekend Green and Crew Chief Harold Holly had worked together since they dominated the NASCAR Busch Series as driver and crew chief, respectively, of the No. 10 PPC Racing entry, from 1999-2001.
CHASSIS: Chassis No. 406 – Built by Hendrick Motorsports, this chassis is brand new. On Monday, March 19th, the Best Buy team spent several hours “shaking down” this car at South Georgia Motorsports Park, near Valdosta, Ga. The team brought it to Bristol Motor Speedway as the backup car for last weekend’s NEXTEL Cup Series race.
Q&a With Driver Jeff Green:
Several drivers are complaining about the Car of Tomorrow (COT). Given how things went last weekend at Bristol for your team, are you a fan of the COT? “Yeah. I mean, I’m more confident with where our team is at with (the COT) than I am with the other car right now. I was excited about it. I’ve been used to sliding around, so it really wasn’t much different for me, if that’s what (the other drivers) were doing.
“It’s still a race car. It’s still got four tires, four shocks, four springs, and you still have to tune on it to get it the best you can. With the tire situation the way it is, as hard as (the tires) are, I think the other cars would have slid around as much as (the COT) did. I’m sure it will be much different on a mile-and-a-half track, but on a short track, I couldn’t tell much difference.”
Harold Holly (crew chief of the No. 66) said you had to bring out setup notes from four or five years ago and refer to them to set up the COT. Do you think that works in the favor of a veteran driver like yourself, as opposed to some of the younger drivers who weren’t around five years ago? “I don’t know. In terms of the percentage of races I’ve driven, I’ve driven more of the older type setups like we had last weekend, with limited travel on the front end and stuff like that. It’s only been the last three or four years where we’ve been doing what we do on the other cars, with the coil binding. I don’t know if it helps or not, but I’ll take any advantage I can get, so I hope it does work in my favor.”
Is it too early to grade the COT, or do you think it’s going to help competition in the way NASCAR hopes it will? “I think it’s going to be great (for the sport). Anytime you can make the car safer and make the competition closer because everyone’s the same, it’s going to bring the driver back into the equation even more, and the teams with more resources are hopefully not going to excel as much as they have.
“NASCAR’s got the teams in a much smaller box now than they have in the last three or four years, and they police that car so much, it’s much harder to bend the rules or find that gray area. It’s kind of like buying a kit car, basically. If NASCAR does what they say they’re going to do and keep policing the (COT) like they are, it’s going to give the teams without as much funding and without as many resources the chance to be much more competitive than they have been for the last three or four years.”
Martinsville is a track where you’ve run well. Do you think the short tracks suit your driving style more than the 1.5-mile tracks? “I think we’ve performed better at the short tracks lately just because we’ve hit the setup closer or had better race cars at those places. I enjoy them all. I’ve won at big tracks and short tracks, so it really doesn’t matter to me where we’re going on any given weekend.
“I like Martinsville, but I wouldn’t say it’s one of my favorite race tracks. I like that you’re able to sling your car around a lot more. As a driver, it puts it back in your hands and how you drive can definitely make or break what kind of finish you produce that day. I like that.”
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