For the fourth time in as many races at NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at the 2.66-mile high-banked track in Alabama.
, Jeff Green and the No. 66 Garmin / Best Buy Racing team posted a top-15 finish in Sunday’s 500-mile NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at the 2.66-mile high-banked track in Alabama.
Fast work by the pit crew, coupled with several strategic two-tire pit stop calls by crew chief Harold Holly and hard driving by Green gave the No. 66 a 13th-place result in the event.
“It was a pretty good day for the Garmin / Best Buy team, ” Green said. “We stayed out of trouble, avoided the wrecks, had some really good pit stops and pulled out a top-15. If I could have gotten anyone to work with me there at the end, I really think we could have gone to the front, but anytime you can even finish at Talladega, you have to see that as a good day. ”
Starting from the 32nd position in what was the first superspeedway race for the new Car of tomorrow design that will be implemented fulltime in the Cup series in 2008, Green charged his way into the top-20 on just the fourth lap of the 288-lap race.
As the pack of 43 cars raced two and three-wide, Green went with the ebb and flow of traffic, moving up as high as 16th and as low as 24th in the first 15 laps. Following a caution from laps 19-22, Green quickly moved into the top-10 on lap 24 before dropping back to 23rd position on lap 34.
While there was plenty of multi-groove racing in the early going, the drivers quickly fell in line and ran single-file for a number of laps, with no one really pulling out of line to try and mount a charge.
When Green came in for a pit stop during green flag racing around lap 60, Holly decided to only change left-side tires on the No. 66 Chevy, which gave Green better track position. Quick work by the pit crew allowed Green to lead lap 62, giving the team five bonus points for leading a lap.
An accident involving David Gilliland and Greg Biffle brought out a caution flag a few laps later, and the leaderboard showed Green sitting in the sixth position.
Following the restart, Green was shuffled back as far as 15th position by lap 85, but competitors finally chose to start racing two and three-wide, which shuffled the running order and gave those in the field a chance to make a run at the leaders. Green found himself running as high as second-place by lap 89 before three-wide racing dropped him back to 12th two laps later.
A caution flag for debris on lap 93 allowed Green to come back to pit road, where his team bolted on two right side tires and filled the fuel cell on the No. 66. Again, fast pit work allowed Green, who had been running in 16th position prior to the stop, to return to the race in eighth position.
Green remained in the top-20 for the rest of the race, even after his team performed a four-tire stop during a lap 114 caution period.
The leaderboard showed Green moving as high as seventh and as low as 15th as the race progressed, but a surge on the final laps allowed Green to push his No. 66 back up to 13th position as the race ended.
The race was won by Jeff Gordon (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet), who mounted a late charge with his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jimmie Johnson. On the final lap, Gordon, who had been running behind Johnson, pulled out into the low lane and the two drivers battled side-by-side to the finish.
Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet) finished second, followed by Dave Blaney (No. 22 Caterpillar Toyota), Denny Hamlin (No. 11 FedEx Chevrolet) and Ryan Newman (No. 12 Alltel Dodge).
It was another tough day for several of the 12 drivers involved in the Chase for the championship. Martin Truex Jr. (No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet) and Jeff Burton (No. 31 AT&T Chevy) both suffered engine failures, while Kyle Busch (No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevrolet) was involved in “The Big One, ” the nickname given to multi-car crashes at Talladega. Matt Kenseth (No. 17 DeWalt Ford) also suffered damage in an accident and finished 26th.
Gordon now leads the points standings, followed closely by Johnson, who is just nine points out of the lead. Clint Bowyer (No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevy) is third, 63 points back, while Tony Stewart (No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet) is 154 points back, and Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Pennzoil Chevy) finds himself 202 points out of the lead.
With his top-15 finish, Green continues to hold the 28th position in NEXTEL Cup drivers’ points standings, while team owner Joe Custer gains one spot to 29th in owners’ points with six races remaining in the season.
The members of the No. 66 crew will now get to spend some time in North Carolina over the next week and sleep in their own beds the night before the race. While there is a race next Saturday night, it’s being held at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., located around 15 minutes from the Haas team shops. The 1.5-mile track, known as “The Beast of the Southeast, ” is the only facility that hosts a Saturday night race during the 10-race Chase for the champions
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