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Career Milestone: This weekend will mark a career milestone for Jeff Green, as he is scheduled to make his 250th NEXTEL Cup Series start at New Hampshire International Speedway. Green made his Cup series debut on September, 10, 1994, at Richmond International Raceway, when he was 31 years old. Driving the Sadler Brothers’ No. 95 Ford, Green completed just 42 of 400 laps before transmission troubles ended his day.
In all, Green has 503 total starts in NASCAR’s three national series heading into this weekend (249 NEXTEL Cup Series starts, 253 NASCAR Busch Series starts, and one NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start).
Jeff Green: “Someone asked me how I feel about making my 250th Cup start. I guess it’s kind of a big deal, but when you look at guys like Ricky Rudd and Terry Labonte and how many starts they have, 250 is just a drop in the bucket.
“I will say I feel very blessed to have been given the opportunity to compete at this level long enough to get to 250 starts. I pinch myself when I think that I’m just a kid from Owensboro, KY., that gets to race cars for a living. Michelle (Green, Jeff’s wife) and I are very lucky people. This sport has been great to us. ”
Chassis: Haas CNC Racing Chassis No. 406- This car of tomorrow chassis was used in a test session at Bristol Motor Speedway in early March, and Jeff Green drove this car in the NEXTEL Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway earlier this month. In that race, Green finished 30th after losing several laps while his team replaced a flat tire during a green flag run.
Last Race At New Hampshire: After starting the race from the 20th position, Green completed just two laps of the 300-lap event before he found trouble on the front stretch of the 1.058-mile speedway.
Green was running in the outside line of cars just before the start/finish line on lap 3, when the No. 5 car, driven by Kyle Busch, moved up in front of Green’s No. 66. Green made contact with the right rear of Busch’s machine, causing Green to lose control and slide down the track before making hard contact with the inside retaining wall.
The accident severely damaged both the front and rear of Green’s car, and track workers had to load the entry onto a wrecker to get it back to the garage area. Green and his team were out of the event less than 10 minutes after the race began, and finished 43rd.
Q&A With Driver Jeff Green:
What do you think of New Hampshire International Speedway, now that it’s been a few years since they’ve done some paving work to the facility? “Well, it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be. Still, when they run the other series with different tires on the same weekends we’re there, the first 10 (Nextel) Cup cars that go out during qualifying are going to be sliding all over the place. It’s tough to get grip in the tires when the other rubber is down. Other than that, I like racing here. ”
Since you raced a lot on shorter tracks earlier in your career, do you enjoy the tracks like New Hampshire? “Yeah, I do like the shorter tracks. It seems like when we go slower, we race harder, if you can believe that. ”
Q&A With Crew Chief Harold Holly:
The past few weeks have to have been frustrating for you and the team. What are your thoughts on this weekend? “The past five weeks have definitely been frustrating. The thing is, it’s not like we haven’t had cars that are competitive. We’ve gotten into a couple of situations that were just bad luck, and then we’ve made some mistakes as a team that has cost us at a couple of other races. The bad luck things you have no control over, which is why you have to minimize the mistakes.
“The team knows what we have to do. No one wants to be put in the position of being outside the top-35. We feel like we can make up some ground this weekend at New Hampshire. We did really well at a couple of the other car of tomorrow races, and I have no reason to think we can’t do the same this weekend. If we perform at Daytona like we did in February, we have a real shot at a top-10 or even a top-five. We had a bad pit stop that put us back in the field and we got caught up in Jimmie’s (Johnson) crash, but the car was stout, and we had been in the top-five for a lot of the race.
“Again, we just need some good luck, and we need a mistake-free day. Once we get some positive momentum on our side, I think it will snowball. ”
