Driver Jeff Green and his No. 66 Haas CNC Racing team settled in among the frontrunners throughout the first half of Sunday’s 400-lap NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Richmond International Raceway. In what was the fourth race this season in which teams have used the new Car of Tomorrow (COT) design, Green and his No. 66 Chevrolet Impala SS appeared headed for a third top-10 finish in a COT event (on the heels of sixth-place runs at Bristol Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway).
But a pit road miscue just past the midway point of the race dropped Green a lap down to the race leaders, and brake issues in the latter stages of the race added to his team’s misfortunes. On two separate occasions, the front brakes locked up on Green’s car as he entered a turn at the. 750-mile speedway. The first time it happened, Green slid up the track and made contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr. around lap 285. When the brake issue reappeared some 70 laps later, Green made contact with Greg Biffle, damaging both cars.
By the time the checkered flag was displayed for race winner Jimmie Johnson, Green’s hard luck left him with a 24th-place finish. The result drops Green one spot to 24th (unofficially) in the NEXTEL Cup Series drivers’ points standings. “We’ve got some work to do on our brake package, ” Green said. “The front brakes locked up on me and I got into (Dale Earnhardt) Jr. Then it happened again with (Greg) Biffle. I apologize to those guys. The brakes locked up and it just wouldn’t turn.
“I definitely didn’t mean to hurt anybody else’s day. We had a good car, but man, obstacles kept getting in our way. A lug nut fell off on one stop and we went from the top-10 to being a lap down, and then our brake problems are really frustrating. ” The finish was especially disappointing to Green and his Haas CNC Racing crew after the way their car performed earlier in the day.
After rain forced NASCAR to postpone the start of the race from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon, the No. 66 team was eager to get its entry on track and replicate the successful runs Green enjoyed in two of the previous three COT races. Starting from the 12th position, Green quickly worked his way up as high as sixth position, remaining in the top-10 for over 160 laps.
NASCAR Timing and Scoring displays showed Green had one of the fastest cars of the 43 drivers competing in the event in the early going. In fact, both Haas CNC Racing entries were strong in the early stages of the race, with Green’s teammate, Johnny Sauter, also finding his way into the top-10 from his 17th-place starting spot.
Sauter’s chances at a good finish were ended when the car of Juan Pablo Montoya slid into Sauter’s No. 70 Chevrolet around lap 118, causing Sauter to slide up into the outside retaining wall. Sauter’s team was able to keep him in the race, but not on the lead lap. Green was still running in the top-10 when he came to pit road for fresh tires and fuel around lap 203. As his crew was performing a four-tire pit stop under green flag conditions, a lug nut fell off the left front wheel of the No. 66 machine. A series official spotted the problem, and under NASCAR rules (which states that each wheel must be held on with five lug nuts), Green had to come back down pit lane a second time so his crew could replace the missing lug nut.
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