NASCAR BGN: Jeff Green moves within striking distance of points lead

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

May 9, 2001

Jeff Green, after a sixth-place finish in Richmond last week, has once again moved within striking distance of points leader Kevin Harvick heading into this weekend's race at New Hampshire International Speedway. Green was one of several drivers to take part in a two-day open test session at Lowe's Motor Speedway to prepare for the upcoming CARQUEST Auto Parts 300, and spoke about what he hoped to achieve there and his approach to the rest of the season.

JEFF GREEN--10--Nestle Nesquik Ford Taurus - WHAT ARE YOU HOPING TO LEARN FROM THIS TWO-DAY TEST? "We want to learn about the tires and the race car. Charlotte is tough enough to get a hold of, for one, and then all of the changes that we made over the winter, we want to make sure we're on T from where we were. I think we are; we were really good right off of the truck. We're just trying to learn and see what the track is offering us this year. The thing changes by the day, so you can imagine what it does from year to year with the new tire and stuff like that. We're trying to learn what we can do to make changes and how it reacts. The stuff we learn today is going to help us at other race tracks, too. It's just another day of learning."

HAVE YOU FOCUSED YOUR ATTENTION ON QUALIFYING TRIM OR RACE TRIM? "We spent all day yesterday qualifying and we're going to spend the final three hours working on long runs. Actually, I had a motor problem yesterday and we kinda lost a little bit of time yesterday. But, our qualifying package is really good and the race motor is pretty darn good, too, so I'm pretty happy with it right now."

HOW IS THE NEW TIRE COMPOUND ON THIS TRACK? "Really good. I think we just ran a 10-lap run and the 10th lap was the best lap, so it's not too bad."

YOU'RE HERE FOR TWO DAYS TESTING, BUT POINTS-WISE, THIS RACE IS NO MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANY OTHER. WHAT'S THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS RACE? "This is one our biggest races of the year. It's a high-paying race and it's on your home court, so that gives you a little more incentive to do well. I have a lot of family and friends that will attend, and you always want to put on a good show for them. The same goes for our crew guys. For some of them, this will be the only race that some of their family can attend and they want to do well. It pays the same points as the next week, and we want to do well at all of them. We're just trying stuff and learning more about our race car that can help us throughout the year and not just here."

THERE AREN'T A LOT OF TEAMS HERE TODAY, DOES THAT SURPRISE YOU? "Kinda, but the car count is down period. There were quite a few more cars here yesterday and some of those guys probably can't give up but one day and they need to be in the shop working, so we're fortunate to have as good of guys we have back home that we have here. That makes it easier for us."

YOU GO FROM HERE TO NEW HAMPSHIRE, WHICH IS ON SATURDAY. DOES THAT MAKE FOR A LONG WEEK? "I'd want to be in a race car every day if I can. These guys can be back working at the shop, so it's going to make a little longer week on them, but we're fortunate with the schedule that we only have to be there two days, and that's better than being there for three or four like we usually are."

YOU'RE BACK UP TO SECOND IN THE POINTS. "It took all season last year to have two bad races, so hopefully those two races are over for us already this year. We just have to do what we can do every week and I know that we'll be close to the top five, if not in the top five, and that will give us a chance to win some of them, too. We're learning every week. Last week at Richmond, we had a good car, but we kind of got behind trying to make adjustments on pit road, and when you only have two stops to adjust on it, you don't have a lot of time to change stuff. We just got behind and outsmarted ourselves a little bit with the way the race started. We thought the track was going to tightening up, but it loosened up, so we fought it all night being loose. But, we gained points and that's what we need to do. We want to win, no doubt, but when we can't win we want to be as good as we can, and that's what we did."

YOU'RE IN A BIT OF DIFFERENT SCENARIO THIS YEAR IN THE FACT THAT YOU TOOK THE POINTS LEAD AFTER TALLADEGA AND NEVER LOOKED BACK. HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR STRATEGY FROM LAST YEAR? "We go to each race to try to win, and we look at the points if we can. If we hadn't had a couple of bad races, we'd be leading. Three weeks ago we were 170 points behind, now we're 41. That shows you how good this race team is, and we just try to do the best job we can week in and week out, and try to get the most points we can. When it pays the money is at Homestead to be leading. Just as long as we're leading then, that's all that matters."

WE GO BACK TO LOUDON THIS WEEKEND WITH SOME MORE HORSEPOWER UNDER THE HOOD. "It's a little bit different for everybody. I've run some Cup races there, so that's going to come back a little bit, but the tires are different, the bodies are different, everything is better than it was a couple of year ago. It's just going to be another race. Everybody catches on really, really quick, and whoever gets their car handling the best, no matter how much power you get, is going to win the race."

WILL ONE DAY OF PRACTICE BE ENOUGH TO GET ACCLIMATED TO THE TRACK? "Oh yeah, two minutes will probably be enough."

Text provided by Greg Shea

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