Jeff Green
America Online Racing
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500, March 9, 2003
Venue: Atlanta Motor Speedway
NASCAR Winston Cup Points Position: 40th
Notes:
Jeff Green, driver of the #30 America Online Chevrolet, will start in his
97th Winston Cup race this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway as the Winston
Cup teams compete in the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 on Sunday, March 9. Live
broadcast is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. EST on FOX.
Bringing a new car to the 1.54-mile quad oval, Jeff will drive chassis
#108 from the Richard Childress Racing stables. Testing the car on the
1.5-mile track at Kentucky, Green shook down the new chassis in late
January.
During his second Winston Cup outing at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Jeff Green
posted his then best career finish when he crossed the line in fourth during
the 1997 fall race. He bettered that effort in New Hampshire in July last
year when he finished second.
Sunday's race will be Green's seventh Winston Cup start at Atlanta Motor
Speedway. In last year's spring race, Green, along with his teammates,
suffered from an engine problem and finished 41st. Green has eight career
Busch Series starts at Atlanta.
Crew chief Mike Beam posted a top-five finish with driver Ricky Craven
during last year's Atlanta spring race.
2002 Race Recap:
Forging his way through the field, Jeff Green climbed the leader board and
was racing in the top 20 before a motor problem ended his day early,
relegating him to 41st during the MBNA America 500 at Atlanta Motor
Speedway. Starting 36th, Green moved the #30 America Online Chevrolet from
his spot on the 18th row into 25th place just 32 laps into the 325-lap
event. He continued to run strong, passed his competitors and often posted
times better than the leaders as he worked into the 17th position on lap
120. In spite of loose handling conditions, Green held onto his spot in the
top 20 before lack of grip cost him track position and he went a lap down on
the 161st circuit. Several laps later Green radioed that he felt the motor
was starting to fail. Entering pit road so the AOL crew could try and
repair the soured engine, Green returned to the track as the caution flag
fell for an unrelated incident. Taking the car behind the pit wall, Green
returned after a few laps, but fell out of the race when the motor
ultimately failed and ended his day as the leader completed the 208th lap.
Quotes:
"I don't even know where to start," said Green, who remained 40th in points
after tire problems continued to plague the #30 team. "I grew a goatee
thinking it might change my luck. I even started using a new Hutchins
device. I was trying anything I could have possibly thought of. The AOL
team is a great group of guys and I know we've got a winning team. We've
just got to get past all these tire problems, whether it's running over
debris, getting hit, whatever. I've never experienced anything like this.
Maybe we got it out of system early in the season and will start posting the
finishes that we are capable of.
"Mike's been able to make adjusts to the car for better handling throughout
the race and our qualifying efforts have been great on a whole. Hopefully
Atlanta will be our turning point. Right now, the points are still rather
close and you can gain a lot of positions with a good finish. That's our
main goal right now, post a top-10 finish and move up in the points
standings to where we should be. It's still very early in the season and we
're not giving up hope."
