Tropicana 400 - Jeff Green Notes

Jeff Green Notes, Quotes: Tropicana 400
‘Hitting Halfway at Newest Track’

Hitting the halfway mark of the 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup season, this weekend Jeff Green and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team travel to the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway, located in the city of Joliet (Ill.), for Sunday’s Tropicana 400. The race marks the midpoint of the season with 18 races left after this weekend.

Green, 41, is the only driver to have raced for the sport’s biggest names. Throughout his career, he has driven for Cup’s most legendary names, such as Junior Johnson, Felix Sabates, Richard Childress, Dale Earnhardt, and now Richard Petty. Green is in his first full season driving the legendary Petty Enterprises #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge. The 2000 NASCAR Busch Grand National champion, he holds the record for the largest points margin after winning the championship by 616 points. He is also a two-time NASCAR Nextel Cup pole winner, winning poles at the Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and the pole for the 2003 Daytona 500.

The thoughts of #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge driver Jeff Green heading into Chicago:

“In terms of new races on the schedule, Chicago is one of the newest tracks, but this isn’t our first trip around here either. We’ve been coming here long enough now that maybe it’s not a total stranger to a lot of us. But then again, I don’t know if we can call it a friend yet either. The track is a little bit different each year and it will probably be a little bit different this time too.

“The track, the first year, had a ton of grip and the bottom was really the only place to race. There wasn’t much of a second groove. That’s the fear of all new tracks and ones that have just been freshly paved. Chicago was no different. The last two years we have seen pretty much the same thing, but it has gotten better. The second and third grooves have started to open up. It’s only going to get better too. It should be better racing this time.

“It’s a great track and it’s really fast. Once the tracks groove starts to widen we are going to see some great racing. We see that now at Atlanta and Charlotte - Chicago mirrors those tracks. We just want to be able to pass people and not be stuck down on the inside groove all race. The track has aged to the point where it should start to produce some really good racing. We will have to wait and see, but the track will again be different than what it has been.

“I think a lot of guys will be looking forward to Chicago and getting back to a track where we can race again. Daytona is just a matter of survival, but now we’re back to racing and to taking back control of our destiny. That’s pretty important for us and a lot of other teams too. It’s the middle of the season and now we’re setting up for the second-half of the schedule.

“We’re looking to continue to build more consistency with this Cheerios team. This is our first year together and we’ve had some good runs, but we just need to finish them with higher finishes. We’ve made a lot of the right steps these past few weeks and it’s promising for the last-half of this season. Our cars have been getting better, and we have had some better runs, but we’re still looking for a whole lot more.

“We’ll be looking for that this weekend at Chicago. We have 18 more races to really show what we can do. This is a really good team, and Gary (crew chief Gary Putnam) and I have really strong communication. I know every weekend that we have good cars, now we’re just looking to get this Cheerios Dodge finishing up front where it belongs.