Dodge/Save Mart 350 - Jeff Green Notes

DODGE/SAVE MART 350: Important On AND Off Track

This weekend Jeff Green and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team head to the 10-turn, 1.99-mile Infineon Raceway roadcourse, located in the city of Sonoma, Calif., for Sunday’s Dodge/Save Mart 350. The 350-kilometer race (110 laps) is the first road course race of the season for NASCAR’s Nextel Cup teams. Green has just one Cup start at the track but it was a very impressive fifth place finish.

This weekend Green will be supporting Cheerios “Spoonfuls of Stories” in an effort to increase the importance of literacy in the minds of children. Green will spend time reading to children from the Sonoma community prior to Sunday’s event, and books will be donated for every lap that Green completes on Sunday. That event with children Friday morning is open to the media - please contact Williams Company of America, Inc. at (704) 660-0796.

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 Infineon:

“Maybe the biggest challenge that we face as drivers, on the track, is road course racing. It’s a tough deal. We just don’t spend 34 weeks out of the year racing on them. We only have two road courses on the schedule, and they are two completely different tracks. But, that doesn’t take away the importance of road racing and the importance of having road courses on our schedule.

“Sure, there are a lot of drivers that wouldn’t mind seeing Sonoma or Watkins Glen being taken off the schedule, but on the other hand, there are a lot of drivers out there who would be pretty upset if they were. I think we all understand that road courses are a part of the history of our sport, and to take them off the schedule wouldn’t be right from that perspective. We can’t make changes all the time just because a few of us might not like certain things. We all know that we have to come to the road courses so it’s not too bad.

“The road courses are sort of fun. It’s a challenge for the driver. You’re making 10 different left and right-hand turns to complete one lap, and turning right just isn’t what we are accustomed too. You have to adapt to the track, the driving style, and to the car. All the elements are different when we come to Infineon. I think it’s turning right that takes the most to get used to. If you’re not a road racer you’ve spent your entire life on a race track turning left. Now, you have to come to a road course and turn both left and right. The cars slide a little bit more and it’s tough. It’s why you see so many guys slide off into the gravel all weekend. It’s not that we’re bad drivers, but this is something that maybe 80 to 90 percent of us are not used to doing.

“No matter what challenges lie ahead this weekend, I am pretty excited to get to Infineon. We’re proud to have Spoonfuls of Stories supporting this #43 team this weekend. It’s a great program to help put books into the hands of children and to teach them the importance of literacy. We’re going to help donate books for laps that we complete this weekend. I think that is pretty cool.

“We’ve all grown up reading, and maybe we didn’t do it as much as we should, but it’s always important to read. At the track, we’re always reading over our notes and studying them. We spend just as much time reading off the track as what we do racing on it. Racing and reading really do go hand-in-hand, and that’s why Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories is such a great program.

“For a lot of reasons we are looking forward to Infineon this weekend. It’s a big weekend both on and off the track. We are all going to be busy, but we are still focused on winning. I’ve had one start here and had some success. Hopefully we’ll have some more with this Cheerios Dodge this weekend.”