Samsung/Radio Shack 500 - Jeff Green Notes

Jeff Green Notes, Quotes: Samsung/RadioShack 500
‘The need to reach out to fans’

Kicking off the month of April, this weekend Jeff Green and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team head to the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway, located just north of the city of Fort Worth, for Sunday’s Samsung/RadioShack 500. Green will be making his third start at the speedway with hopes of continuing his strong performances at the track. In his two previous starts, Green finished seventh (last season) and 16th in 2002.

The track has been involved in a great deal of discussion and speculation in regards to whether it will receive a second NASCAR Nextel Cup date. That discussion will certainly be at the forefront this weekend, as well as throughout the rest of the season until the 2005 schedule is constructed.

Green, 41, is the only driver to have raced for the sports biggest names. Throughout his career, he has driven for Cup’s most legendary names, such as Junior Johnson, Felix Sabates, Richard Childress, Teresa 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 point’s 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 Texas:

“There are a lot of different places that we race, and a lot of different tracks that we race on. I don’t know if there is any one place, or any single track, where we race that you can say that one is better than the other. I just like to race anywhere, and I like to race on different tracks. It’s fun to visit different cities. The best cities are ones with race tracks in them. I am pretty lucky because there are a lot of different tracks around this county, but how do we get to them all and how do we put them together so they make sense in a full-season schedule? That’s where we find our problem.

“I know that Texas wants to have another race date, and that’s fine, but personally I like going to different places. I don’t know why we need to go to every track twice. There are so many places that we can still go and still places we need to be where fans want to see us race. There are big cities with a lot of fans we haven’t visited yet.

“Texas is a great track. I’ve run pretty well there in Nextel Cup, but I don’t think it would be fair to anyone if we just raced at Texas every weekend. I mean, hey, I wouldn’t mind racing at Lowe’s every weekend just because it’s so close to my home, but we’ve got to reach to our fan base. If it has a zip code, we need to be there. Obviously that’s impossible, but maybe we can think about giving every track, not just Texas, only one race date. That would free up some room and we can visit our friends in Seattle, Denver and New York City. I also know a few folks in Minneapolis who wouldn’t mind seeing me race either.

“It’s tough to be fair with anything in life, but we have to do what’s right and good for the sport. We are still a growing sport in a lot of ways and we want to get in front of a lot more fans. Don’t get me wrong, the fans we have now are great. Actually, Texas has some of the best fans of all the places we go. I just don’t know if it’s fair for our fans in the Northwest or some other cities to not race there. It’s a tough call to take away races, but it’s only going to help everyone to go to different places - and there are still different places to go.

“We’ve done a good job the past 15 years growing this sport. We’ve reached out to our fans by going to California, Chicago, Kansas, Miami and right here in Texas. Texas was one of the first tracks where we expanded as we started racing more out of the Southeast. Look at how popular this race is now. It’s a compliment for the fans to want a second date. It proves how much they love racing and how much they love their track. I think we also have that same popularity at California, Chicago, and Kansas as well. It would be pretty cool to bring that same excitement to another new city and continue to grow.

“There are only a certain number of weeks in the year, and we still need time off, too, to give the guys who work on our cars some rest. It’s tough to fit everything in and make everyone happy. I think everyone would love to see their track have two race dates, but right now there are some fans who don’t even have one.

“Right now, this weekend, we are all concentrating on bringing our best to Texas. It’s a fast track, great fans, and a beautiful facility. This Cheerios team, no matter where we are racing, we are trying to win races and do the best we can for all our fans and supporters. I appreciate all my fans, and this weekend I want to make all my fans here in Texas really proud of this #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge.”