EA Sports 500 - Jeff Green Notes

Jeff Green Notes, Quotes: EA Sports 500
‘Mental mistakes are big at Talladega’

This weekend Jeff Green and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team head to the 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for Sunday’s running of the EA Sports 500. Sunday’s race will be the 29th race of the 2004 season and the last race of the year on a restrictor plate track. Talladega is the only restrictor plate track in the 10 race “Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship.”

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 Talladega:

“I think the best part of Talladega is when you get out of there (laughing). It’s just so mentally draining. We are racing three and four wide all afternoon, and one little mistake can cost everyone. Mistakes are never small at Talladega and neither are the wrecks. If something happens, it’s going to be big.

“You have to look out the rear view mirror a whole lot more than you look out the front windshield. It’s can be a mental game more than actual racing. Don’t get me wrong, you definitely have to have the right skills to put yourself and the car in the right position at the end of the race. You have to know how to use the draft off the guy in front of you and behind you, but it’s more of a chess match than anything else. Moving to the right place at the right time is everything. A lot of tracks, somebody hands me a Coke after the race is over. Talladega is so mentally tiring, I’m looking for a Coke and a Goody’s Headache Powder.

“At Talladega you need help to win. You need it from the guys behind you more than the guys in front of you. Everyone needs to work together and sometimes that just doesn’t happen. You need to have friends to help you. It’s just part of the deal at this track.

“I think every time we go to Daytona and Talladega (both restrictor plate tracks) the best part is going out the tunnel and going home. So many things are out of a driver’s hands. We put a lot of things into fate and circumstances. Don’t think that the championship chase drivers aren’t thinking about that too. This is a race that anyone can win, and that’s a good opportunity for anybody, but it’s a nail biting day. You can have a great day or a really, really bad day in a hurry.

“We had a pretty good car here in April. We needed some changes. The car just wouldn’t run up the middle like I needed. It didn’t handle like the way I wanted. Talladega is a big and wide track. We seem to be racing three and four abreast the entire race. You have to make sure that your car can run in different lanes. Our car in April was only running on the bottom. We were sort of blocked. It made it tough. The car was great, but we need to finesse it a little more. I think we’ll have a better overall package this time around.

“It’s going to be an interesting day. Guys are still gunning for the championship and the rest of us are going for the win. Talladega is a crap shoot and anything can happen. Somebody can hit it big and somebody can lose it all here. We’ll just have to wait and see. We already know our goal on Sunday. We’re going to bring this #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge down to Talladega with the sole purpose of winning.”