Subway Fresh 500 - Jeff Green Notes

Jeff Green Notes, Quotes: Phoenix 500
'New Race Provides Tough Challenge At Phoenix'

This weekend Jeff Green and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team head to the flat one-mile Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway for Saturday's Phoenix 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race. Green will be making his sixth start at the track - his third driving for Petty Enterprises.

Saturday's race will be a "twilight" event. The race is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. local time and finish under the lights at Phoenix International Raceway.

Green 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 driver Jeff Green heading into Phoenix:

"It's going to be different. We've never been to Phoenix in April before, so it's going to be a little bit of a guessing game for us and everybody else. I think we're really going to have to keep an eye on the temperatures. It's pretty warm in November, but it's probably going to be pretty hot this time of the year. That's really going to affect the track conditions. It's probably going to be a pretty slick track during the day with all the sun. You just never see many clouds in Phoenix.

"Now, they are having the race at night, and that's going to make things easier. The track will hopefully be a little bit cooler, but still, the track is in a desert. It's not like the temperature really drops a whole bunch at night; at least, from the time we get going until we get done, I don't think the track temperature is going to drop tremendously. The track might not be as slick, but it's still going to be pretty hot. It's just something that we haven't done before. It's a different element. We've raced at night before, and even raced these 'twilight' races too, but never really on a track as flat as Phoenix - in a climate like Phoenix' either. It's going to be a different experience with a lot of different challenges.

"Qualifying should be pretty simple. It's still following the same procedures. It's an 'impound' weekend, but we're getting used to that too. We'll practice on Thursday during the day and then qualify on Friday during the day. That's not really that bad. The curve, however, comes when we have to race that setup on Saturday evening. We're going to practice and qualify with our race setup in the heat of the day, but the race starts in the evening. That's a pretty nasty curveball right there.

"That's why there will be a lot of guessing going on. Do you sacrifice a little in qualifying to prepare your car for Saturday? Do you hope that you can find a balance with the car? I don't know. It's always tough when you start a race in conditions that you haven't practiced in. It's not new. We've done it before, but it's just something that's pretty tough. It's a little bit harder this weekend because we've never done it in Phoenix.

"That's going to be a lot of weight put on the crew chief's shoulders. The track is going to change during the race too. The race will start with the sun still out, but it's going to end at night, and there is nothing darker than the skies out there once the sun goes down. There will be a lot of adjustments going on throughout the race.

"The team that can best keep the balance of the car will have the best race. If you can keep up with the changes you will have a good finish. That's going to be hard. There are going to be a lot of variables thrown into the equation. It's going to be interesting, but at least everyone is in the same situation. We are all going to be fighting the same issues together. Hopefully this Cheerios team will be one step ahead of everyone else on Saturday."