Chevy American Revolution 400 - Jeff Green Notes

Jeff Green Notes, Quotes: Chevy American Revolution 400
The four night NASCAR races in May

This weekend, Jeff Green and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team head to the .750-mile Richmond (Va.) International Raceway for Saturday night’s Chevy American Revolution 400. It’s the second consecutive Saturday night race for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. In fact, four of the five series races held in the month of May will be run at night.

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 second 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 driver Jeff Green heading into Richmond:

“For the most part, racing is racing. All we’re doing is racing when the sun happens to be on the other side of the world. You don’t prepare any differently, and I’m not sure you really can. Sure, you put some reflecting decals on your cars to make sure everyone can read, ‘Cheerios,’ but other than that, it’s just really racing with the sun down. The lights are on, but it’s still about winning.

“The drivers don’t think any differently for racing at night than what they do for the day. The crew chiefs probably do – it affects the handling and setup of the car but not so much from the driver’s point of view. For the drivers, racing at night is what we grew up doing. Friday and Saturday nights were time for local short track racing back in Owensboro where I grew up.

“That’s just when we raced. We didn’t pay attention that it was at night. We just wanted to race and win. If they told us to be there at dusk that is when we were there. We raced on Saturday night for so long that we became used to it. That was what was normal. It’s probably no different for a ‘soccer mom’ to bring her kids to games on Saturday morning. That is just when everyone does it.

“It’s probably a bigger adjustment for guys in Nextel Cup, ones who come in new and young, to start racing on Sunday afternoon’s. That’s something new to them. They have always had Sunday as a day off, but now it’s a work day. Racing 400 or 500 miles on Sunday afternoon is something pretty new to them. It takes a while to adjust to that. It’s still racing, but to adjust to longer races and racing on Sundays is different. That’s probably why guys like racing on Saturday nights.

“It brings us back to our roots and a lot of the guys like that. Richmond is a short track, a place that really reminds us how most of us grew up in the sport. It’s pretty cool to come back and do that. It was fun at Darlington to race at night, Richmond is always great, and Lowe’s is too. We really get spoiled with a bunch of night races, most of them on Saturdays, this month.

“I think the fans have always liked the night races. We seem to draw more people. They get up in the morning, eat a bowl of Cheerios, and enjoy their day. They know that the night is the time reserved for the race. It makes the day a little more enjoyable and better for families too. Of course, I enjoy Saturday night races because I get home that night.

“It just seems that night racing is something that everyone can agree on. I guess this is a pretty good month. The racing is always the same, you still want to win and beat that guy in front of you, but doing it at night might be a little more special too. We tested at Richmond, and we feel pretty pleased with what we’ve got this weekend. We’re hoping for a good run at night with this Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge. Night or day, it’s still all about winning.”