JEFF GREEN
NO. 66 BEST BUY HAAS CNC RACING CHEVROLET
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY PREVIEW

BEST BUY RACING’S NEW WEBSITE: Best Buy Racing has launched a new website, www.racing.bestbuy.com. The site gives fans and Best Buy employees access to all the latest news and information on the No. 66 Best Buy Haas CNC Racing team and driver Jeff Green.

Q&A WITH DRIVER JEFF GREEN:

How did your test go at Greenville-Pickens (S.C.) Speedway on Monday, March 27? “The test went very well. We learned some stuff that should be helpful for Martinsville. It’s certainly not as much as we’d have learned had we actually been able to test Martinsville, but you have to play with the cards you’ve been dealt.”

Martinsville is one of those tracks where you have to make your car work on the inside line to be really successful. Does that get frustrating when you’re trying to pass someone? “Well, Martinsville is not nearly as bad as Bristol (Motor Speedway) in that respect. You can get side-by-side with someone at Martinsville, and if you work hard enough, you’ll eventually get by them. At Bristol, the other guy either has to make a mistake, or you have to bump them out of the way to get by. From that point of view, Martinsville’s an easier track to drive.”

You were in the top-10 at Atlanta until you had a tire problem, and you finished top-15 at Bristol. That has to make you feel good about where the team is at in terms of being competitive. “Yeah, it really does. We even ran well at Vegas, but we had a little engine skip. We still haven’t figured out what caused that. At Atlanta, it was a problem in the pits that bit us and at Bristol, it was my mistake when I got into the back of the (No.) 38 car.

“We keep getting a little better every week, and if we can just do the right things and not make mistakes, I think we’ll continue to improve and hopefully start getting some top-10’s and top-fives. If you do that consistently, you’re eventually going to win a race.”

Q&A WITH CREW CHIEF “BOOTIE” BARKER:

With you being a Virginia native, this is a little bit of a homecoming for you, isn’t it? “Oh, absolutely, Martinsville’s only about an hour and a half from my hometown. Like the saying goes, ‘I’m Virginia born, Virginia bred, and when I die, I’ll be Virginia dead.’ Martinsville and Richmond are very special places to me. I do have to say, GW Danville High School was one my high school’s big rival growing up, so there’s no love lost there, but I love Martinsville.

“The first NASCAR race I went to was at Martinsville. I remember that D.W. (Darrell Waltrip) was driving the No. 11 Budweiser car for Junior Johnson and he won the race. I have a lot of great memories of Martinsville, and I hope to make some more this weekend.”

You tested at Greenville-Pickens (S.C.) Speedway on Monday. Did you learn a lot you can use this weekend? “Yeah, it’s probably the best track you can go to as far as simulating Martinsville. Of course, it’s not exactly the same, but we mostly did it to try some new things on our suspension. We focused totally on race runs to try some new things.”

Whenever there’s talk in the media about a track losing a date, Martinsville always seems to be mentioned. What do you think of that? “As long as Martinsville keeps adding seating and keeps working on the infield and working to improve the track, I think it would be foolish to take a date from them. It’s some of the best racing in NASCAR.

“We need the diversity in tracks that Martinsville helps to provide. If we keep taking dates away from places like Martinsville, we’re going to lose a lot of what has made NASCAR great. We’re losing our roots, and I have to agree with the saying, ‘When you lose the roots, the tree dies.’”

“My thinking is, we don’t need to take away no more dates. If anything, we need to add. I say we round it off and make it 40 races a year, if tracks need more dates. Maybe we run a couple of races on weeknights, rather than taking dates away.

So you’re saying maybe NASCAR should add some more races to the schedule. What do you say to those who argue the schedule’s already too long? “Suck it up.”

BOOTIE BARKER AND JEFF GREEN FEATURED ON TWO SPEED CHANNEL SHOWS THIS WEEK:
Race fans are used to seeing Robert “Bootie” Barker, crew chief of the No. 66 Best Buy Haas CNC Racing team, on SPEED Channel as a panelist on NASCAR Peformance and through his weekly “Bootie Call” segments on SPEED News.

This week, Barker, driver Jeff Green, and the Best Buy team are featured on two other SPEED Channel shows that air over the next few days, 7 Days and NASCAR: Beyond the Wheel.

Each week, SPEED cameras follow a different person as they prepare for the NASCAR race weekend. Drivers, crew members, team owners, track officials, even fans – no one is off limits as 7 Days takes viewers behind the scenes from a new perspective.

SPEED followed Barker throughout the week leading up to this past weekend’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The episode, which premiered on Monday night, will air several more times, including Friday, March 31, at 6:30 p.m. EST. The date and time of other airings can be found by visiting www.speedtv.com.

SPEED also covered Barker and the Best Buy team during the Bristol weekend for this week’s episode of NASCAR: Beyond the Wheel. The SPEED website describes the show as offering “unprecedented coverage from the ‘inside’ of Nextel Cup races, with ‘live wire’ audio via full teams mic'd for behind the scenes real time audio, team radio communication and exclusive video from crews embedded with a different team each weekend.”

NASCAR: Beyond the Wheel airs Thursday, March 30, at 11 p.m. EST. Check the SPEED website, www.speedtv.com, for additional dates and times.

JEFF GREEN’S HISTORY AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY: In 11 Cup Series starts at Martinsville Speedway, Jeff Green’s best starting spot was a sixth-place qualifying effort in the Sept., 1998, event, when Green drove for Felix Sabates. His best finish came in Oct., 2004, when he finished seventh while driving the No. 43 car for Petty Enterprises.

HAAS CNC RACING’S HISTORY AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY: In six Cup Series starts at Martinsville, the Haas CNC Racing team has qualified in the top-15 four times. The team’s best qualifying effort was a fourth-place run by driver Ward Burton in Oct., 2004. The team’s best finish was a 22nd-place result in that same event.