JEFF GREEN
NO. 66 BEST BUY HAAS CNC RACING CHEVROLET
NEW HAMPSHIRE PREVIEW

Q&A WITH DRIVER JEFF GREEN:

What do you think of New Hampshire International Speedway, now that it’s been a few years since they’ve done some paving work to the facility? “Well, it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be. Still, when they run the other series with different tires on the same weekends we’re there, the first 10 (Nextel) Cup cars that go out during qualifying are going to be sliding all over the place. It’s tough to get grip in the tires when the other rubber is down. Other than that, I like racing here.”

Since you raced a lot on shorter tracks earlier in your career, do you enjoy the tracks like New Hampshire? “Yeah, I do like the shorter tracks. It seems like when we go slower, we race harder, if you can believe that.”

We’re at the midway point of the season. How do you feel about the team’s chances in the second half of the year? “I’m looking forward to going back to some tracks a second time. Since we don’t get to test as much, and we don’t have a teammate, it’ll be nice to have a note book we can look at from the first race and hopefully we can improve at a lot of these places.

“There are some places where we’ve done pretty well, but there are some others where we’ve missed the mark. Darlington (Raceway), Dover (International Speedway) and Pocono (Raceway) are three where we just didn’t have what we needed. We’ve been working a lot on getting the springs to ‘coil bind,’ and that doesn’t seem to work as well on some of the rougher tracks.”

Q&A WITH CREW CHIEF “BOOTIE” BARKER:

What does it take to be successful at New Hampshire International Speedway? “Well, like at most tracks, the lower you can keep the nose of your car, the better off you’ll be. Just past the center (of the turns) you have a tendency to shove the front end of the car, so you have to keep it turning in the center to be successful.”

They did some paving work to the track a few years ago. What did that do for the surface? “(The paving) helped it quite a bit. It used to ‘chunk up’ a lot, so it was a big improvement when they did the work.

“The biggest thing they can do to help us, though, is to quit running all these other different series on the track on the same weekend we’re here. Quit running Modifieds and whatever else they run – I don’t know, the VW Beetle Series or whatever. The different tires those series use really mess us up. Run the Busch Series and run the Cup series and be done with it.”

You grew up going to South Boston Speedway, though, and worked on Late Models and other cars like that. Given that that’s your background, you’d still prefer that other series not compete on the same weekend when NASCAR competes? “Yeah, that’s the way I feel. I went there and watched NASCAR when it ran at South Boston. It was a stand alone event, and it was a big deal, but I don’t think the other series should be running when NASCAR is there.”

How did the team prepare for this race? “We went to Milwaukee (The Milwaukee Mile) a few weeks ago (The No. 66 team spent Monday and Tuesday, June 5-6, testing at the Milwaukee Mile race track in Wisconsin). We took two Cup cars, and had Harold Holly (crew chief of the No. 00 Haas CNC Racing Busch Series entry) with us. He and I had some new ideas we wanted to try, and he’s a good crew chief.”

Did your cars end up with similar setups by the end of the test? “No. Actually, we started with similar setups and went in different directions, setup-wise. We did it that way on purpose to try different things and see what worked best. I don’t know if anything we tried benefited Harold in the Busch race at Milwaukee or not.”

TESTING AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY: Jeff Green and the No. 66 Best Buy Racing team are scheduled to take part in a two-day test session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 11-12, in preparation for next month’s Brickyard 400.

DETOUR ON THE WAY TO INDIANAPOLIS: Jeff Green and Robert “Bootie” Barker will make a stop in the St. Paul/Minneapolis (MN.) area prior to heading to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The pair will attend the Best Buy Charity Classic event, to be held at the St. Paul RiverCentre on Monday night, July 10. Green and Barker will sign autographs for attendees, then enjoy dinner and listen to the special musical act performing at the event, Grammy Award-winning recording artist, Seal. The annual charity event is put on by Best Buy, a primary sponsor of the No. 66 Haas CNC Racing Nextel Cup Series team.

Beginning in 1994 as the main fundraiser for the Best Buy Children’s Foundation, the Charity Classic has grown from an event generating $125,000 in 1994 to one that generated $2.6 million in 2005. The Foundation supports a variety of national and local organizations that share its vision: making learning fun for kids by incorporating innovative, interactive technology.

JEFF GREEN’S HISTORY AT NEW HAMPSHIRE INT’L. SPEEDWAY: In 11 Nextel Cup Series starts at New Hampshire International Speedway, driver Jeff Green’s best qualifying effort was a 15th-place starting spot in this race one year ago, driving the No. 43 car for Petty Enterprises.

Green’s best finish was a second-place effort in this race in 2002, while driving the No. 30 for Richard Childress Racing.

HAAS CNC RACING’S HISTORY AT NEW HAMPSHIRE INT’L. SPEEDWAY: Haas CNC Racing’s best qualifying effort at New Hampshire International Speedway was a 12th-place starting spot, which came with driver Ward Burton in the July, 2004, event. The team’s best finish was an 18th-place result, scored by driver Mike Bliss in this race one year ago.

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED CREWMAN: Adam Gravitt, shock engineer – Best Buy Racing’s website is highlighting the crew members of the No. 66 Haas CNC Racing team. Each week, a different crew member is featured with an expanded bio. This week, read about Adam Gravitt, the team’s shock engineer, and find out how he got the nickname, “Hot Sauce.” Log on to either www.racing.bestbuy.com or http://racing.bestbuy.com.