Jeff Green No. 66 Best Buy Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet Phoenix International Raceway Preview

LAST RACE AT PHOENIX: In November, 2006, Jeff Green and the No. 66 Best Buy Chevrolet team qualified 25th at Phoenix International Raceway. Two accidents within a span of 30 laps left Green and his crew with a heavily damaged race car, and a 37th-place finish.

After running in the top-20 for most of the race, the Best Buy car first suffered damage when Jamie McMurray wrecked in front of Green on lap 273. Green’s crew made quick repairs to the No. 66 machine and kept Green on the lead lap, but the time spent on pit road dropped Green back to 26th position for the lap 282 restart.

Green was working his way back up through the field when he was hit by driver Tony Raines, sending the No. 66 Chevrolet slamming into the outside retaining wall on lap 299 of the 312-lap event. The damage was too severe to be repaired in the short time remaining, and Green and his team called it a day.

BEST BUY RACING MERCHANDISE AVAILABLE: Fans looking for Best Buy Racing merchandise can log on to Best Buy Racing’s website, www.racing.bestbuy.com, to find hats, T-shirts and other Best Buy Racing/Jeff Green branded merchandise. The website is also the best spot on the Internet to find out the latest news on Green and the No. 66 team, including photos and bios of the crew.

Q&A WITH DRIVER JEFF GREEN:

You’re back to the COT this week. Are you happy to get back to this car? “Absolutely. We just don’t seem to have the handle on the other car like we do on the COT, so this swap to the new car can’t come soon enough for me. You want to feel like you can be competitive every week, and I just feel more comfortable with the COT right now. Harold (Holly, crew chief) and the guys are really working hard to get us where we need to be with the other car, but we definitely seem to be ahead of some other teams in terms of the learning curve on the COT. The thanks for that really goes to Hendrick Motorsports and all the research and effort they’ve been putting into that side of things.”

As a driver, why do you think you like the COT more than some of the other drivers? “Well, I guess I’m one of the older guys out here now, and the COT has a feel kind of like the cars did five or six years ago, before we got into all this ‘coil binding’ stuff. A lot of the younger guys haven’t been in the series that long, and have never driven the cars with the older feel. To me, the COT puts it more back in the driver’s hands, which I’m all about.”

Phoenix has been a good track for you. Do you enjoy racing there? “Phoenix is great. They opened it up a couple of years ago coming off Turn 2. It’s kind of a tri-oval, but it’s backwards from the other ones we go to. That ‘Dog Leg’ on the backstretch is just something you have to set up for in terms of your traffic, but it doesn’t really affect you other than that.

“Turns 1 and 2 are so different from Turns 3 and 4 that if somebody hits it just right on the setup, they’ll show up the field. It’s just like other tracks we visit, in that you have to have a good handling race car to be successful.”

Since you raced a lot on Saturday nights when you were starting out, is there a special place in your heart for the night races? “I love night racing, but not necessarily just because I did it when I was younger. I like the fact that it lets us be home on Sunday, and it’s a lot cooler and more comfortable in the cars at night. The fans also seem to enjoy seeing the cars under the lights, so that’s a plus.”

JEFF GREEN’S HISTORY AT PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY:

In nine Nextel Cup Series starts at Phoenix International Raceway, Jeff Green’s best starting spot came in November, 2004, when he qualified 12th while driving a Petty Enterprises entry. His best Nextel Cup Series finish came in April, 2006, when he finished 18th in the No. 66 Best Buy Chevrolet.

In four Busch Series starts at Phoenix, Green has two top-five starting spots (he qualified second in 2000 and fifth in 2001), and two top-five finishes (finishing fourth in 2000 and second in 2001).

HAAS CNC RACING’S HISTORY AT PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY: In six Nextel Cup starts at Phoenix International Raceway, the Haas CNC Racing team’s best starting spot is 20th, which came with driver Ward Burton in November, 2003. The team’s best finish is an 18th-place result, which driver Jeff Green accomplished in April, 2006.