Jeff Green, Garmin / Best Buy Chevrolet Will Start 32nd at Talladega Superspeedway

TALLADEGA, Ala. (Oct. 6) – Jeff Green and the No. 66 Garmin / Best Buy Chevrolet team will start 32nd in Sunday’s 500-mile race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

Green posted a qualifying lap of 51.703 seconds at an average speed of 185.212 miles per hour around the 2.66-mile high-banked speedway during qualifying on Saturday afternoon, good enough for a 16th-row starting spot for Sunday’s race.

“We’d have loved to have gone faster, but you can win from anywhere in the field at a restrictor-plate race, so I’m happy with it,” Green said. “The car was great at the test session here and has been great in drafting practice, so with a little help and a little good luck, we should be able to put the Garmin-Best Buy Chevy up front.”

The front row for Sunday’s race is made up of two drivers outside the top-35 in points – Michael Waltrip (No. 55 NAPA Toyota) and Dave Blaney (No. 22 Caterpillar Toyota). Waltrip secured the pole position with a lap time of 50.648 seconds, at an average speed of 189.070 miles per hour.

In fact, the 11 fastest cars during qualifying were all drivers outside the top-35 in points. With only eight positions available in the race (since the top-35 in points are guaranteed a starting spot), that means the drivers who posted the ninth, 10th and 11th-fastest times during qualifying (A.J. Allmendinger, Boris Said and Scott Riggs) all will not race on Sunday.

For the complete race lineup, check out NASCAR.com (http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2007/30/data/lineup.html).

It remains to be seen how Waltrip, Blaney and the other six drivers who are outside the top-35 in points that made the race will fare on Sunday. With some 51 cars making qualifying attempts, that means 16 drivers outside the top-35 were vying for the eight available starting positions.

With that in mind, those 16 teams all elected to focus on qualifying runs in practice (each team sent their driver out by himself to run solo laps during practice, setting the car up to be fast for a two-lap qualifying run), while the teams in the top-35 all focused on “race” runs (making laps bunched up in big packs, as they will be during the race on Sunday).

The reason for this difference in philosophy is that Sunday’s event is an impound race, meaning that the teams were not allowed to make changes to the cars’ setups after qualifying. At most events, teams have two practice sessions after qualifying to adjust their cars’ setups, but this weekend, the setup each team had in their car during qualifying is the same setup they will start the race with on Sunday.

So, those teams in the top-35 sacrificed speed during qualifying in return for making their cars handle better in the race. Conversely, those teams outside the top-35 sacrificed handling in the race to be fast in qualifying. With that in mind, those drivers may be dealing with ill-handling race cars once the green flag is displayed on Sunday, and could well find themselves dropping to the back of the pack in a hurry.

You can tune in to see what happens on Sunday, beginning at 2 p.m. ET, on ABC and MRN Radio affiliates.