Green, Haas Automation Chevy Qualifies 31st at Martinsville Speedway

Martinsville, VA. (Oct. 19) – Jeff Green qualified his No. 66 Haas Automation Chevrolet in the 31st position for the 500-mile NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.

His lap of 20.205 seconds, at an average speed of 93.719 per hour, gives Green a 16th-row starting spot in Sunday afternoon’s event.

“I’d have loved to have had better track position, but we’ll make the best of it,” Green said. “We only got about 10 minutes of practice because of rain today, so we were making our best guess as to how to set up the car. I think we’ll be fine on Sunday.”

In addition to limiting on-track practice time, rains delayed the beginning of qualifying until close to 4:45 p.m. ET on Friday. 

Once qualifying finally got underway, the top speed was recorded by NEXTEL Cup Series points leader Jeff Gordon (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet), who managed a time of 19.938 seconds, at an average speed of 94.974 per hour. The rest of the top-five includes: Martin Truex Jr. (No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet), Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet), Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet) and Kasey Kahne (No. 9 UAW / Dodge Dealers Dodge).

Green and his team had two practice sessions on Saturday to tweak their car’s setup before the start of the race on Sunday afternoon, and the No. 66 crew made the most of those, with Green posting the 12th-fastest lap in the first session, and the ninth-fastest lap in the second.

This weekend’s event marks the 15th event for the Car of Tomorrow – NASCARS next-generation race car that will compete fulltime in ’08.

The 500-mile NEXTEL Cup event airs live on Sunday, October 21, on ABC and MRN Radio affiliates, beginning at 1 p.m. ET.