Blown Tire, Handling Isses Cost Green, No. 66 Team at Martinsville Speedway

-Haas CNC Racing Team Finishes 28th in Subway 500-

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (Oct. 21) – A promising day turned sour for Jeff Green and his No. 66 Haas Automation team in Sunday’s Subway 500 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

Starting from the 31st position, Green and his crew used pit strategy to move to the front of the field, with Green being shown in second position around lap 125. On lap 168, Green moved to the front of the pack to lead a lap before handling issues on the No. 66 Chevrolet caused him to drop back through the field.

Crew chief Harold Holly called for chassis and tire pressure adjustments on every pit stop to try and improve the car’s handling, but nothing the team did seemed to help the condition.

On lap 341, the team was dealt a damaging blow when Green suffered a cut tire on his entry, causing him to hit the outside retaining wall, which brought out the 12th caution flag of the 500-lap event.

The tire issue, coupled with the car’s handling, resulted in Green eventually going three laps down to the leaders. Green finished the event in the 28th position.

“The car was pretty good early on,” Green said. “Once the field put a lot of tire rubber down on the track, we could never get the car handling right. We were loose getting in and off the turns, but it didn’t turn well in the center, either. The crew threw everything at it but the kitchen sink, but nothing seemed to help. Then we cut that tire, and that really put us behind the eight ball. It was one of those days, unfortunately.”

The race was won by Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet), marking his third consecutive NEXTEL Cup Series win at the .526-mile short track. Ryan Newman (No. 12 Alltel Dodge) finished second, while the points leader in the Chase for the Championship, Jeff Gordon (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet), came home third. Kyle Busch (No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevrolet) finished fourth, and Matt Kenseth (No. 17 DeWalt Ford) took the fifth position.

To read more about Johnson’s win, visit NASCAR.com: (http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/10/21/martinsville.johnson.post.ap.ap/index.html).

Johnson’s win allowed him to shave 15 points off Gordon’s points lead with four races remaining in the Chase. Johnson now trails Gordon by 53 points, while Clint Bowyer’s (No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet) ninth-place finish has him sitting 115 points behind Gordon in the standings. Tony Stewart (No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet finished 13th in the event and trails Gordon by 244 points. Carl Edwards (No. 99 Office Depot Ford) sits fifth in the points, 288 points out of the lead.

In spite of his disappointing run, Green moves up a spot to 27th in the drivers’ points standings, and team owner Joe Custer remains 30th in the owners’ points standings.

The series heads to Georgia for the 33rd event of the 36-race season at the 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS). The track is known for producing some of the fastest speeds of any on the NASCAR circuit, and several NEXTEL Cup Series races have been decided there by margins of only a few thousandths of a second at the finish line.

The 500-mile race will air live from AMS on Sunday, Oct. 28th, beginning at 1 p.m. ET, on ABC and PRN Radio affiliates