Green Determined to Make Another Winston Cup Run

Jeff Green had a taste of Winston Cup racing in 1995 and would like to give NASCAR’s premier series another try, but in the meantime he is satisfied to be defending his Busch Grand National division championship.

“When I go, and I’m pretty sure I will, I want to go with the same racing team I’m with right now, from Greg Pollex, the owner of PPC Racing, to crew chief Harold Holly and all the guys in the shop,” said Green, who accepted a check for $1.9 million at the Busch awards banquet at the Beverly-Wilshire last month.

“I feel like I have enough experience to take this team to that series. . . . I think racing against some of the Cup guys in the Busch series has prepared me for it.”

The practice of Winston Cup drivers dropping down into the Busch series has been a contentious issue among Busch drivers for many years. Some claim the Cup drivers are “cherry picking” and taking money from their pockets. Others say having the Cup drivers on the track is good for both sides.

Green, 38, sides with having to race with them.

“I look at it as helping make us better,” said the youngest of the racing Green brothers from Owensboro, Ky. “We have to work harder to get a win, and promoters love it because guys like Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin put people in the stands.

“I know I finished second four or five times to Cup guys where I would have won if they weren’t in the race, but overall the benefits outweigh that.”

Of 32 Busch races last year, Winston Cup drivers won half. Martin won five, Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth, last year’s winner at Daytona, each won four. Gordon, Sterling Marlin and Joe Nemechek won one each.

Green won six races and seven poles last season.

“The worst part about having them race with us is that if there are five or six Cup guys entered, that means five or six Busch regulars don’t make the show,” he said. “All they can do is pack up and go home.”

Only four Cup drivers are in Saturday’s NAPA Auto Parts 300--Kenseth, Todd Bodine, Kenny Wallace and Michael Waltrip.

Martin, whose 45 victories over 15 seasons--without winning a championship--is the Busch record, announced last year that he has run his last Busch race.

“I loved to race with them because I love racing,” said Martin. “I also looked at them for getting lap time on the race track. But now I’m going to concentrate on one race a weekend.”

The Busch series was a steppingstone to the Winston Cup championship last year for Bobby Labonte, who’d won the Busch series title in 1991.

“I am sure that having won the Busch helped me to win the Winston Cup because having gone through it once before, I knew what it took to get to the end,” Labonte said. “That, and watching my brother Terry win the Cup championship twice, were very important to me.”

Coincidentally, the Labontes and the Greens became NASCAR’s first sibling champions the same year. David Green, Jeff’s older brother, won the Busch title in 1994. Terry Labonte won Winston Cup titles in 1984 and 1996.

“When David won his championship, I was working for Michael Waltrip, helping him prepare his Busch car,” Jeff Green said. “Michael and I went to high school together and he and my brothers used to race together when we were just kids, in go-karts and local stock cars. We just sort of all were into racing right from the start.

“I guess it was probably because of Darrell [Waltrip, Michael’s brother]. He was a lot older than we were, but he was the legend around Owensboro.”

Jeff’s brother Mark is also driving in the Busch series.

“It’s really great, having two brothers in the same series with you, and an old high school buddy like Michael, it’s like we never left our hometown.”

Despite all the cross-over driving, only two drivers have won the Busch and Cup crowns--Bobby Labonte and Ned Jarrett, the Busch winner in 1957 and 1958 when the series was called NASCAR Sportsman. Jarrett, father of last year’s Daytona 500 winner Dale, won what is now the Winston Cup title in 1961 and 1965.

One thing Green doesn’t want is a repeat of last year’s Daytona race.

“Thirteen laps into the race, after the team had worked . . . for 10 days getting ready for Daytona, I screwed up and wound up upside down on my roof. All I could think about was that there were 31 more races in the season.”

Green and the PPC team changed makes during the off-season, leaving the Chevrolet that had carried them to the championship for a new Ford Taurus.

“One rule in racing is that if you stand still, you’ll fall back because everyone else will pass you,” he said. “We felt the Ford is stronger, so we switched. It was as simple as that.”

Usually, when a team changes manufacturers, there are hard feelings. Not so with Chevy and Jeff Green.

When Terry Tolan, assistant brand manager for the Monte Carlo, accepted the Bill France Performance Cup for Chevrolet’s having won its eighth title in 10 years, he said, “Getting this has a bittersweet side to it. We are losing Jeff to another manufacturer, but we wish him well.”

ROUSH STILL LOOKING

Jack Roush is recognized as one of racing’s premier engine builders, yet in 14 years of campaigning in the Winston Cup, he has yet to win a championship.

Martin has been with him all that time, twice finishing second and three times third. Nor have they ever won a Daytona 500.

Martin’s crew chief, Jimmy Fennig, is the team’s sole link to a 500 victory. He was Bobby Allison’s crew chief on the winning car in 1988.

Conditions were different then, Fennig recalled during a relaxing moment this week.

“Toward the end of the race I don’t remember anything different going through my mind than any other race,” he said. “It didn’t even sink in that we had won the Daytona 500 until the next day. By the time we had the victory ceremony and did our interviews in the press box, it was already dark outside.

“We just loaded up the car and went home. There was not as much media attention back then as there is now. There was no Daytona USA, or trips to New York when you won. You just got ready for the next race.”

Fennig has been Martin’s crew chief for the last four seasons, reuniting after having won the American Speed Assn. championship together in 1986.

“I think winning the 500 now with Mark and this team would be more exciting than the one I won with Bobby,” Fennig said. “It is so much harder to win now. The way the sport is, you’ve accomplished more if you win now. I’m not saying it was easy to win then, but it’s really tough now with so much more competition.”

SPRINTERS BACK AT PERRIS

The Sprint Car Racing Assn. opens its home-track season Saturday night at Perris Auto Speedway.

Cory Kruseman won the SCRA 2001 opener at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix after a fender-banging battle with defending series champion Richard Griffin. They tangled two laps from the end, with Griffin flipping violently down the track. He was not injured.

“Griffin was very unfortunate, Kruseman very fortunate, the way it turned out,” said Hall of Fame driver-car builder Bubby Jones. “The cars are going much faster this year because of new heads developed by Alan Johnson of the NHRA. They’ve added about 25 horsepower and that’s the biggest single increase we’ve seen in years.”

Johnson is owner-builder of the top-fuel dragster driven by Gary Scelzi to the NHRA Winston championship.

The World of Outlaws, featuring champion Steve Kinser, will make their only Perris appearance Feb. 24.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP

Daytona 500

* When: Sunday, race (Channel 11, 10 a.m.).

* Where: Daytona International Speedway (tri-oval, 2.5 miles, 31-degree banking in turns, 18 degrees in tri-oval), Daytona Beach, Fla.

* Distance: 500 miles, 200 laps.

* Last year: Dale Jarrett won for the third time in eight years.

* Next race: Dura Lube 400, Feb. 25, Rockingham, N.C.

On the net: https://www.nascar.com.

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL

NAPA Auto Parts 300

* When: Saturday, race (Channel 11, 10 a.m.).

* Where: Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fla.

* Distance: 300 miles, 120 laps.

* Last year: Matt Kenseth overcame four wrecks to win for the eighth time in his Busch career.

* Next race: Alltel 200, Feb. 24, Rockingham, N.C.

* On the net: https://www.nascar.com.

CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS

Florida Dodge Dealers 250

* When: Today, race (ESPN, 8 a.m.).

* Where: Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fla.

* Distance: 250 miles, 150 laps.

* Last year: Mike Wallace won the inaugural race, during which Geoffrey Bodine’s truck flew toward the crowded grandstand in a fiery crash that injured nine fans and two drivers. Bodine suffered several broken bones.

* Next race: Florida Dodge Dealers 400, March 4, Homestead, Fla.

* On the net: https://www.nascar.com.

NHRA

Checker Schuck’s

Kragen Nationals

* When: Today, first-round qualifying; Saturday, second-round qualifying; Sunday, final eliminations.

* Where: Firebird International Raceway, Phoenix.

* Last year: Funny car driver John Force earned his 82nd victory. Tony Schumacher won in top fuel, Jeg Coughlin in pro stock.

* Next: Mac Tools Gatornationals, March 21, Gainesville, Fla.

* On the net: https://www.nhra.com.