Best Buy Racing Team Falls Victim to Pit Road Troubles, Late Race Accident in Daytona 500 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 18) – Jeff Green had a fast car in Sunday’s Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, and it didn’t take him long to prove it. Starting from the 31st position, Green drove his No. 66 Best Buy Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet into the top-10 on just lap 17 of the 200-lap event. By lap 122, Green found himself in fifth position, causing both television and radio broadcasters to comment on the Best Buy team’s strong showing.

While Green’s dominant car helped him charge forward through the field, slow pit stops kept dropping him down the leader board, leaving him vulnerable to the big accidents that inevitably start mid-pack at Daytona. On lap 174, the odds caught up with Green, who was running in 23rd position, when defending Daytona 500 Champion Jimmie Johnson slammed the outside retaining wall and turned directly into Green’s path. With no way to avoid Johnson’s No. 48 car, Green’s No. 66 Chevrolet smashed into Johnson’s car, setting off a chain reaction that also collected the cars of Tony Raines, Denny Hamlin and David Reutimann.

While Green was able to drive his injured machine back to pit road, a quick examination of the damage caused the pit crew to push the Best Buy machine to the garage for extensive repairs to the front and side of the No. 66.

Watching his Haas CNC Racing crew work feverishly to fix the damage, a dejected Green talked to reporters about his day.

“It looked like Jimmie (Johnson) got up into the wall and then came down into us,” Green said. “There was nowhere for us to go. We never should have been back there to begin with. The Best Buy Chevy was awesome today. It was honestly one of the best cars I’ve ever had here, but our pit stops just killed us. We lost positions every time we came to pit road. We were in the top-five, came in to the pits, and lost something like 12 or 15 spots. On the one hand, it’s exciting to know we’ve got really good cars this year, but we’ve got to get it done in the pits. We’ll talk about it tomorrow back at the shop.”

The team managed to get Green back on track with just a handful of laps remaining in the race. By returning to the track, the Best Buy team was able to pick up a couple of positions, and finished the event in 36th-place, 19 laps down to race winner Kevin Harvick.

With the finish, Green holds the 36th position in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup points standings after the first event of the 36-race season. Green teammate at Haas CNC Racing, Johnny Sauter, scored a 15th-place finish in the No. 70 Yellow Transportation Chevrolet.

Green and Sauter will swap sponsors for the second event of the NEXTEL Cup season, as the series travels to California Speedway in Fontana, about an hour east of Los Angeles. Green’s No. 66 Chevy will carry the logos of Yellow Transporation, while Sauter’s No. 70 entry will be emblazoned with the blue and yellow Best Buy colors.

In his only NEXTEL Cup Series start at California Speedway, Sauter started 37th and finished 21st while driving for Richard Childress Racing in May, 2004.