Green running away with Busch title

Jenna Fryer

Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000 | 10:06 a.m.

As the youngest of three racing brothers, Jeff Green used to seek out his siblings for career advice.

Those days are long gone.

On pace to win the Busch Series points title by the largest margin in history, Green seems to have things figured out on his own.

"I don't think he's come to me once this year for tips or pointers or anything like that," said oldest brother David, the 1994 Busch Series champion.

"But why would he? He's running pretty darn good on his own each every week, and making it look pretty easy, too."

That he is.

Green takes a 604-point lead in the standings over teammate Jason Keller into Friday night's Autolite Platinum 250 in Richmond, Va. Since finishing 42nd in the season-opening race in Daytona, Green has been a model of consistency.

Last year's Busch Series runner-up has five wins this season, seven poles and 19 top-five finishes. He's finished every race and his 14th-place finish at Michigan on Aug. 19 snapped a 4 1/2 -month streak of top 10 finishes.

With only seven races left in the season, Green is on pace to shatter the record for margin of victory set in 1984 when Sam Ard beat Jack Ingram by 426 points.

But Green insists his run has been anything but easy.

"It's actually been pretty tough," he said. "I know it has looked easy because the points seem kind of lopsided, but no one has given us anything."

Well, sort of. The drivers chasing him in the points standings have all conceded the title to him.

"It's over, there's no way anyone is catching him," said Todd Bodine, fourth in the standings but 692 points behind Green.

"If he had a lot of bad luck to end the season, anything would be possible. But I don't see that happening because he has yet to have bad luck this season. I've never seen anything like it."

Neither had the 39-year-old Green, who started the season with only four career victories. But three of them came last season, helping him nip Matt Kenseth for runner-up to champion Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Earnhardt and Kenseth moved up to Winston Cup racing this season, leaving Green to dominate the series. He made that his goal and has been able to accomplish it with the help of a veteran team.

Although part of a new team this year, Green is in his second season with crew chief Harold Holly and most of the crew has been with Holly at least four years. Green has found that familiarity makes the communication a lot smoother.

"We've had to work real hard for everything this year, but we've been able to do it because we have a great race team with the people we need to make it work," he said. "We all understand each other and we all enjoy coming to work each day.

"It doesn't matter if we finish 30th one race, we'll all be back in the shop on Monday with a bounce in our step, ready to improve. It's just the way it is with this team, it's all about the teamwork."

To Holly, that's the way it should be. He said he believes unity is the only way to have a successful team, and it takes years to do it. That's often hard to do in the Busch Series, where drivers and crew members are all usually looking to move up to Winston Cup.

"I think you have to create a situation where guys want to stick around," Holly said. "The longer you can keep guys, the easier it is to build that foundation you need to be successful."

Green has also bought into that theory. He said he's content to stay on the Busch circuit, rather than jump at the first Winston Cup ride that comes along.

He tried that once, and despite making 20 of the 22 races he entered in 1997, the team eventually folded because of lack of sponsorship.

"I won't go to Winston Cup just to go there," Green said. "It would have to be the right situation, and Harold and the guys would have to come with me. Why would I do it when things are so good here?"