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Green Rides To Third Straight Top-10 At IRP

CLERMONT, IN (August 6, 2005) - David Green and company pieced together another solid run this weekend at Indianapolis Raceway Park.  Green tactfully negotiated the low-banked short track, keeping the Kleenex®/Marsh Ford in the top-10 for the majority of the Kroger 200.  Green ended the night with an eighth place finish, which marked the #27 team’s third top-10 in as many weeks.

Green turned a qualifying lap of 109.492 mph.  His time of 22.555 seconds around the 5/8 mile oval put him in 15^th place on the starting grid.  “I’m optimistic about the race tonight,” said Green after his qualifying effort.  “We were a little loose on our lap, but that’s because we are planning on the track tightening up tonight after the sun sets.  When the temperature drops, I expect the track to come to us and we’ll have no problem making our way to the front.”

When the green flag dropped, Green made good on his word.  The #27 Ford broke into the top-10 on lap 32, and moved up to 7^th place before the first caution period, lap 52.  Green radioed in that his car was good, but needed some forward bite coming off the turns.  Crew chief Stewart Cooper called for four tires, fuel and one round of wedge into the left-rear off the car.  After the crew ripped through the pit stop, Green exited the pits in 7^th place.

The race resumed on lap 73.  Green picked up right where he left off, moving into 5^th place on lap 96.  Green continued to track down the leaders until lap 101 when the caution flag reemerged.  The team performed a four tire change, along with another round of wedge adjustments under the yellow flag. Several cars on pit road took only two tires on their stops, which moved the #27 machine into 10^th place for the restart.

Green flag action returned on lap 108.  Green scooted into 9^th place on lap 115 and picked up another spot on lap 125.  The Kleenex Taurus continued its charge towards the front, taking the 7^th position on lap 158, but the car’s handling started to slowly slip away.  The car began to gradually loosen as the race went on, eventually becoming too free for Green to pilot through traffic.  Even with his car sliding through the corners, Green held strong, blocking the advances of several competitors in the latter stages of the event.  Only one car was able to pass Green before the checkered flag waved, giving the Kleenex®/Scott Products team an 8^th place finish.  The team remains 7^th in the Busch Series point standings, 261 points out of 5^th place.

“We had an awesome race car tonight,” said Green after the race.  “It started out a little bit tight, but it was still really strong.  On our last pit stop, we took on sticker tires.  We had scuff tires on before that and our car seemed to like those a lot better.  We just got too loose on stickers. It was still a great race for us, though.  This is the Kleenex’s third straight top-10 and I can’t wait for Watkins Glen next week.”

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