Green confident team can make comeback

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- If the 20th position is the Winston Cup point standings' version of the Mendoza line, then you'll need a snorkel to find Jeff Green.

He's vanished from racing radars since capturing the Daytona 500 pole nearly two months ago. As a matter of fact, Green is out of sight at 35th, but he insists circumstances aren't such a drag. Working with new crew chief Mike Beam, Green -- who's in his second full Cup season -- still considers his position more than salvageable.

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"We need to be in the top 10 every week," Green said. "When you have a struggling day, you still need to around the top 10, top 15 anyway. When you have a good day, you're going to be up front."

According to Beam, flat tires ruined finishes at Daytona, Rockingham and Las Vegas. Richard Childress Racing's initial chassis problems -- improper balance that wasn't discovered until Green and teammates Robby Gordon and Kevin Harvick ran in race trim -- haven't helped, either.

Now, new, better-balanced cars are on the way. Green will drive one next week at Texas. According to Beam, the shop crew worked until 11 p.m., this week to make sure Green will have his new car, and pit work has been stellar. Green's crew won the Darlington installment of a weekly pit contest sponsored by McDonald's.

"Jeff's in a great frame of mind, and he's driving his heart out," Beam said. "The pit crew is a wonderful bunch of guys. The road crew works hard, so we're going to do the very best we can and hope it works out."

Beam's grappling with some issues, too. A longtime chief of Ford teams, he said he's working with his first General Motors car "in 12, 13" years, and that the gear ratios are vastly different.

"I'll be the first to admit I have a big learning curve here," Beam said. "But I'm very fortunate to be working with a bunch of people I've worked with before."

"I don't think anything Mike's done has taken away from our program," Green said. "It's all added to it -- the pit stops and everything. Once we get our cars competitive, I feel like we'll have a chance to run up front where we need to be."