St. Patrick's Day tough on D. Green

DARLINGTON, S.C. - St. Patrick's Day is supposed to be all about green.

Try telling that to David Green.

Green entered the 2003 NASCAR Busch Series campaign with his best chance in a decade to claim the series championship, and after three races was in prime position to do just that.

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Heading into Monday's darlingtonraceway.com 200, Green was virtually the series points leader.

He trailed only part-time competitor Kevin Harvick, who wasn't slated to run the event.

But an early-race accident limited him to a 31st-place finish, and dropped him from second to sixth in the standings.

As the series steers to Bristol Motor Speedway, he trails leader Todd Bodine, winner of Monday's event, by 112 points.

	David Green

"This hurts right now, and we'll go back a notch or two, but this team's strong and we'll be okay," said a downtrodden Green as he exited the Timber Wolf Pontiac. "We'll bounce back. It's a tough deal, sure. It's Darlington."

No doubt, it was typical Darlington. Green's misfortune was the first of four cautions on the day, and was triggered when Michael Waltrip blew a right-front tire entering Turn 3 on lap 27.

"I cut a right-front getting into three," Waltrip said. "I just had a car that was pushing pretty bad and I don't know what it did, what happened to the tire.

"I scuffed the wall a little bit earlier, and I don't know if we got a fender on it or what, but it just went flat going into three. I got in the fence and a bunch of them piled in behind me."

Another thriller  DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Early Monday morning, long before the start of the darlingtonraceway.com 200, track officials were huddled in the media center attempting to conjure up a worthy slogan for Sunday's breathtaking Winston Cup finish. Among the options was "Darlington: Don't Blink."

Green was among that contingent, though not solely by his own doing, he said.

"I was behind Michael right there and I don't know what happened between the (Kerry Earnhardt) and the (Waltrip)," Green said. 'All the sudden I saw Michael, driver's side, looking right at me.

"I'd just lapped the 16 car twice and he drilled me in the right rear and turned me right into Michael. I was heading that way, but I thought I could miss him. That's the tough part about starting in the rear, you know?"

Green qualified seventh, but was forced to the rear of the field after changing engines.

Hence, he was mired in the back of the field, amongst several slower cars that third-place finisher Scott Riggs referred to as "murder."

"It's just those slow cars being so slow," Green said. "I started dead last, and we ran 28 laps and I passed two or three cars two times, and one of them was right in the middle of that wreck. It's a shame, but like I say, we'll bounce back."