David Green has two top-five finishes this year and is seventh in the Busch Series point standings. Credit: Autostock

Conversation: David Green

One of the most evergreen -- and most optimistic -- athletes in the upper levels of NASCAR racing has to be David Green.

Green, the oldest of three racing brothers from Owensboro, Ky., is the 1994 Busch Series champion who spent a period racing in the Winston Cup Series, to thinking he might be out of the sport, to making a return at the top -- first with Hendrick Motorsports and now with Brewco Motorsports.

The driver of Brewco's No. 27 Kleenex Ford took a break this week to talk about his career without end, an analysis of Brewco's turnaround season and his take on the 2005 Busch championship.

Q: You're on the short end of a long trip, from Colorado to Gateway with several tests mixed in; you're visiting with grandma and then you're home -- so what kind of reunion is that going to be with Diane and the kids?

	Credit: Autostock
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David Green: Well (laughing), it's going to be a lot of fun, obviously, being able to celebrate our Pikes Peak victory and a great run at St. Louis.

More than anything, I get to unpack this huge suitcase I'm carrying around, but at this point being able to spend some time in Owensboro between St. Louis and IRP is always a lot of fun -- and it's especially fun after our victory.

It's a tough time of the season and I'm gone from home a lot, but it's a satisfying time because my team has reaped the benefits of all their hard work, so we're ready for the challenge of the upcoming races.

Q: After pulling this last win out -- you gotta feel like a cat -- not insulting you, but how many lives does your career have left?

David Green: I guess that's a good thing (laughing) -- being able to keep bouncing back. As a driver, you always want to make everything flow smoothly, kind of on a level line -- but as you know and I know, in this sport it's very difficult.

There are a lot more lows than there are highs and whatnot, but there's one thing I never challenged or questioned, and that was No. 1, my desire and my focus on continuing to win races, and ultimately a championship.

And that showed in 2003 when I got with Tammy and Clarence (Brewer) and everybody at Brewco, and back then with Timber Wolf, that we were going to be on track after the 2003 season we had.

But 2004 was tough on the engine side of things, so this year with Ford and Kleenex coming on board it's been outstanding.

Man, it was frustrating early on, and it might seem like a cat with several lives here, but I really attribute all that to staying focused, and the fire is burning hotter than it ever has within my stomach to be able to go out and compete and try to win races and ultimately, hopefully another championship.

With this team that I'm with at Brewco, and with Stewart Cooper stepping up to be my new crew chief has really fueled a lot of that fire as well, because he's a talented young man.

Just because this is his first year being a crew chief is no drawback because he's been in this sport a long time and is deserving of the crew chief's role.

I'm very, very proud to see what he's accomplished and to get into Victory Lane at Pikes Peak a couple weeks ago was very satisfying for me personally, but also for him because of what having that trophy and all brings.

So I look at it as just a case of staying focused on our job and I feel like I'm very lucky at this stage of my career to still be with a top-notch team that has the desire that I want -- and that's to win races and win another championship -- and a championship for them as a team.

Having the support of Kleenex helps us to make this happen, but a lot of guys in this sport don't get that opportunity -- especially later on in their careers -- and I'm very fortunate that they can see that I'm a part of their team that can help the team grow for the future.

Q: That was a funny question and I appreciate you responding to it so well, but seriously, after winning in Colorado, you came right back and put up a good number at Gateway -- fourth -- so after switching manufacturers and crew chiefs before this season, has your Brewco team turned a corner, do you feel?

David Green: I think so, and I can even look back to Richmond. But as soon as I say Richmond, I can even look back to the start of the season and know that what Ford Racing gave our team and what Stewart Cooper did with all that information and the product has been second to none.

He has done an outstanding job orchestrating all the cars for our shop, meaning the 66 Duraflame cars and the 27 Kleenex cars -- and Newt (Moore, 66 team crew chief) have worked diligently from that point forward to get some good results on the track.

But I really knew going into the off-season testing that we had a better racecar and I really thought that I had the people that it took more than ever, ever before to go for another championship.

But what simply kind of made us scratch our heads was that we left Vegas with a nice, top-10 finish; we were top-10 in points and we went off to Mexico and had a terrible string of luck, breaking some transmissions and getting involved in a wreck at Atlanta.

But when we came to Richmond we had learned more about the Ford Taurus on the body stuff and we took a new car to Richmond and I thought we had really turned the corner but our results didn't show it.

I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel in Richmond. We went to Nashville and led our first laps of the year and had a tire come off and hurt our finish.

So to say Pikes Peak was a surprise is not true because I had seen it happening that our team was turning the corner. But a lot of people look at the results and say, "You're finishing here, here and here and you're not getting the top-fives and top-10s that we're accustomed to."

But we all know that it takes time and I know that Stewart had his work cut out in not only becoming a new crew chief but also orchestrating all the people on our team.

Our pit stops were tough at times but we finally got our people turned around and in the right places to make better pit stops so it was a work in progress for Stewart from the beginning -- plus all the other stuff he had on his hands from the beginning, being the new crew chief.

So it took a little while, but I never lost faith and as much as the critics and the people wanted to write us off and wanted to write myself off as a driver and write Stewart off as a crew chief -- I just knew that in due time we could show them what we were all made of.

Thank goodness it happened at Pikes Peak and we followed it up at St. Louis. Like I told my team before the St. Louis race -- "The toughest race is always the race right after you win."

It's because of that that people expect to either show you that it wasn't a fluke that you won and it's up to us as a team to continue that momentum. So I was real proud of them at St. Louis that we had a real solid, competitive top-four finish.

I think it showed everybody that we're back and hopefully we can keep it going.

Q: Before Gateway, you talked about how inspirational it was watching guys like Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace competing against the kids -- but you and Kenny Wallace are doing the same thing in the Busch Series, aren't you?

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David Green: I don't know -- I've never really looked at my age or how many races I ran, or there is the fact that there is a lot of emphasis on the 18-to-20-year-old kids now.

But what I do watch is the guys that I've looked up to as heroes, maybe -- and that's guys like Mark Martin and Terry Labonte and Dale Jarrett and Ricky Rudd and obviously Rusty Wallace and those guys.

And as they do well I feel like it's a point in time that I can do the same thing and keep it going and I think that we can bounce that energy off of one another to make sure that we continue to do good.

So it's been very motivating to see those guys have some success and I would like to think that guys like Ricky and Dale Jarrett and all that are watching Kenny Wallace and myself have a decent year and run up front.

They say, "Hey, you know -- we can all still do it." So it's very reassuring, and at the same time I feel, as a driver, about half my age. It's because of the guys that surround me and I'm sure Kenny Wallace would say the same thing.

This sport has transpired into a sport where, sure, performance is a key; but at the same time we have a lot of other obligations both off the track and on the track, to show respect to the other competitors and to appreciate what our sponsors do.

I appreciate what Kleenex and Ford and the Postal Service and Royal Office do for me personally -- and Anheuser-Busch for the series. That's part of our job, so I really feel fortunate that I learned those lessons way back when and I can still enjoy this and still portray the image that I feel like all NASCAR drivers need to be and to be looked up to.

So yeah, it's encouraging and I know Kenny has run well not only this year but last year as well and I don't know that we were ever fighting for the first victory (this season) for us old guys -- or more experienced guys -- but it's fun to get us back on the map in this day and time of the younger guys.

But as soon as I say that I think the Busch Series is still the series that's the most rounded -- meaning that we were fortunate enough to win at Pikes Peak and then Reed Sorenson won at St. Louis.

And what a great young man and a great talent he is. It's pretty cool after all of these years that I've been able to be a part of this series that I can still go out and compete with young, talented guys like that, that will one day be Nextel Cup champions.

Q: Is this month maybe the epitome of the Busch Series challenge: mile, short track, road course, speedway, short track and a speedway?

Inside the Numbers David Green in 2005 Track Start Finish Gateway 12 4 Pikes Peak 14 1 Loudon 26 20 Chicago 35 30 Daytona 42 12 Milwaukee 5 11 Kentucky 12 12 Nashville 13 33 Dover 13 11 Charlotte 41 31 Richmond 33 14 Darlington 36 15 Talladega 28 13 Phoenix 26 14 Texas 24 11 Bristol 21 15 Nashville 21 18 Atlanta 20 33 Las Vegas 13 10 Mexico City 11 39 Fontana 8 14 Daytona 25 22

David Green: Oh absolutely. And I think it's no different in the Cup Series, but this is the stretch deal that the teams -- the strong teams that have the right depth and the right focus -- are going to rise.

You know, that makes me even more proud of what my team has accomplished because through all of our tough times earlier in the year, we kept chipping away at it -- and we were getting thrown all these different tracks, and we know the schedule so we were braced for it.

But I think it really calls out the overall strength and dedication to the upcoming races that your team really has to have to be successful, and I know our team has been able to run the same car at Milwaukee, Loudon, Pikes Peak, St. Louis and now IRP this week.

We're preparing some new stuff for Michigan and whatnot, and we just got done with a test this week at Watkins Glen -- but yeah, it really brings out a broad range of your abilities that you have to dig down for.

And like I told our guys prior to the Gateway activities, this race at IRP might be the toughest little short track that we run all year and it never hurts to have some momentum.

Then we have Watkins Glen, a track we haven't run since 2001, and you couple in the Cup guys being there which is going to be triple-pressure, you might say.

But that's what I like about this series. You get a well-rounded view of a team's abilities and talents and I know my team, again led by Stewart, is covering all the bases at all times, so it's exciting to win.

But it's also exciting to know that each race that you go to you feel like you have a shot at having a real good finish.

Q: With 13 races remaining, who is David Green's favorite for the Busch championship?

David Green: Oh gosh. Most times I like to look at myself being up there in the hunt. People have asked me what my goals are -- have they changed?

Really they haven't changed. I really feel like we have a shot at kind of scratching and clawing our way back into the top-five, maybe fifth or so -- and maybe give Kenny a run for the money for the highest position in points for us (old) guys.

But Martin Truex is obviously a very talented young driver and a guy that's got an awesome team behind him. I like Martin's chances because he's been there and he's done that and he's behind the wheel right now, of the championship.

But I have to say about Reed -- I raced against his father down at Lanier Speedway and even though Reed was probably too young to get into the pits, then -- I was impressed with his father, Brad, and when Reed came along I knew he was probably going to be the spitting image of (his dad).

What a nice young man, respectful and talented he's proven to be, plus with the huge organization at Ganassi behind him -- he's going to be very stout. And he's got almost a mastermind as a crew chief in Brian Pattie, that's got a lot of years in this series and has won a lot of races.

And you can't leave out Carl Edwards. Him being a Ford driver I always have to root for Carl because the way Carl has positioned himself to come into NASCAR racing is very inspiring to every driver across the United States and the world, because he came from those little dirt track in the Midwest and never really said "I'm going to be a Busch driver or a Cup driver one day."

He just wanted to be successful, it takes a lot of dedication and he's done all that.

I like all these guys' chances. Those three have really done it the way the Busch Series is all about -- to come from nowhere to make something of yourself.

I think it would be so cool to see them all come down to the last race at Homestead, like Brian Vickers and I did two years ago -- and have a shot at the championship.