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  Jeff Green
Car number: 66 • Manufacturer: Chevy • Sponsor: Best Buy
Owner: Gene Haas • Team: Haas CNC Racing • Crew Chief: Harold Holly

Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images
2006 Season
Final Points Standing28th
After First 26 Races30th
Earnings$3,767,754
Starts36
Poles0
Wins0
Top 50
6-102
Laps Led18
Lead Lap Finishes14
Bonus Points15
Races Led3
2007 Spin
Haas CNC Racing will become a two-car operation in 2007, and nobody is happier about that than Jeff Green. The NASCAR veteran from Owensboro, Ky., has the desire and focus to make something of his latest opportunity in Nextel Cup; he just does not have the equipment with which he can get the job done. Busch Series vet Johnny Sauter will join Green, and the info-swap can do nothing but help.

Green is a feisty competitor who doesn't give an inch regardless of who you are. That shrewd on-track attitude oftentimes ruffles feathers to the point that open hostilities break out. Michael Waltrip, Dale Jarrett and Jimmie Johnson could tell a story or two, we're sure.

Still, we like that in a driver. In a day and age when most are afraid to be too aggressive on or off the track, Green has proven to be a throwback of sorts.

The Hendrick engines that Haas uses help this team, but only to a point. The Car of Tomorrow won't help its progress either, as more time and money are being spent only to have specs and templates changed. Don't expect the team to excel any more than usual at the races where the COT is phased in.

Green did stay safely inside the top 35 in Owner's Points, which will aid immensely, but only in terms of helping the team sleep better at night. Still, having five guaranteed races to start the season will give Green a boost in the point standings.

While we do not expect a huge turnaround, this group should stay in the top 35 of Owner's Points throughout the year and should aim for a top 25 finish in the championship standings. Green has been reunited with Harold Holly, with whom he won the 2000 Busch Series title. While the duo will not score a victory, it can count on a few respectable showings.


2006 Recap
This single-car team, outmatched and out-financed, just couldn't outrun the powerhouse programs in 2006. This does not stem from a lack of effort or desire. It simply has to do with the fact that a single-car team can no longer compete in today's NASCAR.

The season never truly got off the ground for this bunch. Jeff Green finished 42nd at Daytona after a run-in with Dale Jarrett. Three top 15 performances highlighted the first half of the Nextel Cup season. A seventh at Talladega gave the team a boost, as did the appointment of Green's former Busch Series crew chief Harold Holly to pit boss. With some fresh blood running the show, the Best Buy team immediately notched an eighth-place finish at Martinsville and a 13th at the big 1.5-mile tri-oval in Texas two weeks later.

• The Good: Jeff Green's eighth at Martinsville showed the team's improvement to close the season. He was competitive all day, scoring his best short track finish of the year.

• The Bad: In the first Michigan race, Green wrecked an already-bruised Tony Stewart early on. Green finished on the lead lap while Stewart was in the garage with a trashed racecar.

• The Ugly: Wrecking Jimmie Johnson under caution at Richmond was not in Jimmie's or Jeff's best interest, as NASCAR quickly helped him realize. They parked Green shortly after midway for the temper tantrum.


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