BUSCH: Early pit helps Green finish 23rd at Richmond

RICHMOND, Va.-With 86 laps to go when the eighth and final caution of the Autolite Fram 250 flew, held at Richmond International Raceway, Mark Green was running in the 29th position when his crew made the decision to stay out while the race leaders came into the pits for the final time. The strategy proved to be beneficial, as Green held on to finish in the 23rd spot. "We are happy with a 23rd place finish considering the car was loose all weekend," commented Green, driver of the Superflo/HMV Motorsports Chevrolet. "Luckily when the last caution came out we had just pitted so we knew we could go the rest of the way on fuel." Green started the Autolite Fram 250 in the 32nd position after a late afternoon qualifying run in the heat of the day spoiled his chances of breaking into the top-15. "We had hoped to do a lot better in qualifying since we were 15th fastest in practice," continued Green. "There was about a 10 to 15 degree difference in temperature from when we practiced to when we qualified which really hurts the performance of these cars." With eight cautions throughout the race, Green consistently battled a loose racecar and used each caution to make adjustments on the car to make it better. "The car had been loose all through practice and we thought we had fixed it, but by the time we got a couple of laps on the car it would loosen-up again," explained Jeff Hensley, HMV Motorsports team manager. "Everything we tried would only fix the problem for about 20 laps then it would loosen up again." "I guess we can be happy with 23rd this weekend, but we have a long way to go in the remaining six races if we hope to finish where we want to in points," continued Hensley. "We need to spend the off week deciding what needs to be done to the cars to make them better."