Coming off a 16th-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway, Jeff Green and the No. 14 Hefty®/Reynolds® Race team headed south to Atlanta Motor Speedway looking to continue the team’s momentum and have another solid finish. Unfortunately with 19 laps remaining, Green was involved in an accident on the front-stretch that relegated the team to a disappointing 29th-place finish. As a result, the TriStar Motorsports team dropped one position to 23rdin the NASCAR Owner Standings.
Green started the Great Clips/Grit Chips 300 in the 26th position and was able to advance one position by lap 10. Battling an extremely loose-handling car throughout the first green-flag run, the team took advantage of the first caution period on lap 35 to bring the Reynolds Wrap® Camry to pit road for service. The team changed four tires, added fuel, and made huge swings at the chassis with air-pressure, track-bar, and wedge adjustments in hopes of helping the car’s handling. Once the stop was complete, Green returned to the track in the 26th position, one lap down to the race leader.
On the restart, Green quickly moved into the “lucky dog” position and as luck would have it the caution flag waved three laps later. Still batting a loose-handling condition on the No. 14 Camry, Green brought the car to pit road for another round of chassis adjustments and fuel. When the race resumed on lap 48, Green was scored on the lead lap in the 24th position.
As the race progressed, Green continued to battle a loose-handling car, yet he was still able to maintain his position. Shortly before the halfway marker of the race, a round of green-flag pit stops shuffled him back to the 25th position. Green, however, was able to work his way back up to the 24th position by lap 102.
Two additional attempts at fixing the loose-handling condition were made in the later stages of the event, but the No. 14 car never responded to the changes. With 19 laps remaining, the team’s bad day turned worse when Green, who was running in the 24th position, and another competitor got together on the front-stretch, resulting in a heavily damaged silver and blue Camry. Unable to finish the event, the TriStar Motorsports team was credited with a 29th-place finish.
Driver, Jeff Green Quotes:
“I’m really disappointed with how we ran tonight. I hate it for everyone on the team and for Hefty® and Reynolds®. After practice we thought we had a decent car in race trim and on older tires, but unfortunately, it was too loose in the race and no matter the adjustment, the car wouldn’t respond. To make matters worse, we wrecked with less than 20 laps to go racing a car that wasn’t for position.”
TMI PR
