SEASON IN REVIEW
Owensboro, Kentucky driver Jeff Green picked up his first LASTCAR Busch Series Grand National Division Championship in 1996, scoring three last-place finishes in twenty-six starts during a twenty-six race season.
Green was competing in his seventh Busch Series Grand National Division season. He looked to build from a successful 1995 in which he picked up six Top Fives and twelve Top Tens on his way to a 5th-place finish in the standings. The move to the developing Dale Earnhardt, Inc. team in 1995 paid immediate dividends, and running the familiar #3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet, hopes were high that Green would break through with his first career win.
However, though Green improved to finish 4th in points, his average finish slipped from 14.5 to 16.2, due in part to a series-high three last-place finishes earned that year. The first came at Nashville on March 17, where his #3 was involved in a crash after he completed 19 laps of the BellSouth / Opryland USA 320. The next came five races later at Charlotte during the May 25 running of the Red Dog 300, where an engine failure after 14 laps was to blame. The third came eight races after that at Indianapolis Raceway Park, where another crash, this time on Lap 8, ended his run in the Kroger 200. Green started 6th in the Indianapolis race, the best start of any last-place finisher that season.
Green remained winless in 1996 and lost his ride to Steve Park, then to Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who won the series title in 1998 and 1999. In 1997, while driving a limited season for Gary Betchel, Green finally broke through with a win in NASCAR’s first Busch race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. While running limited seasons in the Cup Series, Green moved up to the Greg Pollex team in 1999. A runner-up finish in his first start at Daytona led to three wins that year, then six the year after in a runaway domination of the 2000 NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division title. He scored four more wins for Pollex in 2001, then drove for Richard Childress in both Cup and Busch in 2002, picking up four Top Fives in Cup and two more Busch Series Grand National Division wins.
Perhaps the pinnacle of Green’s career came in 2003, when he won the pole for the Daytona 500. However, Green lost his ride after a controversial wreck at Richmond, and after moving to Dale Earnhardt, Inc., was left with a 34th-place finish in the standings. For the next six years, Green struggled driving for Petty Enterprises and HAAS-CNC in Cup before landing with TriStar Motorsports’ Busch Series Grand National Division team in late 2009. His new role with TriStar would shatter several LASTCAR records.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Tommy Houston took the overall Busch last-place lead from Ed Berrier with his 12th finish, which came at Hickory on April 6. Houston’s #0 Suburban Propane Ford lost the engine after 25 laps of the Sundrop 300.
Finishing next-to-last that day in Hickory was 21-year-old Elliott Sadler, making one of his thirteen starts that year. The #46 Chevrolet Sadler drove finished last for the first time four races later at South Boston, when the engine let go after 65 laps. Three races after that, Sadler moved to the Gary Betchel team and scored three Top Ten finishes. Sadler and Bechtel had a breakout season the next year, picking up three wins - two from the pole - and a 5th-place finish in points. He moved to the Cup Series in 1999.
Also finishing last for the first time in 1996 was Jeff Fuller, whose #17 Sunoco Chevrolet lost the engine after 26 laps of the Meridian Advantage 200 at Nazareth on May 19. On August 23, Fuller scored the only win of his career that year at Bristol, leading 145 laps from the pole in the Food City 250. Just six years later, Fuller would set several LASTCAR records of his own, setting the stage for a last-place showdown with Jeff Green.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Jeff Green (3)
2nd) Derrike Cope, Jeremy Mayfield, Randy Porter, Jimmy Spencer (2)
3rd) Joe Bessey, Chuck Bown, Jim Bown, Bobby Dotter, Tim Fedewa, Jeff Fuller, Mike Harmon, Doug Heveron, Tommy Houston, Mike McLaughlin, L.W. Miller, Phil Parsons, Elliott Sadler, Hermie Sadler, Mike Wallace (1)
