SCR: You have won three track championships in Late Model stock cars in Kentucky and you have a Late Model championship at Nashville, along with your Busch Series championship. When do you realistically expect the Winston Cup championship to come your way?Green: I think if we are as successful as we think we can be, we have a shot at it in these next three years. It is not going to happen next year and we are not going in thinking that. That would be a stretch of the imagination to think we could come out the first year and win a championship. It is tough to beat Jeff Gordon and his team every week. They have been doing this a lot longer than we have. They are going on 10 years. We are not going into next year thinking we are going to set the world on fire, but we are going to do our job and do it the best we can and hopefully that will put us in the Top 10 when the season is over.
SCR: In 2000, you won the Busch Series championship by a record margin. Do you feel that every time you get into the car you have to drive as hard as you would if you were last in points?Green: I drive race cars because I want to and I want to win. When I take the checkered flag it is not about points or money. It is about being competitive and being the best that particular day. In 2000 we could have taken the last three races off. It is about winning that trophy and bringing it back to the shop. There are some who run just for the money. I won't fool you; I have to make a living and I want to make a living for my family and for what I want to do when I retire. Growing up racing bicycles in the street, I wanted to win and it didn't pay any money or points. That is the way I still feel 30-some years later.
SCR: Your two brothers, Mark and David, race as well. How did all three of you get started in racing?Green: We all started racing go-karts. I was around eight and they were about 11 or 12. The Southern Indiana Racing Association would block off the town and we would run through the streets. That was an every-Sunday event through the summer. One thing led to another, and we were racing for trophies and pretty much all of my mom and dad's money was going into go-karts. I traveled to California, Oklahoma and other places to race. It was fun, but it was just getting more experience. I raced go-karts all the way through high school graduation, then I started racing stock cars. It got to the point where I had to start making a living. I was driving a car with four wheels and a steering wheel, so that gave me the seat time I needed at that early age to do what I am doing now.
SCR: Of the three brothers, who is the better driver?Green: I am. You wouldn't want me to say anything different would you? I think we are all as good as the next one, but I have had some better opportunities the last couple of years with the race teams I have driven for. I think Mark would do the same job I am doing in my car, and David would do the same job. It is all about the team. If all the guys are not pulling, or you don't have good guys period, you are not going to be good.
SCR: There is a well-known superstition with the color green among race car drivers. How do you get over that?Green: I don't think about it too much. The only thing I don't do is drive a green rental car. I have a green marble that a lady gave me in California back in 2000. I kept it with me at each race that year, but I think I wore it out. I used it off and on in 2001. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.