TALLADEGA, Ala. — David Green doesn't really care what place Johanna Long is running midway through today's NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. For the 19-year-old Pensacola, Fla. native and the Warsaw-based ML Motorsports team she drives for, the key is being there at the end of the Aaron's 312. Green is Long's spotter and driving coach. He drove in the series full-time from 1991 through 2007,winning the championship in 1994 and finishing second in points in 1996 and 2003. In the Sprint Cup Series, he is the spotter for Bobby Labonte. Green has seen and been a part of plenty of restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talladega, where power-sapping devices are placed on the carburetor to slow the cars down, resulting in bumper-to-bumper racing at nearly 190 miles per hour. The action is exciting for the fans, and tense for the drivers. There is generally at least onemulti-car crash, known as "the big one." "The key is to stay out of trouble, make every lap, and be there at the end," Green said Friday morning, standing inside the ML Motorsports team's hauler as crew members prepared for practice. "It's a plate race, and things happen here, but the gameplan is really no different than any other track,” he added. “We just need to stay out of trouble and be there at the end." ML Motorsports crew chief Mark Gutekunst agreed. "We've got to stay on the lead lap and be there at the end," said Gutekunst. "As long as you're on the lead lap, you've got a chance to win. That's just the way it is at Daytona and Talladega." Rain forced the cancellation of all on-track activity Thursday. Rather than qualifying Friday as planned, NASCAR officials changed the schedule. Teams were allowed one practice session Friday, and drivers will start today's race by owner's points. Long will start the race 24th in the No. 70 Chevy owned by Mary Louise Miller. "We learned a lot from Daytona," said Long. "We've still got a lot to learn, but we learned a lot at Daytona, where ran pretty good. We were running 12th, running right where we needed to be, and we got caught up in a wreck." Elliott Sadler will start first in today's race, followed in the top five by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Austion Dillon. Danica Patrick will start 17th, while fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start 33rd. The race will be televised live on ABC beginning at 3 p.m. EDT. Long was 28th in practice Friday. Kurt Busch was fastest, followed in the top five by Kyle Busch, Sam Hornish Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Michael Annett. Today's race is just the sixth Nationwide Series event for Long, as her five previous starts have all come this season with ML Motorsports. She has finished 20th at both Texas and Richmond, 21st at Daytona and 29th at Bristol. "It's hard when you come to a team that doesn't know you as a driver,” Long said. “But we're gonna continue to work together and get better. I feel like we've done pretty good, and we're gonna get better." Asked if he could offer a report card, so to speak, on her first five starts, Green was very complimentary of Long. "I want to give her an A+ for the year, but Johanna would probably be harder on herself about Bristol," said Green. "I'll give her an A for her first five races. I think the thing we keep forgetting is she's 19 years old. She came from late models, then the Truck Series, and now she's in the Nationwide Series. The Nationwide Series cars are totally different than anything she's driven. She's kept the cars in one piece, hasn't wrecked, and she's gaining experience. By the end of the year, I think she'll be a top-five contender." Green said that a big issue for younger drivers, or new drivers in the series, is earning respect. He said he believes Long has earned the respect of her competitors. "At this level, it's about earning respect," said Green. "I think if you went to anybody in the top 10 in points and asked them what they thought about Johanna Long in the 70 car, I think they'd tell you they were impressed." Another respectable finish this weekend would only gain Long more respect from her fellow drivers.
