After over three decades at the highest levels of NASCAR, and a career that saw him become a champion, Jeff Green is officially bowing out. In a post to his Twitter account on Friday, Green announced that he was retiring from NASCAR.
The 58-year old driver from Kentucky enjoyed a decorated career that saw most of his success come in what is now the NASCAR Xfinity Series, with some notable highlights in the NASCAR Cup Series as well.
"Well that's it folks time to kick back and enjoy the Good Life!", wrote Green, who confirmed that he was retiring in a followup tweet.
Green made his debut in what was then the NASCAR Busch Series at RIchmond in 1990, and raced part-time in the series before being hired by Dale Earnhardt Inc. to run the full season in 1995. After two seasons with Earnhardt's team, Green moved to Diamond Ridge Motorsports for 1997, earning his first career win at Las Vegas before getting the opportunity to race for Diamond Ridge's Cup Series team midway through the season.
After running Cup throughout 1997 and 1998, Green turned his focus back to the Busch Series for 1999, kicking off the most successful stretch of racing in his career. After winning three races and finishing second in points in '99, Green had a dominant 2000 season where he won six races, earned 25 Top 5 and 27 Top 10 finishes and won the Busch Series Championship by over 600 points.
Green finished runner-up in points again in 2001, and then took a full-time Cup ride with Richard Childress Racing for 2002.
Green would make 270 Cup starts in all, driving for car owners such as Childress, Felix Sabates, Richard Petty and Gene Haas, among others. His crowning achievement in Cup competition came in 2003, when he won the pole for that year's Daytona 500. His best career finish in Cup was a second-place outing at New Hampshire in 2002.
In the Xfinity Series, Green was credited with 535 starts with 16 wins, 87 Top 5s, 131 Top 10s and 23 poles. Later in his career, Green transitioned to driving start-and-park cars and trying his hand at crew work, most recently with RSS Racing. Green made his final start in Xfinity competition last year at Pocono, and served as the crew chief for Kyle Sieg this past weekend at Dover.
Green now joins his two brothers, David and Mark Green, in stepping away from the driver's seat. David Green, the 1994 Busch Series Champion, works as a safety manager at NASCAR, while Mark Green works as the Director of Driver Development for Rev Racing.