NASCAR WCUP: Johnny Benson starting up front in The Winston

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

May 19, 2001

Johnny Benson

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX (Pole Winner, The Winston Open):

(ON HIS RUN) "It was OK. Obviously it could have been better, but in the same token we're happy. The Goodyear tire is a great tire, but it's just a little hard for one or two laps. We feel the Valvoline Pontiac is a little bit better in the long run. We thought we'd run a little quicker than we ran, but we're real happy with it."

(ON STARTING UP FRONT) "I think it's real important, as long as you're in the top 10. I think anybody in the top 10 has got a pretty good shot. But, it still is 30 laps and you've got to have the car good. We're going to work real hard on getting this Pontiac right."

(ON BEING GOOD IN A RELATIVELY SHORT RACE) "It's 30 laps. In the past, we've had a problem finishing off a short run like that. Maybe we'll be OK in 30 laps. Do I feel we'll be good in 30 laps? I think we'll be OK, but we'll be a lot better at the end of that than I will 15 laps in. Hopefully that's not going to hurt us too bad. We may try a couple things. But all in all, we still want to make sure that the car is good on a long run because the Coke 600 is pretty important."

(ON FINDING A SET UP WITH NO NIGHT TIME PRACTICE) "I think a lot of people are worried about that. Our practice was during the day and the race is at night, and that makes it difficult to set a car up. Plus, with the new rules, not allowing us to put rubbers in the front of the cars, it's going to make it very difficult to get the car just to where you want it. You're going to have to be more perfect now than you have in the past because we don't have any adjustments now. It's going to be interesting. I don't know if it's going to be as good of a race without having adjustments. It's going to be difficult and I think tomorrow is probably going to be a huge learning process for everybody."

Text provided by Al Larsen

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