NASCAR WCUP: Benson Salvages 16th-Place Finish At Watkins Glen

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

August 12, 2001

#10 Valvoline Pontiac driver Johnny Benson knew midway through Sunday’s NASCAR Winston Cup race at Watkins Glen that his car wasn’t the fastest on the track.

So, instead of trying to make bold moves that could easily lead to off-track excursions and a poor finish, Benson kept his car in the middle of the road, stayed on the track, and salvaged a hard-earned 16th-place finish.

“That was a pretty tough day for us,” said a sweat-drenched Benson as he climbed out of the Valvoline Pontiac. “We struggled all weekend, but finally got to running pretty good during the race today. We didn’t get the yellow flags to fall the way we needed them to in order to get a really good finish, but we’ll take what we got today and move on to Michigan next week.”

Benson began Sunday’s race in 26th spot and kept his position until lap 7 when ignition trouble forced him to switch ignition boxes and in the process dropping him to 38th. Although the car ran well after the problem, making up the lost positions was nearly an impossible task.

The front of the field changed often as the differing pit strategies allowed drivers to take turns running in the front of the pack. Unfortunately, most of the field opted for Benson and his crew chief James Ince’s strategy of pitting as soon as they knew they could make it to the end of the race.

Unlike oval racing, on road courses the trick is to pit before the yellow comes out and bunches the field. If you can get in and out of the pits and stay on the lead lap you will move to the front of the field if a yellow flag falls. Hoping that scenario would play out, Benson came in on lap 57 of the 90-lap race but Benson was followed in by most of the leaders on the next lap nullifying the strategy.

“You are going to have to earn anything we get for the rest of the race because it looks like everyone is on the same strategy,” Ince told Benson over the team radio. In the final laps Benson passed a few cars and avoided nears wrecks before coming across the finish line in 16th place.

Jeff Gordon passed Jeff Burton in the final laps to win the race.

Text provided by Drew Brown

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