Benson Third at Rockingham; Nearly Equals Career Top Fives

#10 Pontiac driver Johnny Benson rarely misses a chance in a radio or
television interview to thank his crew chief James Ince as well as his
teammates on the Valvoline racing team.

All drivers do that, but sometimes Benson takes it to an extra level. And there
’s a reason why.

Just look at the numbers.

Coming into the season, Benson had registered seven top-five finishes in his
five-year career. But after a third-place finish at the North Carolina Speedway
on Sunday, Benson is just one top-five finish away from equaling his career
total in a single season.

For Benson, the explanation for the six top-five finishes in 2001 is rather
simple.

“It’s just been working with these guys,” Benson said of his Valvoline
teammates. “James Ince has been doing a tremendous job and the backing of
Valvoline makes a huge difference. This is the same race team we had a year
ago; we just didn’t have any backing. We felt like once we signed Valvoline on
board and got a little money to work with that we’d be in a little better
shape.

“So far that has been showing true.”

Benson tied his best finish of the season on Sunday in a race that saw him come
from 39th starting position to third with the aid of only two caution flags. A
hard-earned finish to say the least.

“It was a pretty good day for us,” Benson said. “We’re not going to complain
with third at all. But, it was pretty hard to compete. (Kenny Wallace) and
(winner Joe Nemechek) were strong all day and I don’t think we had anything for
them but we did what we could.”

Once the green flag dropped, it was clear to see Benson was one of the best
cars on the 1.017-mile highbanks. He passed cars both high and low and by lap
120 he had moved to the top ten.
Benson pitted a bit earlier than most leaders all day. He came in for his
second stop around the lap 172 mark.

The leaders soon followed, but just as the cycle of stops came toward an end,
Carl Long's car slapped the outside wall in Turn 4 on Lap 176, and as he limped
down the front stretch the day's second yellow flag came out.

That jumbled the field.

Kurt Busch wound up as the leader, followed by Wallace, Nemechek, Benson and
Jerry Nadeau. Labonte, Ward Burton, Dale Jarrett, Matt Kenseth, Sterling
Marlin, Earnhardt Jr
Benson admits it was part strategy and part luck that allowed him to stay on
the lead lap while others fell down a lap.

”We just got lucky and were able to stay on the lead lap. That's all it came
down to. We got out in time.”

Ken Schrader and Kevin Lepage stayed out during the yellow and were on the tail
end of the lead lap. Everybody else was at least a lap down but ahead of the
leaders on the restart on Lap 188, meaning they needed a quick caution to allow
them to make that lap up.

There was not a caution for the rest of the race.

Nemecheck passed both Wallace and Busch and while there was shuffling in the
top five for the rest of the day, nobody could touch Nemecheck. Benson and
Wallace put on a spirited battle but Wallace slipped past for second and Benson
ended the race in third. Only Wallace, Benson, Dale Jarrett, Jerry Nadeau, Ward
Burton, Tony Stewart, Ricky Rudd and Bobby Labonte were able to stay on the
same lap as Nemechek.

Benson and his teammates return to action this weekend at Homestead, Fla.



2001 Points
1	Jeff Gordon 		4750
2	Ricky Rudd 		4424
3	Tony Stewart 		4349
4	Dale Jarrett 		4296
5	Sterling Marlin 	4231
6	Rusty Wallace 	4118
7	Dale Earnhardt, Jr 	4095
8	Bobby Labonte 	4069
9	Kevin Harvick * 	4000
10	Jeff Burton 		3983
11	Johnny Benson 	3828
12	Mark Martin 		3764
13	Matt Kenseth 		3628
14	Ward Burton 		3530
15	Jimmy Spencer 	3509
16	Bill Elliott 		3426
17	Bobby Hamilton 	3371
18	Ken Schrader 	3327
19	Jerry Nadeau 	3296
20	Elliott Sadler 		3219
21	Ricky Craven 	3203
22	Terry Labonte 	3001
23	Dave Blaney 		2978
24	Kurt Busch * 		2887
25	Robert Pressley 	2867

More Benson Quotes

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"It was a pretty good day for us. We're not going to complain with third at
all. But, it was pretty hard to compete. The '1' and the '33' were pretty
strong all day. We did what we could.
:"At the beginning of the race I thought we were a lot better than we were
at the end of the race. Once the track got real slick, we just couldn't get
a hold of anything, especially with the front of the car. We just pushed and
pushed, but we're real happy to finish third."
(WHAT HAS BEEN THE DIFFERENCE FOR YOU THIS YEAR AT ROCKINGHAM?)  "It's just
been working with these guys. James Ince has been doing a tremendous job and
the backing of Valvoline makes a huge difference. This is the same race team
we had a year ago; we just didn't have any backing. We felt like once we
signed Valvoline on board and got a little money to work with that we'd be
in a little bit better shape. So far that has been showing true."
(DID YOU PIT WHEN KENNY WALLACE DID WHEN THE CAUTION CAUGHT SOME OF THE
CONTENDERS A LAP DOWN?) "I believe I had pitted a lap or two before he did.
I'm sure that is the last thing Kenny wanted to see and it was the last
thing we wanted to see. But it ended up that we just got lucky and were able
to stay on the lead lap. That's all it came down to. We got out in time. I
saw Kenny coming and I thought at the time he was leading, but I wasn't
sure, so all of a sudden I was trying to beat him to the line. It ended up
that it was for position and not to keep our lap. It was just close and we
were just fortunate."
(ON ONLY SEEING TWO CAUTION FLAGS TODAY)  "In our case it played out pretty
good. Our car was good in the long run and not so good on the short run. We
weren't as good at the end of the race, so I didn't want to see a lot of
cautions at the end. That part of it worked out fine.
"Our biggest thing was that we just couldn't get a hold of the track late in
the race, especially to the front of the car. We were just hurting on the
aero part on the front and it was just hard to deal with. That's where we
had to do the different pit strategies to keep up and to be able to get some
time on them, knowing they were going to come and get us. But if we would
have pitted at the same time they did, we would have been further back. I
think our strategy worked out fine."
(DO YOU HAVE TO CONCENTRATE ANY MORE TODAY WITH SO FEW CAUTIONS?)  "Probably
not anymore than any given week. But the things that you had to deal with
here today was the fact that since it was caution-free, you're on old tires,
somebody is on new tires, you're on new tires, somebody is on old tires. You
had to be really careful. You didn't want to see a caution when you just
took your pit stop and are trying to come up through the field. I thought
the sun was a little worse getting into turn one than it had been in the
past. I don't think we anticipated that. It probably would have been a lot
worse had we had more cautions."

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"But getting into one was very hard. You couldn't see the bottom of the line
and I know guys were having problems with that. I know we had to keep
cleaning that windshield because it was getting very difficult. Then it
would get even worse if you went on the inside of somebody. That guy had to
make sure that he would give you a little bit of slide room because you
couldn't see him. I think everybody ran into that today.
"Like every week, you've got to concentrate. But here, when you get tires,
there are times that you're going two seconds faster than somebody and
you've got to be careful how you approach the guy in front of you because
otherwise you'll run over them. You definitely don't want a caution when
you're on new tires.
"See if you can get somebody to fix the sun. We'd be in good shape."
(ON FINISHING THIRD)  "Finishing in the top three is great. But I think
nowadays, running in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, finishing in the top 15
is a good day, too. We're just fortunate that we finished up in the top
five."