Benson Perseveres At Homestead For 20th Place
Benson Perseveres At Homestead For 20th Place Johnny Benson and his crew chief James Ince spent most of Sunday’s race changing everything except the number on the #10 Valvoline Pontiac at Homestead Miami Speedway. In the end it was worth the effort. After 267 laps of battling an ill-handling car and an untimely caution flag late in the race, Benson and Ince walked out of the 1.5-mile flat oval in South Florida with a hard-earned 20th place finish. “That was a tough race for us today,” Benson said. “We kept battling and you have to credit our team for doing that. It could have been a whole lot worse but all in all we got out of here with a decent finish.” Bill Elliott led a Dodge parade that saw NASCAR’s first year manufacturer place four cars in the top six. Bobby Labonte carried the Pontiac banner finishing eighth. Benson started Sunday’s race in 25th and dropped to 30th in the early going. Elliott and the other Dodge’s set a blistering pace and if there weren’t significant handling changes others in the field would soon fall down a lap. “The Dodge’s are darn near a second quicker than anyone,” Ince told Benson over the team radio. “When you get in here we are going to take a pretty big swing at it. We have to get better to keep up.” Lap 89 saw the first caution of the race and the Valvoline team took advantage of the chance to work on the car. Benson came in five times under the caution as the team made major handling changes adding spring rubbers, unhooking the rear bar, adjusting the track bar as well as making other significant chassis alterations. While they weren’t the fastest car when the race restarted, the handling problems seemed a bit better and Benson began to slowly work his way up through the field. As the race grew late Benson and Ince elected to do a two-tire stop under a caution while others took on four tires. The strategy moved Benson up to eighth-place. But he began sliding back through the field so the team tried one more gamble by short stopping with about 50 laps left. The pit stop was about 20 laps earlier than the rest of the field was scheduled to pit. The hope was that Benson’s fresh tires would enable him to gain positions on the cars with older tires. Only drawback would be if a caution fell before the checkered flag. And it did. Stacey Compton crashed on lap 222. Benson fell down a lap, but on the restart he battled with then leader Atwood to regain his lap which he did with about 15 laps to go. When the race restarted Benson picked off a few cars ending the race in 20th. Benson and other Pontiac teams and drivers were frustrated to say the least after the race. "We had a Pontiac today and there was nothing you could do about it. Congratulations to Bill Elliott and those guys. But I'm telling you what, when we tried to get our lap back there, they (the Dodges) were on tires that were old and only took on two and we had four - there was no comparison on an aerodynamic track like this." Tony Stewart’s crew chief weighed in echoing Benson’s comments. "It's quite obvious that Dodges can put two tires on and have that much more grip and just drive away with the show. When you get a short run like that it's like qualifying. It's the same thing, but I guess that's what they want and that's what they got,” said Greg Zipadelli, the crew chief for Tony Stewart. The Ford drivers joined in. "The Dodges and Chevrolets get to you and they can run up under you and get you loose, but with a Ford, when you get behind a guy, you're just screwed," said Jeff Burton. While the Dodges were the talk of the action on the track, nearly everyone in the garage focused on a pit road accident that injured three members of Ricky Rudd's pit crew and one NASCAR official. During a round of pit stops under caution on Lap 111, Ward Burton pulled out from his pit stall and into the left side of Atwood's car. After the contact, Burton cut to his left and into Rudd's pit stall, where Rudd's crew was still performing a pit stop. Burton's car hit three crew members - front-tire changer Bobby Burrell, jack man John Bryan and front-tire carrier Kevin Hall - and one NASCAR official, Kenny Lawson. Burrell, who hit his head on the concrete retaining wall, was the most-seriously injured and airlifted to a local hospital where he was listed in serious condition Sunday evening. Bryan was transported by ambulance to another hospital for treatment of a mild concussion and knee injuries, but he suffered no broken bones. Hall was treated for bruises at the infield care center and released. Lawson was also seen and released from the infield car center. Benson and his Valvoline teammates will return to action Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. 2001 Points · J.Gordon 4829 2 Rudd 4524 3 Stewart 4465 4 Marlin 4391 5 Jarrett 4336 6 R.Wallace 4245 7 Earnhrdt Jr. 4213 8 B.Labonte 4211 9 Harvick 4151 10 J.Burton 4143 11 Benson 3931 12 Martin 3860 13 Kenseth 3710 14 W.Burton 3654 15 Spencer 3618 16 Elliott 3606 17 Hamilton 3417 18 Schrader 3364 19 Nadeau 3360 20 Craven 3276 Drew Brown 1335 Torrence Circle Davidson, NC 28036 704-895-3651 H 704-906-7992 C drew_brown@mindspring.com