Yellow Flag Drops Benson To 19th at Bristol

Yellow Flag Drops Benson To 19th at Bristol

Bristol Motor Speedway might be the toughest track on the Nascar Winston Cup
Circuit.

Between the high speeds, high banks, and 42 competitors beating and banging on
the half-mile track, survival quickly becomes the key to any success at
Bristol.

Johnny Benson and his #10 Valvoline Pontiac teammates were surviving for most
of the race Sunday at Bristol and looked to be ready for a top finish. Many of
their competitors were busy wrecking their race cars in a race that saw 17
caution periods.

“Guys if we keep surviving and tuning on this car we are going to get a good
finish out of this,” said Crew Chief James Ince about halfway through Sunday’s
race as Benson bided his time waiting for the final third of the race to begin
racing.

Benson started the race in 20th and avoided several near collisions and used
some timely yellow flags to stay on the lead lap. But of all the potential
pitfalls the tough little track has in its bag of tricks, the culprit that
ruined Benson’s day was Nascar’s yellow flag.

After many early cautions, a relatively calm period at lap 380 saw much of the
field come to pit road for a rare green flag stop. When you have 16-second
laps, coming to the pits means you lose at least two and sometimes three laps
to the cars still on the track.

“We had to come in for fuel,” said Ince. “We had no choice.”

Race leader Kurt Busch stayed on the track and about ten laps after Benson and
others left pit road and just as Busch was ready for his stop, the yellow flew
again because of a Dale Jarrett crash. It dropped Benson and those that pitted
down three laps and ended his chances of that good finish.

“What can you do,” said Benson after the race. “We needed fuel and so we came
in and got it. Then the yellow comes out. A lot of teams got caught out like
that. Up until then we were just trying to stay on the track and all the
fenders on the car. Everyone was wrecking and we knew we had to avoid the
trouble this place seems to always hand out.”

Benson spent the remainder of the race trying to make up spots and dodging even
more wreckage. He was 19th when the checkered flag fell.

Busch used the timely pit stop strategy to lap all but six cars on his way to
the victory. Matt Kenseth and Bobby Labonte followed Busch across the finish
line.

Next weekend Benson, who dropped to 13th in the season points standings, and
his teammates will race Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Sunday's results and race points

 Results and Winston Cup points awarded in Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol
Motor Speedway, the sixth of 36 races on the 2003 Winston Cup schedule:

1. (97) Kurt Busch, Ford, 180 - 5 bonus points
2. (17) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 175 - 5 bonus points
3. (18) Bobby Labonte, Chevrolet, 170 - 5 bonus points
4. (21) Ricky Rudd, Ford, 160
5. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 155
6. (40) Sterling Marlin, Dodge, 150
7. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 151 - 5 bonus points
8. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 142
9. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 148 - 10 bonus points
10. (23) Kenny Wallace, Dodge, 134
11. (42) Jamie McMurray, Dodge, 130
12. (7) Jimmy Spencer, Dodge, 132 - 5 bonus points
13. (2) Rusty Wallace, Dodge, 129 - 5 bonus points
14. (99) Jeff Burton, Ford, 121
15. (32) Ricky Craven, Pontiac, 118
16. (8) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 115
17. (31) Robby Gordon, Chevrolet, 112
18. (9) Bill Elliott, Dodge, 109
19. (10) Johnny Benson, Pontiac, 106
20. (30) Jeff Green, Chevrolet, 103
21. (38) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 100
22. (12) Ryan Newman, Dodge, 97
23. (19) Jeremy Mayfield, Dodge, 94
24. (11) Brett Bodine, Ford, 91
25. (20) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 88
26. (15) Michael Waltrip, Chevrolet, 85
27. (25) Joe Nemechek, Chevrolet, 82
28. (01) Jerry Nadeau, Pontiac, 79
29. (6) Mark Martin, Ford, 76
30. (1) Steve Park, Chevrolet, 73
31. (43) John Andretti, Dodge, 70
32. (22) Ward Burton, Dodge, 67
33. (45) Kyle Petty, Dodge, 64
34. (41) Casey Mears, Dodge, 61
35. (0) Jack Sprague, Pontiac, 58
36. (88) Dale Jarrett, Ford, 55
37. (49) Ken Schrader, Dodge, 52
38. (77) Dave Blaney, Ford, 49
39. (5) Terry Labonte, Chevrolet, 46
40. (54) Todd Bodine, Ford, 43
41. (4) Mike Skinner, Pontiac, 40
42. (74) Tony Raines, Chevrolet, 37
43. (37) Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, 34

Time of race: 3:29:53 seconds.
Margin of victory: 0.390 seconds.
Winner's average speed: 76.185 mph.
Caution flags: 17 for 120 laps.
Lead changes: 11 among 7 drivers.
Lap leaders: R.Newman 0, J.Gordon 1-28, R.Wallace 29-33, J.Gordon 34-160,
J.Spencer 161-182, J.Gordon 183-201, K.Harvick 202-216, J.Spencer 217-333,
M.Kenseth 334-358, K.Busch 359-377, B.Labonte 378-403, K.Busch 404-500.

Points

1. Matt Kenseth, 935 2. Kurt Busch, 797 3. Tony Stewart,791 4. Michael Waltrip,
783 5. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 749 6. Jimmie Johnson, 743 7. Ricky Craven, 735 8.
Bobby Labonte, 732 9. Ricky Rudd, 695 10. Jeff Gordon, 694 11. Kevin Harvick,
684 12. Joe Nemechek, 683 13. Johnny Benson, 681 14. Elliott Sadler, 675 15.
Ryan Newman, 668 16. Rusty Wallace, 653 17. Dave Blaney, 652 18. Jeff Burton,
634 19. Robby Gordon, 628 20. Dale Jarrett, 623 21. Jimmy Spencer, 622 22.
Sterling Marlin, 619 23. Mark Martin, 618 24. Greg Biffle, 603 25. Steve Park,
601 26. Jamie McMurray, 574 27. Kenny Wallace, 550 28. Bill Elliott, 548 29.
Jeremy Mayfield, 546 30. Terry Labonte, 510 31. Ward Burton, 498 32. Jeff
Green, 495 33. Casey Mears, 494 34. Jerry Nadeau, 468 35. Kyle Petty, 467 36.
Mike Skinner, 453 37. Jack Sprague, 420 38. Ken Schrader, 420 39. John
Andretti, 416 40. Todd Bodine, 410 41. Tony Raines, 375 42. Larry Foyt, 214 43.
Derrike Cope, 144 44. Mike Wallace, 138 45. Brett Bodine, 131 46. Hideo
Fukuyama, 64 47. Christian Fittipaldi, 58