Auto Club 500 - Complete Results - Benson 36th

Benson 36th at California

Johnny Benson’s crewmembers brought the California Angels’ team mascot “Rally
Monkey” home from the baseball game they attended Saturday night in Anaheim,
Cal.

They thought maybe if they hung the stuffed animal in the pit on Sunday at
California Speedway in Fontana it would propel the #10 Valvoline Pontiac to the
front of the field and keep Benson safe all day.

They figured it worked for the World Series Champion Angels last year so maybe
it would work at the racetrack this time.

“We’ll do anything to break out bad luck,” said Crew Chief James Ince.

Gremlins had ruined a top-10 finish at Texas in the final laps, a week later a
huge multi-car crash at Talladega gobbled up Benson in the opening laps, then a
rough Martinsville race preceded a Saturday practice accident in California
that forced the team to roll out its backup car.

Surely, the Rally Monkey would help Sunday. And it did, for a while.

Benson took advantage of the quick pit stops, a good pit strategy and a fast
car to climb up through the field and as high as second place in the race’s
middle stages.

“We were pretty happy,” Benson said. “We were having trouble of the corners but
we were working our way forward.”

Near the end of the race he was looking good as well. He was riding in 15th
with four new tires less than 25 laps to go and appeared ready to claim at
least a top-10 finish because most of the cars in front of him were on old
tires.

But then the Rally Monkey’s influence went away on lap 229 when Dale Jarrett
triggered a multi-car crash that, as bad luck would have it, included Benson.

“There wasn’t much we could do,” said Benson who was released from the infield
care center. “Everyone started wrecking and I was in oil and just along for the
ride. I’m not sure what happened to Dale, but we tore up two pretty good
Valvoline Pontiacs this weekend.”

Benson said the finishing spot wasn’t indicative of how well the team raced on
Sunday.

“I don’t know where we would have ended up. You know for a backup car we ran
pretty well today. That tells you about the depth of this team and the work it
does. If you pull a backup car out of the hauler with so little laps on it you
don’t expect to run as well as we did today, but we did and that’s a credit to
these guys.”

While the Valvoline team loaded up the wrecked car to make the long trip back
to North Carolina, Kurt Busch won his second race of the year after a late race
battle with Bobby Labonte and Rusty Wallace.

Benson and his teammates return to action this weekend in Richmond, Va.


Sunday's race results and points awarded

Results from Sunday's Auto Club 500 at the 2-mile California Speedway, with
finishing position, car number, driver, car make, Winston Cup points awarded
and bonus points:

1. (97) Kurt Busch, Ford, 180 - 5 bonus points
2. (18) Bobby Labonte, Chevrolet, 175 - 5 bonus points
3. (2) Rusty Wallace, Dodge, 170 - 5 bonus points
4. (9) Bill Elliott, Dodge, 165 - 5 bonus points
5. (42) Jamie McMurray, Dodge, 160 - 5 bonus points
6. (8) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 150
7. (15) Michael Waltrip, Chevrolet, 146
8. (43) John Andretti, Dodge, 142
9. (40) Sterling Marlin, Dodge, 138
10. (17) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 139 - 5 bonus points
11. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 130
12. (5) Terry Labonte, Chevrolet, 127
13. (77) Dave Blaney, Ford, 129 - 5 bonus points
14. (01) Jerry Nadeau, Pontiac, 121
15. (32) Ricky Craven, Pontiac, 123 - 5 bonus points
16. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 115
17. (6) Mark Martin, Ford, 112
18. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 109
19. (99) Jeff Burton, Ford, 106
20. (4) Mike Skinner, Pontiac, 103
21. (22) Ward Burton, Dodge, 100
22. (23) Kenny Wallace, Dodge, 97
23. (38) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 94
24. (21) Ricky Rudd, Ford, 91
25. (54) Todd Bodine, Ford, 88
26. (30) Jeff Green, Chevrolet, 85
27. (31) Robby Gordon, Chevrolet, 82
28. (45) Kyle Petty, Dodge, 79
29. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 76
30. (49) Ken Schrader, Dodge, 73
31. (74) Tony Raines, Chevrolet, 70
32. (25) Joe Nemechek, Chevrolet, 67
33. (7) Jimmy Spencer, Dodge, 64
34. (41) Casey Mears, Dodge, 61
35. (19) Jeremy Mayfield, Dodge, 58
36. (10) Johnny Benson, Pontiac, 55
37. (88) Dale Jarrett, Ford, 52
38. (14) Larry Foyt, Dodge, 49
39. (0) Jack Sprague, Pontiac, 46
40. (1) Steve Park, Chevrolet, 43
41. (20) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 50 - 10 bonus points
42. (12) Ryan Newman, Dodge, 37
43. (37) Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, 34
Winston Cup points

1. Matt Kenseth, 1473
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 1429
3. Jeff Gordon, 1321
4. Kurt Busch, 1305
5. Jimmie Johnson, 1266
6. Michael Waltrip, 1234
7. Ricky Craven, 1205
8. Bobby Labonte, 1201
9. Kevin Harvick, 1173
10. Elliott Sadler, 1149
11. Tony Stewart, 1142
12. Rusty Wallace, 1140
13. Sterling Marlin, 1135
14. Mark Martin, 1082
15. Jeff Burton, 1064
16. Robby Gordon, 1053
17. Dale Jarrett, 1039
18. Ricky Rudd, 1038
19. Terry Labonte, 1038
20. Joe Nemechek, 1026
21. Bill Elliott, 1005
22. Dave Blaney, 1000
23. Greg Biffle, 997
24. Jamie McMurray, 996
25. Ryan Newman, 980
26. Kenny Wallace, 980
27. Ward Burton, 961
28. Jimmy Spencer, 910
29. Johnny Benson, 910
30. Steve Park, 894
31. Jeff Green, 892
32. John Andretti, 863
33. Jeremy Mayfield, 849
34. Jerry Nadeau, 844
35. Ken Schrader, 782
36. Todd Bodine, 759
37. Casey Mears, 741
38. Kyle Petty, 734
39. Mike Skinner, 727
40. Jack Sprague, 700
41. Tony Raines, 661
42. Larry Foyt, 336
43. Derrike Cope, 215
44. Mike Wallace, 211
45. Brett Bodine, 201
46. Christian Fittipaldi, 107
47. Hermie Sadler, 68
48. Hideo Fukuyama, 64