Benson Richmond Preview

Richmond Preview

Five career top-ten finishes at Richmond International Raceway has made the
.75-mile D-shaped oval one of Pontiac driver Johnny Benson’s favorite
Nascar Winston Cup tracks. But he’d like to forget what happened at the favored
track last season.

A year ago Benson posted the fastest speed in Busch practice on Thursday then
turned in the fastest laps in the final two Winston Cup practice sessions
Friday evening. Minutes later, in his inaugural Busch race of the season,
another car slammed Benson from behind sending him for a two-night stay in a
local hospital with one broken and two cracked ribs. He watched Sunday’s race
from the pit box and missed the Charlotte and Dover races.

Benson’s return to Richmond in September ended when another car wrecked the
Valvoline Pontiac on the front stretch leaving him with a 35th-place finish.
Before last season Benson had three consecutive top-10 finishes and has been a
threat for victory several times at Richmond. He plans on resuming the streak
this weekend.


Benson On This Year And Last Year:

“I’m looking forward to this weekend because we always seem to run well there.
And, we are due for a break or two there or for that matter anywhere. The guys
on our team brought the Rally Monkey from the California Angels game last
Sunday and that didn’t work. So we will try anything now. Maybe Richmond will
be the place we turn it around. In the last four races we’ve got caught up in
other peoples wrecks at Talladega and California and blew up at Texas. So we
could use good luck and a good run.

“You don’t think much about last year’s wrecks. If you were going to a track
where you screwed up and had a bad wreck then you might think twice about going
back. That’s just human nature. But when somebody else does something to you at
a track then you really don’t think about the track.

“I look back at that weekend and what I remember most is that we had a great
race car on the Cup side and on the Busch side. That’s what I think about. It
was just unfortunate we had the accident and I couldn’t race on Sunday. There
isn’t much you can do about it so you don’t worry about it.”

Benson on Watching The Richmond Cup Race From The Pit Box:

“No, that wasn’t a lot of fun. I mean I wasn’t feeling the greatest and it’s
hard to watch someone else in your car. Joe Nemechek did a great job. But if
you are a racer it hurts to watch someone in your car. I tried to sit on the
box and help James. It was interesting from the standpoint that I got a new
view of what goes on during the race. Those guys in the pits aren’t sitting
there eating ice cream while we race on the track. There’s a lot of strategy
going on. It was almost like a game trying to outthink the other teams, but it
wasn’t as much fun as racing.”


Secret To Richmond Success:

“The secret to success at Richmond is just like the secret to success
everywhere else. To go fast you have to have a combination of good handling and
good horsepower. But, getting through the middle of the corners and getting
through turn four faster than anyone else is what it takes to be up front at
Richmond. Watch during the race. The guy who is hauling the mail off turn four
is the guy who is probably going to win the race.

“I feel as comfortable getting around Richmond as any track on the circuit. For
myself, I like the flatter racetracks. The tracks that fit my style are the
ones where you can let the car slip and slide around the corners and you just
have to try to keep the car underneath you. Richmond is just that type of
track.

“I think the appeal of Richmond is that it is a short track and we don’t have
as many of those tracks in the series as we once did. It’s also because we are
racing at night. There is so much more enthusiasm at night compared to any day
race. And most importantly I think it seems like whenever we race at Richmond
it is a decent race. For drivers it’s what we all grew up doing. Also for a
driver there is less glare and better temperatures at night and don’t forget
all of us get Sunday off if we run Saturday night races.”


Benson Richmond Record

Race	Year	S	F
Fall 	2002	9	35
Spring 2001	DNS
Fall 	2001  	27  	10
Spring 2001  11 	 6
Fall 	2000 	 8   	7
Spring 2000  23  	25
Fall 	1999  	30  	22
Spring 1999  26  	28
Fall 	1998  	32  	41
Spring 1998 	 8   	18
Fall 	1997  	37  	13
Spring 1997  23  	9
Fall 	1996  	34  	10
Spring 1996  33  	37

THE RACE: Pontiac Excitement 400
Winston Cup Race #11 of 36 for the 2003 Winston Cup season
·Race: Saturday, May 3, 2003 in Richmond, VA
·TV: FX - 7:40pm/et
·Pre-Race Show: FX - 7:00pm/et - with hosts Chris Myers and Jeff Hammond
·Race Re-Air: May 7th at 8:00pm/et on Speed Channel, May 8th at 1:00am/et and
3:00pm/et on Speed Channel
·Announcers: Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip, Larry McReynolds
·Pit Reporters: Dick Berggren, Matt Yocum, Steve Byrnes, Jeanne Zelasko
·Hollywood Hotel: Chris Myers and Jeff Hammond
·Purse/Race Awards: $? (was $3,678,625 in 2002)


·2002 Race Winner: Tony Stewart, 86.824mph, started 3rd
·Event/Track Race Record: Dale Jarrett, Sept 1997, 109.047mph
·Track/Race Length: 0.75 mile oval, 400 laps, 300 miles
·Pit Road Speed: 30/35mph

Practice
·Practice: Friday, May 2nd, 11:20a -1:20pm/et; and 4:45 - 5:30pm/et
·Happy Hour Practice: Friday, May 2nd, 6:10 - 6:55pm/et on TV-FX live.

Qualifying
·Qualifying Draw: Friday, May 2nd, 10:20am/et

·First Round Qualifying: 2 laps for positions 1-36, Friday, May 2nd at
3:00pm/et, TV-Speed Channel live, re-air on Saturday, May 3rd at
12:00midnight/et, and live via MRN radio

Second-Round Qualifying: there is no longer a 2nd round of qualifying (since
the 2001 season)
·Track Qualifying Record: Ward Burton, May 2002, 127.389mph
·April 2002 Pole Sitter: #22-Ward Burton, 127.389, finished 30th

Track Specs:
Short Track: 0.75-mile oval, 60-foot width with 10-foot apron
Banking: turns: 14 degrees; frontstretch 8 degrees; backstretch 2 degrees
Straights: Backstretch - 860 feet; Frontstretch - 1290 feet
Seating Capacity: ~105,000
10 Valvoline Pontiac Team Television Information

Pit Contact: James Ince or Drew Brown
Owners: Valvoline (Jim Rocco)/MB2 Motorsports (Tom Beard, Nelson Bowers, Read
Morton)
Crew Chief/Car Chief: James Ince
Engine Builder: Hendrick Motorsports
Spotter (Race Day) Jay Guy
Spotter (Practice Only) Russell Hoekwater
Engine Tuner John Kendrach
Over The Wall Pit Crew
Front Tire Changer	Bobby Burrell
Front Tire Carrier Shane Cooke
Rear Tire Changer Greg Burkhart
Rear Tire Carrier Steve Genenbacher
Gasman	Jimmy Watts
Tire Specialist Skippy Johnson
Catch Can Steve Mann
Jackman Brian Perry
Other Crew Members
Truck Driver: Gale (Bandit) Wilson
Mechanic: Jerry Hess
Mechanic: David Baum
Shocks: Mike Cluka
Tires: Jeff (Skippy) Johnson
Engineer: Tim Turner
Computers & Gas Runner: John Hayes
Scorer: Terry Lane
Pit Scorer Denise Ince
Pit Stop Coach: Gary Smith
PR Rep: Drew Brown