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NASCAR WCUP: Benson Endures Darlington

20 March 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

DARLINGTON, SC: #10 Lycos Pontiac driver Johnny Benson knew Darlington Raceway as "the track too tough to tame."

What he didn't know is that his 42 competitors would make it even tougher right from the start.

In the first 30 laps of Sunday's Mall.com 400 the NASCAR Winston Cup drivers managed to bring out three yellow flags for accidents on the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval. Unfortunately for Benson, as he was dodging an accident he clipped the rear end of Jimmy Spencer's car heavily damaging the right front of Benson's Pontiac.

"I thought he was going to go one way but he went the other way and I just got into him," said Benson after posting a 24th-place finish. "On a track like this when we are going so fast and all of us are so close together you are going to have multi-car accidents."

With a damaged race car that early in the race, Benson's day was a matter of survival. His crew, led by crew chief James Ince, brought Benson into the pits about six times to duct tape the damaged area of the Lycos Pontiac. The rest of the race was spent trying to get the handling as Benson wanted.

Benson ran among the top 20 throughout most of the 293-lap race and survived a brush with the wall. He finished the race three laps behind race winner Ward Burton and remains in 20th place in the driver standings.

Benson and his teammates return to action on Sunday in Bristol, Tennessee.

Benson Quotes Courtesy of Pontiac

"It was a tough day. Actually I thought we were going to be pretty good. I ran into the back of Jimmy Spencer in that wreck on the backstretch. I'm not too totally sure what all that did (to the car), but it kind of hurt us a little bit. Pretty much from that point in time we just fought it the rest of the day. But that is typical Darlington. We just weren't as good as what we would like to do. We've just got to work on it and try to get a little better next time."

Text provided by Drew Brown

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