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NASCAR WCUP: Benson Brightens Owners Saturday At Richmond

11 September 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

Nelson Bowers, Tom Beard and Read Morton are diehard University of Georgia Bulldog football fans. A picture of the team mascot adorns the transporter that hauls the MB2 Motorsports owners' Winston Cup cars.

So you can imagine how their day was going Saturday when they arrived at Richmond International Raceway. Earlier that afternoon they were in Columbia, S.C. to watch archival South Carolina upset their beloved football team.

Morton and Beard arrived in Richmond hoping their Aaron's Pontiac driven by Johnny Benson or Kenny Schrader's MM's Pontiac could brighten a dreary day. Before Saturday night's race, Beard gave Benson his marching orders.

"We'll take a top five over a Georgia loss any day," he smiled.

He almost got what he wanted.

Benson persevered through the 400-lap race on the D-shaped short track and ended the night with a 7th place finish. All this despite he and crew chief James Ince making massive chassis changes throughout the race and Benson running without a driver fan the final quarter of the race.

"I don't know if that is the hardest top-10 I've ever had but that was a tough race tonight," said Benson as he cooled off in the Aaron's hauler after the race. "But, we kept fighting all night and walked out with a pretty good finish."

Benson started the race in eighth place but immediately fell back to about 12th place as he complained the car was hard to turn in the corner. The crew made several changes in the early pit stops during the race.

Benson kept up with the leaders and toward the latter portions of the race the handling started to improve. He began creeping up the grid and was as high as 8th when the caution flag came out with just 30 laps to go. Ince put four fresh tires on Benson while some of the other leaders elected not to give up track position.

"I was a bit worried being back in the field like that. I think we were about 12th with 30 laps to go and I knew things were going to get wild."

They did.

Benson managed to avoid beating, banging in the closing laps, and used the new tires to move up to 7th getting past Ward Burton in the final moments.

"If we could have gone a few laps more we would have done even better but those guys ahead of us might have come for tires when we did. So, we are pretty happy."

So were the owners who returned to their Georgia homes in a bit better spirits.

Text provided by Drew Brown

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