NASCAR WCUP: Benson's Charge From The Back Ends At 15th
5 June 2000
During the Sunday morning meeting on the Tyler Jet Motorsports hauler, #10 Lycos Pontiac Crew Chief James Ince told his crew not to worry about the 34th place starting position for the team's driver Johnny Benson."Remember we started 33rd at Bristol and finished second," said Ince, who a few seconds later added. "I just wish we were at Bristol."
To say the Ince and driver Johnny Benson were a bit unsure of what to expect during Sunday's race at Dover is an understatement. A tough final practice Saturday confirmed to both that massive changes were needed overnight in the car's setup if they hoped to be competitive on the 1-mile concrete highbanks that make up Dover International Raceway.
"We changed a lot of on the car so I wasn't too sure what to expect today," said Benson a few minutes after he drove to a 15th place finish. Only a late race flat tire kept the team from notching a tenth-place finish.
"We were pretty good today. That tire going down with 25 laps to go killed us. But that's something we can't control," Benson said. "Considering where we came from I think we feel pretty confident about our effort today and look forward to coming back here in September."
Benson began the race at the back of the field but steadily picked off cars on the high-speed track. A timely yellow about a quarter of the way into the race allowed Benson to stay on the lead lap while few could manage the same considering the blistering pace set by Tony Stewart.
Benson moved into eleventh place and remained there for most of the race that saw him fall down a lap to Stewart at the midway mark. Benson had worked his way up to tenth and in the closing laps appeared headed for a tenth place finish.
The crew knew it needed to pit one more time so as it mapped out a gas-and-go stop in the final ten laps Benson radioed that his right front tire was going flat. He dove into the pits and returned to the track with two new right side tires and enough gas to make it to the finish.
"We weren't sitting too bad there because all of the guys we knew we were racing would have to pit as well," Ince said. "That's when the problem came."
Five laps later Jeff Gordon cut a tire and hit the wall bringing out the caution and allowing those cars to pit under the yellow. The sequence dropped Benson two more laps behind the leaders and moved him down from 10th to 16th. He rallied and picked up another position before the checkered flag fell.
"We did pretty good today," Ince. "We handled everything we had to handle. The only problem was that tire going down and that isn't something we can really control. We had a good run and hopefully we will have an even better run next time."
Benson moved to 17th in the driver points. The Tyler Jet returns to action on Sunday at Michigan Speedway.