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Benson's Day Was Kind of Like Michigan Weather

13 June 2000

Johnny Benson's fortunes in the #10 Lycos Pontiac changed as many times as the weather did Sunday at Michigan Speedway.

What began as a promising day with Benson starting 11th quickly went sour in the opening laps as he told the crew the car just wouldn't turn.

"We have to loosen this thing up no matter what we do," Benson reported to Crew Chief James Ince over the team radio. Benson dropped to about 25th, but after the second round of pit stops he started marching his way through the field. For many laps, Benson held off a hard charging Jeremy Mayfield who appeared to be much faster than any car on the track.

Although Mayfield lapped Benson just after the halfway mark, the Lycos Pontiac had climbed to 14th place. A yellow flag for rain with 50 laps to go fell a few seconds too late and Benson just missed getting his lap back from Mayfield who had the fastest car on the track before a blown engine late in the race. Benson was in 14th - the first of the cars a lap down.

Then the Michigan clouds let loose.

"I don't remember it raining much harder than I saw it today," said Benson, a Grand Rapids, Mich. native. "We stood in our pit under a tarp because if you just stepped out for a second you were going to get drenched."

The rain delay lasted about 90 minutes.

At the restart Benson appeared headed for a top-15 finish. But, Benson's fortunes swung back the other way when the tightness in the car resurfaced and he struggled in the final segment.

"It was just a bad deal," Benson said. "I don't know if it was the tires or the track had changed but it was pretty tough to get through the corners."

Benson fell to 24th then the race was stopped with only three laps left and Tony Stewart declared the winner.

"We're disappointed. We did run good sometimes and bad other times. But if it had kept raining when we were in 14th we would be smiling right now."