NASCAR WCUP: Benson 18th After Day On Gilligan's Island
26 June 2000
Johnny Benson isn't a big fan of old television reruns. After Sunday's race at Sears Point Raceway he's especially opposed to enduring any more episodes of Gilligan's Island.Benson's three-hour tour on Gilligan's Island - the special island where the slowest nine qualifiers are forced to pit during the 112-lap race - was about as frustrating as any of the Skipper's, Mary Ann's and Gilligan's struggles to get off their remote island.
Every time a car finished a pit stop on Gilligan's Island, a NASCAR official held it for 18 seconds to make sure there was no advantage over the cars pitting on the regular pit road on the road course. Sometimes those 18 seconds seemed like an eternity with cars getting out of the regular pit road quicker.
"It hurt us no doubt," Benson said. "But we finished 18th and compared to where we started (35th) we were pretty pleased. I don't have the road racing experience some of these guys do but we kept the car out of the wall and on the track the whole day and finished OK."
Benson said his priority the next time he returns to Sears Point qualifying is going to take priority.
"We put ourselves back there in qualifying and that's our fault but next time we will be better," he said.
Benson began the race in 35th and slowly worked his way up through the field. On the twisty circuit passing is as difficult a chore as there is on any shorttrack oval. But Benson managed to climb up to about 20th at the midpoint of the race and then fuel strategy started playing a factor.
The team figured a late race pit stop for two tires and fuel would enable Benson to move up into the top ten in the closing laps with other car peeling off the track for fuel. The only problem was that those cars were stretching fuel just like Benson.
"We were struggling there at the end with the handling and just hanging on," Benson said. "I thought a lot of those guys would come in for fuel. But they didn't. That was about our only chance to get in the top ten."
Benson and his Tyler Jet Motorsports teammates return to action this week at Daytona for Saturday's 400-mile race.