NASCAR WCUP: Benson Hopes 13th Starting Spot Will Be Lucky In Indy

4 August 2000

Thankfully, Johnny Benson isn't superstitious.

If he was then the driver of the #10 Aaron's Pontiac wouldn't be as excited as his MB2 Motorsports teammates and fans are for Saturday's seventh annual Brickyard 400.

The good news is Benson has a chance to contend for the win, the bad news to some might be that he is starting an unlucky 13th.

But that doesn't bother Benson.

"Starting 13th doesn't mean much to me other than it is better than 14th but not quite as good as 12th," Benson said. "We aren't as good as we thought we could be but 13th isn't too bad of a starting spot at this place. Hopefully we will be racing up with the leaders after a few laps."

Can Benson win?

"It's so tough," he said. "Going to every track you've got to feel like you've got a good shot at it. But if we can stay in the top 10 all day long, I think we've got an outside shot. But then again, there are 20 other cars who have got the same idea. As long as we get a good comfortable race set-up on the car I think we've got just as good a chance as anybody else. This car has been running really good. We just need to be a little more consistent. If we can run in the top five or top 10 quite often, then you've got an outside shot at winning one, and we'd love to get one of these."

Benson's 13th place qualifying run was just about where he was on the practice sheet when the 21/2 hours of practice concluded Thursday morning. Benson went out 20th of the 47 cars and qualified fourth.

"I think we are going to have fun on Saturday," Benson said. "It's been a heck of a week. We got Aaron's earlier in the week after we were pretty much thinking this was going to be one of our last races. We are feeling pretty good about ourselves right now and would love to give the Aaron's folks something to cheer about on Saturday.

"I can't be any happier for everybody at MB2 (Motorsports) and Pontiac to have Aaron's come on board. It's just a tremendous boost for us because we felt that this race, maybe one more, was going to be the last. They've taken a little vacation time away from us, but we'd rather be racing anyhow."

Ricky Rudd won the pole with Darrell Waltrip qualifying second.

ABC will televise Saturday's race at 1 p.m. Eastern time.