Mansfield
UAW / GM Ohio 250
May 15, 2005
BDR Race Report - Finished 23rd
The No.
23 Certified Toyota team had a new look for the race in
Mansfield, Ohio, and hoped to bring its news sponsor a
solid top-10 finish. The truck sported a camouflage
paint scheme, which drew attention from the other
competitors in the garage area. Johnny Benson had never
been to Mansfield Motorsports Speedway before, but the
team hoped his veteran experience would camouflage his
inexperience at the Ohio track.
Photos By Homer
Photos By Doug Dubois
Saturday’s practice session proved to be a struggle for
the No. 23 team. The truck handled too tight in the
early part of the session, so the team made a number of
changes to correct the problem. The truck then handled
too loose, and Benson could not get back to the gas in
the corners. The team tried everything under the sun to
make the truck turn, but nothing it did seemed to
work.
To find
the right balance for the No. 23, the Certified Toyota
crew looked to its teammates. The No. 5 team had had the
best practice session of the three Bill Davis Racing
entries, so Benson and his team decided make some
changes to their setup based on the knowledge Mike
Skinner’s team shared with them.
The
changes obviously helped, as Benson gained more than a
half a second in qualifying. His lap of 16.391 seconds
earned him the sixth starting position for Sunday’s
race.
When
the green flag waved on Sunday, Benson was holding his
ground on the competition. He ran with the top seven
trucks for the first segment of the race. He said the
truck was tight in the corner, but he thought a long
green flag run would help the tight condition subside.
By lap
50, the No. 23 Certified Tundra was in the top five and
was pulling away from the rest of the field. Benson and
his crew discussed what changes they were going to make
to the truck during the pit stop. The team determined
that wedge and air pressure adjustments were what the
truck needed.
When
the caution flag waved on lap 77, the No. 23 team
readied for what it hoped to be its only pit stop of the
day. Benson brought his truck to the pits on lap 80 for
four tires, fuel and the aforementioned adjustments.
Benson
stood 13th on the lap 85 restart. Because the leader had
not pitted, the team felt a top-five finish was in
order. Its hopes were crushed on lap 95, when Benson
said he had a loose wheel. He pitted for four tires on
lap 102. The team discovered a faulty left-rear wheel
caused Benson to feel a vibration. The green-flag stop
cost the team three laps to the leader.
Benson
worked hard to regain his laps but had to settle for a
23rd-place finish. He also fell to 10th
in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship
standings.
Mansfield Photos:
By Barb Benson
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Trucks
lined up
before the race
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Team
meeting in
between the pit boxes |
James Riley, owner of
Xtreme Outdoor
Camouflage, Inc., and Johnny
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Shane
Hmiel and Johnny
before driver's introductions
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Battling for position |
Traffic jam |
~~~~~
BDR - Pre Race Notes:
-
This
week’s race truck
for Mansfield Motorsports Speedway is
Chassis
No. 23-35.
Johnny Benson drove the truck to a 17th-place finish
earlier this year at Martinsville Speedway.
-
Hard to See…Bill
Davis Racing is pleased to announce that Xtreme
Outdoor Camouflage (XOC) has come on board as a
partner. XOC’s revolutionary design will be displayed
on the No. 23 Toyota Tundra this weekend.
-
Staying Strong…
Benson has held a top-10 spot in the 2005 NASCAR
Craftsman Truck Series Championship standings through
the first five races this season.
-
Now That’s a Stat…The
No. 23 team has finished outside the top-15 only once
this season when Benson finished 17th at Martinsville.
-
Listen and Watch …
The UAW/GM
Ohio 250 is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. EST Sunday,
May 15. It will broadcast live on Speed (TV), MRN
(radio) and XM Radio.
Johnny Benson on racing at
Mansfield
I am looking forward to going to Mansfield. It is a
track I have only seen on television, but I know the No.
23 team will bring me top-notch equipment. I can’t wait
to get on the track. The Toyota Certified Used Vehicles
Tundra should be pretty good. I love going to tracks
for the first time. It brings a new challenge to the
team to try and find a setup that will work. I have
heard such great things about this track and am hoping
to bring my Tundra home with a strong finish.
Greg Ely on
racing at Mansfield
Even though most teams are a leg up on us with a years
experience at Mansfield, I think we will be able to
utilize Benson’s years of experience racing at the short
tracks across the Midwest to get a handle on the track
rather quickly. Even though there are not two grooves
of racing at Mansfield, we will work hard during
practice to keep our truck running well on the bottom,
which will pay dividends when it comes race time.”
~~~~~
Toyota Notes &
Quotes
THIS RACE: This
will be the second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS)
race at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway. There will be
nine Toyota Tundras in the field at the Ohio half-mile
oval.
LAST RACE:
In the most recent NCTS race at Gateway International
Raceway (April 30), Tundra drivers Mike Skinner, Todd
Bodine and Chad Chaffin recorded top-10 finishes at the
St. Louis-area track. Skinner, driver of the No. 23 Bill
Davis Racing Tundra started eighth and finished fourth.
Bodine, driver of the No. 66 Fiddle Back Racing Tundra,
crossed the finish line seventh and Chaffin finished
ninth in his No. 30 Germain/Arnold Racing Tundra.
SKINNER
SCORES AT ST. LOUIS: At Gateway, Mike Skinner registered
his first top-five and second top-10 finish of the
season. “Our Tundra ran good all night long and our
Toyota motor was just awesome,” said Skinner, following
the race. “I think we just missed our ‘set-up’ a little
bit and had to make adjustments all race long. We
actually had a flat tire about halfway through the race
-- we were going backwards and being passed two at a
time -- before the caution came out. I think that’s a
really good sign! It shows our luck is changing because
the caution came out right when we needed it. We were
able to pit, get four new tires and return to the track
without losing a lap.”
POINTS
PACE: After the first five races of the 2005 season,
four Toyota drivers are among the top-15 in the NCTS
championship standings. Todd Bodine is fifth with 678
points, just 108 points behind leader Ted Musgrave.
Tundra drivers following Bodine in the standings are
Johnny Benson (643 points) in eighth-place, Chad Chaffin
(633 points) in ninth-place and Mike Skinner in
14th-place (566 points).
LAST YEAR
AT MANSFIELD: Last season, in the debut of the NCTS at
Mansfield, Tundra drivers Mike Skinner (11th) and David
Reutimann (14th) finished among the top-15 at the Ohio
short track.
FOUR FIRSTS
AT MANSFIELD: Four Tundra drivers -- Johnny Benson, Todd
Bodine, Shige Hattori and Robert Huffman -- will be
making their NCTS race debut at Mansfield this year.
Huffman practiced at the track a year ago, but did not
start the race when qualifying was cancelled and the
starting line-up was determined by NASCAR rules.
NEVER
BEFORE: “Mansfield is a track that I haven’t even seen,”
says Johnny Benson, driver of the No. 23 Bill Davis
Racing Tundra. “As a matter of fact, I don’t even
remember watching last year’s race on TV. It’s going to
be a totally new experience. I find it exhilarating
going to a track that you’ve never been to before and
trying to figure out the good spots and the bad spots --
both when you’re alone on the track, and when you’re
with other people on the track.”
JOHNNY
ON-THE-SPOT: “It’s definitely a challenge,” adds Benson,
talking about visiting a track for the first time.
“Especially when everybody else knows the track -- or
the majority of the field knows the place -- and you’re
not sure what to expect. Sometimes that can be a
positive, and sometimes that can be a negative. I just
plan to take the approach of going to Mansfield and
looking at the track -- and going from there. Sometimes
if you watch a tape of a race to see what to expect it
puts your parameters in a smaller ‘box’ -- you see what
people are doing on the track and you only set your mind
to doing those things.”
BEEN THERE,
DIDN’T DO THAT: “I didn’t race at Mansfield last season
because qualifying was cancelled due to rain,” says
Robert Huffman, driver of the No. 12 Toyota Tundra. “The
field was set by the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series rule
book and we didn’t make the show, although I was at
least able to practice. I’m excited about going back
there because it’s the kind of track that I’ve raced on
over the years. We’re taking the same truck that we
raced at Martinsville, and based on our performance
there I think we’ll do well at Mansfield.”
REUTIMANN
REMEMBERS: “We started 33rd at Mansfield last year, but
we were able to leave there with a top-15 finish,” says
Reutimann, who finished 14th a year ago. “Because our
short track program has really improved, I’m excited to
go back there. The track's fun and the fans are great. I
think both Robert (Huffman) and I will do well.”
IN THE
AREA: Although he has never before been to Mansfield
Motorsports Speedway, Shige Hattori, driver of the No. 9
AISIN/AISIN AW Tundra, has been to the Mansfield-area.
“I’ve been to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car course, which is
pretty close to Mansfield, but the Mansfield track is
totally different,” says Hattori. About a year ago,
Hattori tested a sports car at the Mid-Ohio road course
in nearby Lexington.
NOT AT
NIGHT: The race in Mansfield will be the first time
Shige Hattori will be racing his Tundra during the day.
Each of his first four career NCTS starts (Daytona,
California, Atlanta and St. Louis) was a night race.
CHAD CHATS:
“When I first started racing in the Busch Series and
then moved into the Craftsman Truck Series, I really
liked the short tracks,” says Chad Chaffin, driver of
the No. 30 Germain/Arnold Racing Tundra. “I did real
well at the short tracks, that was my background --
racing short tracks around Tennessee. I used to look
forward to racing at places like IRP and the Nashville
short track. Now, I’m getting to the point where I
prefer the big tracks.”
KEY TO
C.C.: “The big thing for us is to get our Tundra really
fast so we can qualify well,” explains Chaffin, about
the key to success at Mansfield. “When you come to a
short track and can start in the top four or five, it
makes for a whole different day than starting 20th. It’s
a whole lot easier for your race strategy if you’re
starting up front.”
MORE FROM
MIKE: “Our team is getting more depth all the time,”
says Mike Skinner. “Jeff (Hensley, crew chief) and I are
starting to speak the same language and we understand
each other more and more every week. I just think it’s
just a matter of time before you see that No. 5 Tundra
in ‘Victory Lane.’”
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