10 Questions: Johnny Benson
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
October 4, 2005


Johnny Benson of late has diversified his championship racing career to include television work and promoting a racetrack, Berlin Raceway in his home state, Michigan

But he's concentrating most on breaking his winless bubble in the Craftsman Truck Series, where he drives Bill Davis Racing's No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra pickup.

During a break at New Hampshire last month, Benson sat down to answer 10 questions not necessarily related to his racing career.

1. What's your dream vehicle that you don't already own?

Benson: I don't exactly know the name of it -- but it's the McLaren F1. It's a three-seater and I think it's pretty awesome.

Q: It's neat that your teammate, Bill Lester, who has a road racing background, cited the same car. I asked him if he'd ever had a chance to drive one and he hadn't -- but have you?

Benson: No (laughing). And I doubt that I'll ever get a chance to drive one, but they're pretty cool.

Q: Where would you like to take that thing if you got one test drive in it?

Benson: There are all kinds of tracks where you'd like to drive it, but on the street? I think just to drive it around would be cool -- I don't care where it's at.

You know, I don't want to do highway driving, just go on the back roads and not at 150 mile an hour, either. I'd just like to go on some fun back roads and just drive around.

I'd drive it from Charlotte up to one of my houses in Michigan (laughing). It doesn't matter to me because it would just be cool to drive.

2. If time on the road weren't an issue, what would be your ideal pet?

Benson: Probably a dog.

Q: Any particular breed that you favor?

Benson: No, I mean, I've had a Schipperke and an American Eskimo. When I was a kid my mom and dad had a German Shepherd Collie and a Beagle. So all of them are a pretty good mix, but I liked that American Eskimo and that Schipperke that I had, so I'd probably go that route again.

3. What's your biggest pet peeve while driving on the road?

Benson: People driving in the left hand lane and not passing cars (laughing).

Q: You're in good company with that one, so have you found a good solution for it?

Benson: Yeah, but they usually give you tickets for it, so (laughing). You'd like to just go up there and bump 'em a little bit and get 'em rolling (laughing), but I don't know.

And even when they pass somebody, they just stay in the left hand lane. A lot of people don't realize that the left lane is an emergency lane and they can write you a ticket for staying in it -- even though they don't.

But you know, the left lane (needs to be) open, man. If you're not passing anybody, stay to the right.

4. You've had a long career racing a number of different divisions, so what's your worst hotel experience?

Benson: Oh my gosh. We've had some before where you showed up and they don't have your reservations, and you kind of fight that, back and forth.

Somebody was nice enough to cancel all of our rooms, once, at another track so I think, to me, I've gotten to the point where if it's got a bed and a shower and you can get in, I'm good with that.

I mean, you'd like it to be clean, but I don't need a ritzy place. I'd stay there if I could, but by the same token it doesn't matter. Basically you go there and if you've got a little bit of TV, a good bed and a good shower, I'm good to go.

Q: I think with an attitude like that, you've got a good, long life ahead of you -- no high blood pressure and that's good.

Benson: That's right (laughing).

5. What's your favorite food?

Benson: Just like everybody else, I like a good steak. Steak is definitely the way to go.

Q: We're lucky in that regard to be on the road a lot, so what's your favorite place on the road to get steaks?

Benson: There are so many great restaurants, but when we used to go to Rockingham, The Barn used to be the place to go. And when you come up to New Hampshire, The Weathervane (in Chichester) is great for seafood.

It's funny, but when you ask that question, you think of the track and then you say what restaurant it is (you connect with that facility).

There are a lot of them throughout the country, so in my hometown, Huntersville, N.C., you've got 131 Main and Mickey & Mooch that are good; and of course you've got the high dollar restaurants like Morton's that are good -- but there are a lot of small places, too, that have good steaks.

6. If you had to choose, would it be being honest, or being nice?

Benson: Honest.

Q: You feel like that comes around better?

Benson: Well, to me, even on both sides of the fence -- whether you're being honest with somebody or you're being honestly spoken to -- you know where you're at.

I don't particularly care if someone is nice to you but they don't (tell the truth) -- and they don't want to be nice, because that's no good for anybody. So I'd definitely pick honest.

7. What's your favorite childhood memory?

Benson: Boy -- what age would that be (laughing)?

Q: Some of us haven't grown up yet, so we're still working on 'em.

Benson: I could come up with something from last week (laughing). But it was probably going on vacation and going fishing with my dad. Doing that type stuff.

Plus, working in the (racecar) shop. Originally, when you started off it was pretty cool, but then it became a little work. But more than likely it would have been fishing with my dad.

Q: Was he a fly fisherman, taking out the bass boat, or was it something simpler?

Benson: No, it was just off the boat, for perch and bluegills and stuff like that.

8. What would your dream date be? Where and with whom -- and politically correct is just fine.

Benson: You'd have to be politically correct and with my wife, because we've been married for 19 years (laughing). But I would have to say -- and we're going to do it this year -- and that would be to go on vacation together.

We've been married for, like, 19 years and we've only been on two vacations together so we're making that happen, this year.

Q: And where is that special trip going to be -- not to put you on the spot to actually come through with it?

Benson: Well, I don't know the name of it, but it's in Mexico, so we're going to venture down there. It's a place where some friends of ours went and they highly recommended it, so we're going to go and give it a shot.

9. Racing and pranks seem to go hand in hand, so what's your worst prank, either perpetrated by you, or done to you?

Benson: You know, I've been lucky on that end. I haven't done a lot of pranks to people -- or vice versa. But I've seen a lot of them (laughing).

Q: Well, that qualifies, so what's the worst one you've ever seen?

Benson: The worst one I've ever seen came about with a couple of guys I worked with. They had gone back and forth and jacked each other's cars up and put them on bricks -- just doing stuff like that or putting wheel weights on there and making the tires out of balance.

But the number one that I witnessed (laughing) was around was, the guy took down the (VIN) number of the car (the other guy) had, went to a junkyard and bought a driveshaft and machined all the splines off the yoke.

During lunch he went and put that driveshaft in the guy's car. Now, needless to say, when he couldn't get it to work, he had to call somebody to come and get it. Right around the corner from our workplace was a transmission shop -- and it was there for three days for them to figure it out.

They took the transmission out and worked on it and said, 'There's nothing wrong with it.' It took them three days to find out that he had machined the splines out of the driveshaft -- so that was by far, the top of anything I've ever seen.

Q: Mechanics earn a lot, and rightfully so, but how expensive was that exercise? Sounds like the payback coming back around on that one would be hell.

Benson: That was definitely a payback, but they had gone around and around on this for months, and the guy finally told him -- 'Stop, I'm done with it. Don't do any more.'

The guy persistently kept doing stuff and, needless to say, that one ended it (laughing).

For myself, we used to work in a tool and die shop and we'd do these things we'd call 'bunny tails.' You'd take a piece of aluminum welding rod and curl it up and put a piece of toilet paper on it, take blue and red dye and paint it up nice and hook it on your back belt loop and you'd be walking around the shop with this tail on.

That was something that happened a lot, within our industry, and just some other stuff with bluing paint, because it makes a huge mess. Just things of that nature, but I've had it done to me and I've done it to other people, but that's about it.

10. Finally, what would you consider your "Welcome to NASCAR" moment?

Benson: My first Busch race wasn't -- or maybe, depending on how you classify it, it was.

For my first Busch race, Dale Earnhardt asked me to drive his car at Dover. Well, Goodwrench had said that (Dale) had to drive the car, so between him, Ernie Irvan and Chevrolet they gave me an opportunity to run a race.

Well, they picked Michigan because that was my hometown and they thought that was a safe track, where I wouldn't have to worry about getting upside down, and all that stuff.

Well, on the second lap of the race, me and another car got together and I started to spin coming off of Turn 2. I thought, 'This will be all right because I'll spin through the grass and catch the end of the field and go.'

I mean, we were real excited because I had made the race and qualified, like, 18th or 20th, and was pretty happy with that. But as I'm sliding through the grass, I was looking and thinking, 'This will be all right.'

So when it started lifting up and I proceeded to flip five and a half times, and got done -- that ended my day.

So I guess that was 'There you go -- welcome to NASCAR.'