Johnny Benson - Bill Davis Racing Event Preview
Silverado 350 - November 4, 2005
Texas Motor Speedway - Justin, TX

Started:                                              Sixth
Finished:                                            13th
Laps Completed/Total Laps:            147/147
Driver Points Position:            15th (no change from last week) 

The No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra team went to the Texas Motor Speedway with something to prove.  After two second-place finishes at one of the fastest tracks on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series circuit, the team really wanted to get its first victory of the 2005 season.  The team had a really strong showing in Atlanta last weekend and decided to bring the same truck to Texas in hopes it would get them to Victory Lane. 

During Thursday’s practice session, the No. 23 TCUV Tundra was one of the most dominant trucks on the track.  Benson could run up high or down low and really felt comfortable behind the wheel.  The team worked on a number of different shock combinations, trying to tweak the truck for Friday night’s event. After practice, Benson commented on his truck. 

“The TCUV Tundra is really fast.  We worked mostly on our race setup and I feel we have a pretty sporty Tundra.  I could hold it wide open early in the run and the tire wear looked really good.  When we got behind another truck, the balance did not change and I could get by them on both the top and the bottom of the race track.  I am looking forward to running tomorrow night and trying to get the 23 truck team its first victory.” 

Benson started the Silverado 350 in the sixth position but it did not take him long to work his way toward the front of the field.  By lap 20, Benson was all the way up to third.  He told his crew the truck was really good but was barely sliding the nose in the middle of the corners.  Crew Chief Rick Ren and his crew came up with a plan for the first stop. 

When the caution flag came out on lap 39 for debris on the front stretch, the No. 23 TCUV team came down pit road for service.  The team changed four tires and filled the truck with fuel.  They also made a slight chassis adjustment. 

The race was restarted on lap 43 and Benson was in the fourth position.  The No. 23 Bill Davis Racing Tundra was consistently the fastest truck on the race track and was picking off other competitors one at a time.  On lap 54, Benson took the lead from Todd Bodine and was starting to pull away when the caution flag was displayed to the field. 

The team pitted again, taking on four fresh tires and filling its truck with fuel.  The race was restarted on lap 65 and Benson was in the sixth position.  He called into his crew saying his truck was changing from tight off to loose in.  The condition did not hurt his lap times and Benson was still the fastest truck on the 1.54-mile tri-oval. 

The team made its third pit stop of the night on lap 86.  The team took fuel only and hoped the No. 23 Toyota could make it to the end of the event on fuel.  Ren knew it was going to be really close and told Benson to conserve as much fuel as he could.  The team worked to figure out how many laps it could go on fuel and the numbers kept showing it was going to be four laps short. 

Luckily, another caution came out on lap 96, and bought the team more time to ensure its truck could make it to the end of the show.  The team decided to bring Benson back down pit road to get four tires and fuel.  Unfortunately, only four trucks pitted under the caution, which meant the team had lost valuable track position during its yellow-flag stop.  When the race restarted on lap 101, Benson found himself all the way back in the 23^rd position. 

For the final 46 laps, Benson battled to get back up to the front of the field.  He managed to gain 10 positions, but soon ran out of time and crossed the finish line in the 13^th position. 

NOTES:

• This week’s race truck for Texas Motor Speedway is Chassis No. 23-73. Truck No. 23-73 helped Johnny Benson to a third-place finish last week at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

• Photo Finish … Benson has finished second in both starts in the No.23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra at Texas Motor Speedway.

• Certified in Texas … Toyota Certified will serve as the primary sponsor of Benson and the No. 23 Toyota Tundra team this weekend in Texas.  In the month of May, Toyota Certified surpassed the 1.5 million mark in used cars sold, making them the leader in the used car market.

• Double Duty… Benson will drive the No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas and compete in the NASCAR Busch Series race driving the No. 67 car.  Benson also did double duty last weekend at Atlanta, driving the No. 23 in both the Craftsman Truck Series race and the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series event.

• Listen and Watch … The Silverado 350K is scheduled to start at 9:15 p.m. EST Friday, Nov. 4.  It will broadcast live on Speed (TV), MRN (radio) and XM Radio channel 144.

Johnny Benson on racing at Texas Motor Speedway:

“We are looking forward to Texas because second is the worst we have been there in the trucks.  I would like to go there and win the race.  If we can run as competitive as we have in the two races I have run there, we definitely have a shot.

“I hope we can transfer some of the information we learned last weekend in Atlanta to Texas.  We really had a strong truck in Atlanta and with the tracks being so similar I hope some of the information will be useful this weekend.  We brought a new truck to Atlanta and it ran really good.

“We are trying to learn more about the new truck.  It is different than the ones we have had in the past and Atlanta was the first time we have worked with it.  Running as good as we did, I am excited about running it the rest of the year.  Hopefully, we can apply the things we learned at Atlanta to Texas and be in good shape.  If we can have a good qualifying run, because Texas is notorious for being a place where it is hard to pass, then run toward the front all day, we’ll be alright.”