Martinsville
 

Johnny Benson –Tundra Racing

Post Race Report 

Race:                         Kroger 250 (Race 4 of 25)
Track:                         Martinsville Speedway
Date:                           Saturday, April 1, 2006
Started:                      Seventh
Finished:                    30th
Laps Completed:        241
Total Laps:                 250
Drivers Points:           11th (Lost six spots from last race)

After a weekend off following the event in Atlanta, in which driver Johnny Benson and his Bill Davis Racing team raced to a third-place finish, the team was eager to get back to the track.  Benson qualified his No. 23 Toyota Tundra in seventh place at Martinsville Speedway Saturday and finished the Kroger 250 in 30th, after an incident with 50 laps to go damaged the truck and forced the team to make time-consuming repairs on pit road. 

After posting the fastest speed in the final practice session of the day Saturday, Benson was the 18th of 39 competitors to take to the track for qualifying that afternoon.  His lap of 94.694 mph earned him the seventh starting spot for the race.  When the green flag waved for the start of the event, Benson communicated to his crew that the truck handled a little tight off the corners, but otherwise was handling well.  Benson took over the sixth spot early in the event and remained there until he broke into the top-five by passing Rick Crawford on lap 58 of the 250-lap race. The team planned to make a slight air pressure change to the left-rear tire during the first pit stop, which occurred several laps later after the caution flag waved on lap 63.  Benson pitted for four fresh tires, fuel and tape for the truck’s grille. Though the stop took a bit longer than the crew would have liked, Benson remained in the top 10 when he returned to the track.  

Benson had expressed concerns about the brakes just before the yellow flag, so he began to take steps to nurse the brakes to ensure they would last to the end of the race.  The event was marred with    caution flags, allowing several of the lead drivers made scheduled pit stops just past the 100-lap mark.  Their pit strategy helped Benson return to the top five.  Benson took over the second position when three of the top five trucks made scheduled stops on lap 130 during yet another caution period.  On lap 138, crew chief Rick Ren called Benson into the pits for what was to be the last scheduled stop of the day.  Because very few trucks stopped at that time, the team fell to 26th on the restart.  Benson was mired in traffic and wound up involved in an incident with the No. 10 truck several laps later. At first glance, the damage looked strictly cosmetic, but problems were on the horizon for the team.  

Benson continued to work through the brake issues and patiently made his way past slower traffic.  He was 18th by lap 169, when NASCAR threw the red flag for a short time while it cleaned up both the track and pit road after a couple of trucks got together and dropped fluid on the racing surface.  Not long after the restart, NASCAR officials informed the No. 23 team it was about to be black flagged.  The incident Benson had been involved in earlier in the event had caused the tail pipes of his Toyota Tundra to come loose, and officials insisted the team take measures to fix the problem. The crew quickly removed the pipes from the truck and sent Benson on his way, losing only a few laps in the process.  Unfortunately, NASCAR soon informed Ren that the rule book states that the tail pipes must be attached to the truck. The crew went to work to reattach the pipes several laps later, and Benson fell to 30th place while repairs were made. 

Though Benson and the team could not make up any positions on the track, they were determined to finish the race.  Benson and the team dropped to 11th place in the owners’ point standings following the event, but stand only two points outside the top 10.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will take several weekends off before heading to Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis for the Dodge Ram Tough 200 Saturday, April 29

NOTES:

• This week’s race truck for Martinsville Speedway is Chassis No. 23-35.  The chassis last saw action at Martinsville Speedway last fall, when it carried Johnny Benson to a 15th-place finish.
• Looking back…In 1995, Benson finished third in his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start at Martinsville Speedway, right behind his current teammate Mike Skinner. 
• Moving on up…  The No. 23 team jumped four positions to fifth in the series points standings after a strong third-place finish in Atlanta two weeks ago.  Benson now sits only 127 points behind current point leader Mark Martin, buoyed by one top-five finish and two top-10 finishes in three starts this season.
• Finishing Strong…  The No. 23 Toyota Tundra team has finished on the lead lap in all three Craftsman Truck Series events this year.
• Tested and Approved…The No. 23 team tested at Caraway Speedway, near Asheboro, N.C., Thursday, March 23.  The team worked with different shock and spring combinations, looking for the right setup for this weekend’s race.  The No. 23 Tundra was the strongest truck at the test, and the team is optimistic about its chances this weekend at the half-mile Virginia track.
• Listen and watch … The Kroger 250 is scheduled to start at 3:15 p.m. EST Saturday, April 1.  It will broadcast live on Speed (TV), MRN (radio) and XM Radio (144).

 

Johnny Benson’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results at Martinsville Speedway

 

 

Bill Davis Racing Quotes:

Johnny Benson on racing at Martinsville Speedway:
“I am looking forward to Martinsville.  It is historically not one of my favorite race tracks, not because of the track, but how people race up there.  They think that it is OK to knock you out of the way.  But I enjoy racing in Martinsville.  I have had some success there, but I have also had some bad luck as well.  In the past couple of truck races there, we have not had the finishes we would have liked.  Rick [Ren, crew chief] and I decided that we are going to the track with stuff that we have never run before there and try to get a different outlook on the track.  The way we have gone there in the past has not been very good.  We are going there with an open mind and see what happens.

“We tested at Caraway Speedway last week and had a really good test.  We felt like we learned some things that transfer to Martinsville.  I have only been to Caraway Speedway once, and you have to try to adapt certain things that work at Caraway Speedway to work at Martinsville.  We went to Caraway a year and a half ago, and I thought the test went really well.  We went to Martinsville and were horrible.  This time when we went to Caraway, we changed our testing mindset and went away from the test feeling like we are going to be very good this weekend.  If I was going to race at Caraway, we would have to change a number of things on our Tundra to make us fast, but knowing we are going to Martinsville, I think we are going to be OK.”

Truck Chief Bill Hagerthey on racing at Martinsville Speedway
“We had a really positive test at Caraway Speedway last Thursday.  Both Benson and our crew chief, Rick Ren, were very happy with the findings at the test and are hoping to apply them at Martinsville.  We are confident the information will help us to have a more competitive run on Saturday.  Pit stops will be critical on the very congested pit road at Martinsville.  We will need to be on our game all day to give the No. 23 team a chance to compete for the win.”