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Dover
Johnny Benson
–Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra
Post Race
Report
Race:
AAA Insurance 200 (Race 8 of 25)
Track: Dover International
Speedway
Date: Friday, June 2,
2006
Started: 10th
Finished: 6th
Laps Completed: 200
Total Laps: 200
Drivers Points: 4th (Gained one spot
from last race)
The No. 23 Toyota Certified Used
Vehicles Toyota Tundra team has been on a roll. In the
past 12 races, the team has compiled six top-five finishes
and eight top-10 finishes and only has one finish outside
the top 15. Benson currently sits fourth in NASCAR
Craftsman Truck Series points, less than 100 points out of
third. Needless to say, the team has it going on.
The team headed north to
“The Monster Mile” with a good bit of momentum. Dover
International Speedway is the track on which Benson won
his first NASCAR Busch Series race and is one of his
favorite tracks on the schedule. Benson did not get to
make a lap before getting caught in a wreck in his first
Dover NCTS start last year. He was looking for redemption
in Friday’s 200-mile event.
The team immediately struggled in
Thursday’s practice session. Benson said the truck
handled really tight going into the corners, and he had to
wait to get back to the gas. The team changed everything
in the front end in an effort find a combination that
would work on the high-banked concrete oval. Finally,
with less than 30 minutes left in practice, the team
discovered a combination that Benson really liked. The
team’s hard work paid off, and it was
looking forward to seeing how the No. 23 Toyota Certified
Used Vehicles Tundra would do Friday afternoon.
Benson started 10th in
Friday’s 200-lap race. Five laps into the event, Benson
reported to his crew that the truck handled extremely
loose into the corners and was tight coming off. Crew
chief Rick Ren said the crew would fix the truck during
the first pit stop.
By lap 20, Benson was in the 12th
position and was really struggling to keep his red No. 23
Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra off the wall. The
second caution period of the day occurred on lap 63, and
the No. 23 team serviced its Tundra two laps later. The
four-tire stop also yielded significant chassis and air
pressure adjustments to the truck to help tighten it up
for the next run. The team did a great job getting Benson
off pit road quickly, gaining its driver two positions on
the track.
The race restarted on lap
68 with Benson in ninth place. By lap 82, Benson had the
fastest truck on the track and was picking off positions.
The team took advantage of a caution on lap 98 to pit for
four tires and fuel. Benson again restarted ninth, this
time on lap 104.
On lap 107, Benson
explained to his crew that the current set of tires was a
lot tighter than the last, which was hurting his entry
into the corners. The condition was not evident on the
timing and scoring monitor, as Benson still had the
fastest truck on the track. By lap 150, the No. 23 truck
was sixth and was battling the No. 16 truck for the fifth
spot.
The team made its final
pit stop of the day under caution on lap 160. The team
bolted on four fresh tires, filled the truck with enough
fuel to get to the finish and made a chassis adjustment.
Benson battled with
veteran drivers Mike Bliss and Ron Hornaday in the final
laps for a top-five position, but when the checkered flag
waved, Benson found himself in sixth place. The
Craftsman Truck Series heads to Texas Motor Speedway in
Justin, Texas, Friday, June 9. The race can be seen live
on the Speed Channel at 9:15 p.m. ET.
Johnny Comment's After Practice
Thanks to the hardworking
staff at truckseries.com, they provide us with details on
what is happening during the race weekend.
Click here for audio of Johnny after his practice
session in Dover.
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This
week’s race truck for Dover International Speedway is
Chassis No. 23-37. Chassis No. 23-37 last saw action
at California Speedway in late February, where it
carried Johnny Benson to a sixth-place finish.
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Bad Luck…
Benson qualified 15th for the 2005 Dover event, but he
did not complete the first lap of the race. The No.
23 truck was collected in an incident coming out of
turn two, which eliminated Benson from the event.
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Autographs anyone? Benson will join other NASCAR
Craftsman Truck Series competitors at Dover Air force
Base Thursday, June 1 at 7 p.m. The group will sign
autographs for troops who have just returned from
service in the Middle East.
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Moving on
up… The No. 23 team gained two more spots in the
Craftsman Truck Series points standings after another
top-five finish at Mansfield Motorsports Park last
Saturday. The team is tied for the fourth position
entering the eighth event of the season.
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Top Ten
Average… Benson and his No. 23 Toyota Tundra team have
an average finish of 10.71 for the 2006 season.
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Listen
and Watch… The AAA Insurance 200 is scheduled to start
at 4:45 p.m. EST Friday, June 2. It will broadcast on
Speed (TV), MRN (radio) and XM Radio channel 144.
Johnny Benson on racing
at Dover International Speedway:
“Last year after practice, we were really looking
forward to the race. But coming off turn two, a couple
of people got excited and gathered up about 10 of us,
which put us out of the race. I am really looking
forward to going back this year. We expected to have a
good race there last year and with [crew chief] Rick Ren
on board, I think we are going to have a great race this
year. We are going to go there and get through practice
and get a good qualifying lap, and then gear up for the
race.
“When Rick came on board
last year, the first thing we talked about fixing was
our short track program. Our intermediate program is
good, but we really needed help with our short track
program as a whole. “Rick and the guys have been
really focused on getting our short track program where
it is now. Our finishes are not indicative of how we
have run, but every time we get to a short track, I know
that we are going to be competitive.
“I really like Dover. It is
a place where you really have to discipline yourself.
It is a get up and go track, and you have to be paying
attention from start to finish. You also can not
overdrive the track. You have to get into the corner
good where the truck does not slide out from underneath
you, and you can not get back to the gas. It is a place
where you have to really pay attention to what is going
on, and it is really a great place to race.”
Crew chief Rick Ren on
racing at Dover International Speedway:
“I am looking forward to Dover. I have always had good
runs there. It is a great place to race. It takes a
good setup and a lot of driver patience to have a shot
for the win. We have been running well, which is what
we are supposed to be doing every week. We are not
going to win until we finish in the top five
consistently. The last couple of weeks, we have been
showing the rest of the garage we are a contender, and I
think we have a couple of tracks coming up where we have
a shot to win if we give Johnny what he needs and stay
out of trouble.”
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