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MIS
MIS Race Report
By: Chip Wile
Driver Johnny Benson and the
entire No. 23 Exide Batteries Tundra team had a perfect
homecoming last Saturday at the Michigan International
Speedway. Not only did Benson give his dad an early
Father’s Day present by winning the Con-way Freight 200, but
in addition became only the 17th driver to win a race in all
three of NASCAR’s top divisions. Benson, who has finished
second four times in his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
career, capped a perfect day on the racetrack by bringing
his Toyota Tundra to victory lane.
When the 23 team unloaded its
Exide Tundra on Friday the team immediately knew it had a
truck that was very competitive. In the first practice
session, Benson told his crew the truck was a little free in
the middle of both corners, so the team worked to get it
tightened up by making a small chassis adjustment.
In the final practice session
Benson complained the truck was extremely loose in both
corners. Crew chief Rick Ren told his driver the track was
20 degrees hotter than in the morning session, which would
cause the truck to be loose in the corners. The team knew
they had a great truck and did not want to chase the track
conditions. At the end of the practice sessions, Benson
felt like they had a solid truck and was looking forward to
the 200-mile event.
Benson went out late in Saturday
morning’s qualifying session. The team was cautiously
optimistic about their chances for a solid starting spot.
The crew elected not to make a mock qualifying run in
practice so they did not know what to expect out of their
Exide Tundra during qualifying. Benson went out and ran a
very impressive lap of 40.780 seconds, which would line him
up fifth for the 100-lap event.
When the green flag dropped over
the field Benson immediately started to fall back through
the field. Benson called into his crew on lap two saying
the truck was extremely loose at both ends of the racetrack
and he felt like he had a flat right rear tire. Crew chief
Rick Ren told his driver to do the best he could and the
team would make a huge adjustment at the first stop.
By lap 10 Benson had fallen all
the way back into the 10th position and struggled to keep
the truck off the wall. He told his crew the Exide
Batteries Tundra was so loose he was almost spinning out
every lap. By lap 20 Benson had fallen all the way back
into the 15th position and it looked as if the team’s
chances for victory were gone.
When the caution came out on lap
36, Ren told his driver to come down the pit lane. Benson
brought the 23 Toyota Tundra down pit road on lap 37 for
service. The team changed four tires and filled the truck
with fuel. They also made a trackbar adjustment to the
truck in hopes it would tighten the truck up. The team did
all the work at a blistering pace and picked up five spots
on pit road.
When the race was restarted on
lap 39, Benson found himself in the runner-up position.
Nine laps later Benson took the lead. It was evident the
changes the team made to the truck really helped and Benson
was again a contender.
When the caution came out on lap
67 the team started to prepare for its final pit stop of the
race. Benson brought his Tundra down the pit lane on lap
69. The team changed four tires and filled the truck with
enough fuel to get to the end of the race.
The team did a great job getting
Benson off pit road and when the race was restarted on lap
72 Benson was in the second position. Two laps later,
Benson took the lead from leader Mark Martin coming off turn
four. In the final 25 laps, Benson had to hold off both
Mark Martin and Bobby Labonte to take the checkered flag.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series heads to The Milwaukee Mile this Friday night to race
under the lights. The race will commence on Friday, June
23rd. The race can be seen live on the Speed Channel.
Check local times for listings.
Benson WIX Filters Lap Leader of
the Race at Michigan
Johnny Benson led twice for 31
laps to earn WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race honors in
the Con-way Freight 200 at Michigan. Benson took the honor
for the first time this season. This is just the second race
he has led in 2006 (he led once for one lap last week at
Texas).
Benson scored his first Craftsman Truck
Series victory at Michigan. The win came in his 60th start
in the series. He edged Mark Martin by just .112 seconds in
a green-white-checkered finish. Benson collected his 19th
top-five and 34th top-10 in the series. Benson is fourth in
the Craftsman Truck Series championship standings. He trails
third place Ted Musgrave by 26 points.
Benson becomes the fourth different
driver in the last four races to claim WIX Filters Lap
Leader of the Race honors. Todd Bodine and Mike Skinner are
tied for the lead in the WIX Filters Lap Leader standings.
Each driver has taken WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race
honors in the three events this season. (truckseries.com)
Ren Selected WypAll Crew Chief
of the Race at Michigan
Rick Ren kept his
team in front of Mark Martin's No. 6 Scotts Ford to lead
driver Johnny Benson to his first truck series victory in
the Con-way Freight 200. This earned him his first weekly
WypAll Wipers Crew Chief of the Race award presented by
Fastenal.
Three judges; including
Dave Rodman with NASCAR.com, Tony Eury Sr., and a WypAll Wipers representative decided Rick Ren
deserved Crew Chief of the Race honors. Following a caution
on lap 33, Ren rallied his team to a lightning fast pit stop
enabling Benson to pick up three spots and move into second
position. Benson captured the lead from Martin on lap 73 and
never relinquished the top spot. "Ren had a solid truck all
day," said Eury Sr. about Ren's feat. "As the race went on,
the truck looked better and better. Everyone knows how good
Mark Martin is, so this tells a lot about his run today."
After the Con-way Freight 200, Ren had
this to say about his crew's performance. "We changed up a
couple guys on pit road this week. The stops weren't really
faster, but a lot smoother. Nobody on my team has ever won a
race before. I think it will help motivate these young guys.
Having Mark on your heels is good and bad, you know he's not
going to do anything dirty to try and win, but on the other
hand he's Mark Martin."
Ren earned $500 for winning the WypAll
Wipers Crew Chief of the Race Award presented by Fastenal.
Ren has added his name to the truck series leader board with
his first win of the 2006 season. The challenge returns to
the Milwaukee Mile on June 23rd for the Toyota Tundra
Milwaukee 200. At the end of the season the crew chief who
collects the most weekly titles will claim $10,000 and the
right to be called the WypAll Wipers Crew Chief of the Year.
(Truckseries.com)
Benson Takes Win Back
Home in Michigan
In the return to his ‘home’ state, Tundra
driver Johnny Benson captured the checkered flag in Saturday
afternoon’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) race at
Michigan International Speedway. It was the first Craftsman
Truck Series victory for Grand Rapids, Mich.-native, who
began driving the No. 23 Bill Davis Racing Tundra in 2004.
Benson, who took the lead on lap 73 of the
102-lap event, held off a pair of charging veterans -- Mark
Martin and Bobby Labonte -- during a green-white-checker
flag finish en route to the win. Benson, who started fifth,
led the race two times for a total of 31 laps.
It was just two years ago at the two-mile Michigan oval that
Benson made his inaugural start in the No. 23 Tundra.
“Two years ago here (at Michigan), Bill Davis gave me a
chance to drive his Toyota truck and it was an awesome
opportunity,” said Benson, after the race. “We had to start
last that day and made it to fourth. Today, we started
fifth and I felt like we went to the back -- and then come
back up through the field. Rick Ren (crew chief) and
everybody on the team did a great job. And, of course, all
the boys at the engine shop did a great job as well.”
“At the end of the race I had some flashbacks from
Rockingham (where Benson earned his only NASCAR Cup victory)
-- I can tell you that,” added Benson, after the race.
“When you have the best guy (Mark Martin) behind you --
that’s the best place to have him. Mark was quick --
probably had I not got ahead of him early on that one
restart, I might not have been able to get him. But, I was
hoping for the same thing when we got in the lead. Mark was
probably a little better in the long runs and we were a
little better in the short runs. Once we got out front --
the clean air was pretty good.”
“You can’t write the book any better than this,” said
Benson. “To come home and win at my ‘home’ track is pretty
awesome.”
The win was the fifth victory for a Tundra this season and
Toyota’s 24th win since joining the NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series at the beginning of the 2004 season. Benson joins
Todd Bodine (Atlanta, St. Louis and Texas) and David Starr
(Martinsville) as Tundra race-winners this year.
(Toyota Motorsports)
Benson Takes First with
Hometown Win
at Michigan
Johnny Benson claimed his
first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory by taking
the win in the Con-way Freight 200 Saturday afternoon at
Michigan International Speedway. Benson, from nearby Grand
Rapids, Michigan, held back three-time 2006 Truck Series
winner Mark Martin to become the 17th driver to pick up wins
in all three nationally touring NASCAR series.
Benson, driving the No. 23
Exide Batteries Toyota, delivered his first series win in
his 60th series start.
"I keep telling people I would have liked
to have gotten my first win here, but have it been last
year," Benson joked after the race. "It's been a very big
week. We had a big fan club meeting on Tuesday, raced the
late model at Berlin on Wednesday, raced go-karts on
Thursday, and now to cap the week off with this is just
great."
Benson took over the lead from Mark
Martin on lap 73, and was forced to endure three late-race
cautions before securing the victory. With clean air out
front, Benson was able to choose his line, and he decided to
run the bottom, forcing runner-up finisher Martin to try to
make the high groove work.
"We were good on the bottom," Martin
said. "We needed a little bit longer run and we needed to be
on the bottom. Johnny kind of forced us to move up, and we
might have been able to make it work, but we needed more
laps at the end. Congratulations to Johnny on that win. He
and his whole team did a great job today, and they
definitely earned it." (Truckseries.com)
Martin, the
Nextel Cup star who has won three of six previous Truck
starts this season in a part-time ride, appeared stronger on
long green-flag runs. But Benson, driving a Toyota Tundra
for Bill Davis Racing, got a break when four of the eight
caution flags in the 102-lap event waved in the final 28
trips around the 2-mile oval.
It looked as
if Martin, who plans to retire from Cup after this season
and run the Truck Series full time in 2007, was going to
catch Benson after a restart on Lap 93. But
Martin Truex Jr. cut short that green-flag run, spinning
out with a flat tire on Lap 97. He collided with
Kerry Earnhardt, bringing out the final caution.
The race was
scheduled to end on Lap 100, but the late caution set up the
dramatic two-lap, green-white-checkered finish that began on
Lap 101. Martin did what he could, but Benson easily held
off the No. 6 Ford F-150, winning by 0.112 seconds -- about
two truck-lengths.
"This is
awesome," said Benson, the Grand Rapids, Mich., driver who
has four runner-up finishes in the Truck Series, the most
recent coming last June in Texas. "I finally got this stupid
win. It's just way cool. I'm speechless."
Martin, who
led 33 laps to Benson's 31, shrugged off the tough loss.
"Take nothing away from Johnny Benson and his team," said
Martin, who will also race in Sunday's 3M Performance 400
Cup race here. "He was really fast, especially on short
runs. The chance that we had was a long run and we didn't
get it at the end. "But, golly, things have gone our
way a lot this year and we just got outrun at the end."
(Nascar.com)
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This
week’s race truck for Michigan International Speedway
is Chassis No. 23-73. Johnny Benson drove this truck
to a fifth-place finish last Friday night at Texas
Motor Speedway.
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Welcome
Aboard… Exide Technologies will serve as primary
sponsor of the No. 23 Toyota Tundra this weekend at
Michigan International Speedway. The event at MIS
will be the first of three events in which the company
will serve as the primary sponsor of the No. 23 team.
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Welcome
Home… Benson returns to his stomping grounds this
weekend at Michigan International Speedway. Benson
was born and reared in Grand Rapids, Mich.
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Nice
Finish… With both Benson and Mike Skinner finishing in
the top 10 last weekend at Texas, Bill Davis Racing
now has accumulated 50 top-10 finishes in 59 races in
the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. A Bill Davis
Racing truck has finished in the top 10 at least 84
percent of the time.
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Another
Homecoming… Benson will compete in an ASA race at
Berlin Raceway in Grand Rapids Wednesday, June 14. It
will be J.B.’s first ASA start in 2006.
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Happy
Anniversary… The race at Michigan International
Speedway marks the two-year anniversary of Benson
piloting the No. 23 Toyota Tundra. Benson started
31st and finished fourth in his first race behind the
wheel of the Bill Davis Racing-owned machine.
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Listen
and Watch… The Con-Way Freight 200 is scheduled to
start at 3 p.m. ET Saturday, June 17. It will
broadcast live on Speed (TV), MRN (radio) and XM Radio
channel 144.
Johnny Benson on racing at Michigan International
Speedway:
“I am excited about
Michigan. It is my home track on the NASCAR side, and
it is a great place to race. Sometimes it gets a little
boring for the fans because there are long green flag
runs, but it is a track you can run three-wide on. You
can run the bottom, middle or top and have options,
which racecar drivers really like. It is fun because
the draft comes into effect, which makes the speeds
fast.
“This week
is really busy. On Monday, we have our fan club open
house. On Tuesday, I’m going to the other end of the
state to get into an ASA car I’ll run Wednesday. I am
going to visit with my family and friends in Grand
Rapids Thursday, then head to the racetrack in Brooklyn
on Friday. It is a fun-filled week, but a busy week as
well.”
MIS Preview
Toyota Motorsports
THIS RACE: The Con-way Freight 200
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) race at Michigan
International Speedway will be the seventh Craftsman Truck
Series event at the track. There will be nine Toyota
Tundras in the field at the two-mile Michigan oval.
LAST RACE: In the most recent race of
the 2006 NCTS season at Texas Motor Speedway (June 9), Todd
Bodine led just one lap -- but it was the final lap -- en
route to capturing the checkered flag. Following Bodine to
the finish line were Tundra drivers Mike Skinner (second),
David Reutimann (fourth) and Johnny Benson (fifth).
POINTS PACE: After the first nine
races of the 2006 season, Toyota drivers hold down the
top-six positions in the NCTS championship point standings.
Todd Bodine sits atop the championship standings with 1,490
points. Trailing Bodine in the standings are second-place
Ted Musgrave (1,375 points), third-place David Reutimann
(1,354 points), fourth-place Johnny Benson (1,258 points),
fifth-place Jack Sprague (1,203 points) and sixth-place
David Starr (1,187 points).
BENSON BACK HOME: Grand Rapids,
Mich.-native Johnny Benson is happy to be returning home for
the Craftsman Truck Series race at MIS. “I’m really looking
forward to it because MIS is the closest track to my
hometown,” says Benson. “I have a lot of support there from
the fans and the track, as well as everybody around the
area. Hopefully, we’ll have a good run.”
DOUBLE DUTY: Along with the
NCTS race at MIS (June 17), Johnny Benson will compete in a
200-lap ASA Late Model Series race at Michigan’s Berlin
Speedway, June 14. Benson, who will be racing a brand new
car at Berlin, is a partner in the track located near Grand
Rapids.
MIS MEMORY: What is Johnny
Benson’s best memory of MIS? “I watched my Dad race there
in the only Cup race he ever ran,” says Benson. “I was just
a little kid and it was kind of cool to go there. I was
sitting in the stands because I wasn’t old enough to go
anywhere else. I was about 10.” Benson’s father, Johnny,
started 36th and finished 21st in that NASCAR Cup race at
MIS (June 24, 1973).
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