CHEERS and JEERS – EXTRA!
When Johnny Comes Marching Home at Michigan!

By Carol Einarsson

So it’s been almost a week, I know. Johnny’s big win seemed to go unmentioned, but rest assured it’s not forgotten. With the limitation on blog space for these couple of weeks, I was thinking I could wait. But yet I’ve wanted to get this out there and finally decided it’s not right to postpone it another week.

Since we’re five days past and some of the minor details of the race might be lost in our memories, I’m offering an abbreviated blog for the Truck Series. We’ll pick it up as we go back to green after the fourth caution.

The top ten are as follows:
1. Mark Martin
2. Johnny Benson
3. Jack Sprague
4. Matt Crafton
5. Martin Truex
6. Rick Crawford
7. Ron Hornaday
8. Mike Skinner
9. Todd Bodine
10. Bobby Labonte.

CHEERS to DW’s impersonation of Chris Economaki. “Well, Darrell, what say you?”

JEERS to 23 seconds holding up Bobby Labonte. But even still, he comes out of the pits in 10th. It should be interesting to watch his efforts to get back through the pack.

CHEERS to Rick Allen, sandwiched between Waltrip brothers, and still maintaining his sanity.

CHEERS to Johnny taking the lead from Mark Martin because we know Mark’s the best and he doesn’t give up the lead easily.

JEERS to trouble in turn four, and Timothy Peters all wrecked up and oozing fluid across the track. But at the same time, those soft walls are responsible for him getting out of his truck after hitting nose-first hard enough to lift his rear wheels off the ground.

CHEERS to an Aqua Velva “Out of the Blue Moment”, even if they pulled that 17-truck crewman out of the truck by his head.

CHEERS to Mikey trying to enlist Krista’s help to save his brother from running down a dead-end path.

CHEERS to Bobby up to seventh, now. Twenty-two to go.

JEERS to no explanation how Skinner has now fallen to 15th.

CHEERS to three-wide and nobody wrecking. And it looked to me like they might have even been FOUR wide!

CHEERS to Mike’s use of the magic yellow pen circling a truck in motion, and hitting his target exactly.

JEERS to caution for debris. And it seems that Brendan Gaughan thinks the debris is Todd Bodine.

CHEERS to Brendan, as frustrated as he was, putting ALL his fingers out the window to Todd, and not just one in particular, because Bodine appeared to be driving like he felt entitled to every inch of the race track.

JEERS to being thrilled that Reutimann got the Lucky Dog again. “Not many times you get the Lucky Dog two times in a row!” If you NEED it two times in a row, I’m thinking there’s not much reason for celebration.

CHEERS to pointing out that Johnny has the most fans of anybody in Michigan.

JEERS to Bobby East heading the wrong direction with a smooshed up back-end. But did you see the guy in front of him sideways and saving his truck? I wish they would have told us who that was.

CHEERS to Bill Davis smiling and Rick Ren, too! Nothing like a great truck and a home-town crowd to build confidence.

CHEERS to Mark Martin leading more laps than anyone this season, with three less races run.

CHEERS to Johnny on the radio with nine laps to go. Only Michael Waltrip would call the leader with one lap to go before green. And I don’t think anyone but Johnny could sound so laid back in that situation.

CHEERS to Mike considering calling Mark to tell him we’re cheering for him, too. Naw. We root for Mark every other week. This one is Johnny’s.

CHEERS to Bobby Labonte almost up to third with a pass on the outside but did anyone else get really big eyes thinking Crawford was about to wreck Bobby?

CHEERS to Johnny’s line being lower than Mark’s so if there’s any passing to be done on the leader, it’s going to be the long road around the outside.

JEERS to side-to-side slaps with two cars together. And driver-door to driver-door.

CHEERS to the emotional roller coaster of two crew chiefs, if for no other reason, it reaffirms the truth that it’s not over till it’s over.

JEERS to losing a tire off the 51 truck, but I was almost happy to see that the wreck with Earnhardt and Truex wasn’t Kerry’s fault.

CHEERS to getting hit by the 13 being bad luck. That’s the opposite of the Aaron’s Lucky Dog. It seems to me, though, the bad luck wasn’t the 13, but the 51.

CHEERS to a Green-White-Checkered, with Bobby Labonte, Mark Martin, and Todd Bodine all trying to run down Johnny, but Johnny staying cool as a cucumber and holding his low line.

CHEERS to “Johnny Benson, welcome to Victory Lane at Michigan International Speedway!” Best words he’s heard over the radio in a long time, I bet.

CHEERS to Johnny beating the best. Coming in ahead of those three guys – three guys he raced against in Cup racing – was all the better.

CHEERS to the man in a cowboy hat getting the flag for Johnny, and JB mixing old school with classic burnout.

CHEERS to being in an elite group of 17. Out of all the racers in all the series, just seventeen of them have won in each of the top three series.

JEERS to wishing for old times, but knowing that it will only be played out in my own imagination: Allen at the desk, Kenny to one side, Mike to the other, and Johnny opening the Big Show because he was the top finisher of the weekend. “All this and more coming up on Inside Nextel Cup” – cue the music. And maybe we’d have even got to see the footage again of our three favorite expert panelists skipping.

CHEERS to Section 23 filled with the fan club. That sea of red was only for Johnny.

And finally,

CHEERS to good things happening to good people. For so many years we’ve followed Johnny and it seems like time after time, disappointment has come. From driving that white car for so long, to having to pull decals off the car when a certain sponsor flaked on the team, a couple of good years, and then the move to the truck series. Through it all, we never stopped rooting for Johnny. He’s run almost 100,000 laps in the top three series and now won in each of them. And amid the big money in the sport and the sponsor demands, to what does Johnny attribute his success? The support of his family. And THAT is something sponsor dollars will never diminish. When a good guy like Johnny wins, especially at his home track, it’s a special day indeed.  (06-22-06)