The event at Talladega Superspeedway has been marked on the No. 23 Exide Batteries Toyota Tundra team’s calendar all year.  The team knew it must avoid the “big one” in order to keep its championship hopes alive.  There are so many unknowns when racing at a superspeedway, and driver Johnny Benson and his team knew they had a challenge ahead of them when they arrived at the 2.66-mile high-banked superspeedway.

Benson and his crew seemed very happy with the handling of their Exide Batteries Tundra throughout both of Thursday’s practice sessions.  Benson said he was able to move from the back of the pack to the front with little problem.  He also commented that he could run both the high and low lines of the track with ease.  The No. 23 team anticipated a good run in Saturday’s 94-lap race.

Benson realized the importance of starting at the front of the field at a place like Talladega.  However, the team did not make mock qualifying runs during practice, so Friday’s qualifying session was in itself a test for the team.  The veteran driver’s lap of 53.070 seconds was good enough to put the Exide Toyota Tundra on the inside of the third row.  The No. 23 Bill Davis Racing team was extremely pleased with the effort.

When the green flag was shown to the 36-truck field on an almost perfect fall afternoon in Alabama, Benson was on his way to the front.  It only took two corners for Benson to slide into the second spot behind pole winner Mark Martin.  Benson took the lead on lap six.  He and fellow Toyota driver Jack Sprague lined up and started to pull away from the pack.

The caution flag waved on lap 22, and Benson reported to the team that the truck was really good, and he did not want to make any changes to his Tundra in the upcoming pit stop.  He did pit on lap 24 for two tires and fuel and retained the lead for the restart two laps later.

Benson communicated with his crew on lap 33 that the new right side tires made the truck handle a little loose in the corners.  Crew chief Rick Ren and his crew began working on air pressure adjustments for the next pit stop.

Benson relinquished the lead on lap 40 and tucked in behind some of the other lead trucks.  He told his crew the truck was really good, and he was just being patient.  Benson remained in the top 10 for most of the day, driving on both the top and the bottom of the race track.

With four laps remaining in the event, Benson found himself in the fifth spot and trying to strategize with his teammates in making a run at the leader.  Benson made his move to the middle of the track on the final lap, but he lost drafting help and crossed the finish line in the ninth spot.

Benson remains second in the championship standings, but he lost ground to leader Todd Bodine.  The No. 23 team sits 113 points out of the top spot with five races remaining in the 2006 campaign.

The Craftsman Truck Series takes a weekend off before it returns to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for the Kroger 200.  Oct. 21.  Live coverage of race, scheduled for a 1 p.m. ET start, will broadcast on Speed (television), MRN (radio) and XM Satellite Radio.

 

NOTES:
• This week’s race truck for Talladega Superspeedway is Chassis No. 23-11.   23-11 last saw action at Daytona International Speedway in the first race of 2006.
• Welcome Back…  Exide Batteries will return as the primary sponsor of Johnny Benson and the No. 23 Toyota Tundra team this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.  It will be the company’s third appearance this season as the primary sponsor of the No. 23 machine. 
• Autographs anyone?  Benson will sign autographs at the Craftsman Tools interactive display Friday, Oct. 6 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.  The display is located behind the frontstretch grandstand in the interactive display area.
• Big Track Success…  Benson has posted three top-10 finishes in NASCAR Cup Series competition on the 2.66-mile superspeedway.  His best finish (seventh) came in the spring of 2001.
• Top-Five leader…  With the team’s fourth-place finish last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Benson now leads the series in top-five finishes with 11.  His average finish in 2006 is 8.15.
• Points Battle…  Benson has closed the gap on NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship leader Todd Bodine.  Benson’s deficit is now only 91 points.  The No. 23 Bill Davis Racing team has cut Bodine’s lead in half in the past four races.
• Listen and Watch … The John Deere 250 is scheduled to start at 3:15 p.m. ET Saturday, Oct. 7.  It will broadcast LIVE on Speed (TV), MRN (radio) and XM Radio 144.

Bill Davis Racing Quotes:
Driver Johnny Benson on racing at Talladega Superspeedway:

“Talladega has a lot of side-by-side, three-wide racing pretty much the whole race.  Now that they have redone the track, I think the fans will see a great show.  The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series puts on such a great show, and I know that Talladega will be no different.  It is going to be a tough race because it is going to be three-wide—and now that they have the new surface, maybe four-wide—which will be exciting for sure. 

 “I remember years ago, the Cup Series race went green flag to checkered flag with no cautions.  That was cool because everyone got strung out, and we were only two-wide in the corners.  For the drivers, it was a nice calm day, which you do not expect at Talladega.

“Overall, I would give our season an ‘A.’ Not an ‘A+’, but more like an ‘A-‘.  We have areas we still need to work on, but we have other areas where we have really made huge gains this year.  No matter what happens in the championship, we have had a great year. 

“Todd Bodine is going to be really hard to catch.  He has some big numbers for us to go get, and we are going to have to battle for every point.  The No. 30 team is not going to hand us anything.  We need to have a lot of weekends like we did at Loudon or Las Vegas in order to have a chance to win the championship. 

“We have not lost any sleep over the points battle.  I have been fortunate enough to have won a couple of championships in my career, and you really can't do much about them.  You really just have to go to the racetrack each week and do the best you can, and the points will take care of themselves.”

Crew chief Rick Ren on racing at Talladega Superspeedway:
“Talladega is such a cool place.  We race at no other place that has four-wide racing all the way around the track.  This is going to be a ‘make it or break it’ race in our championship hopes.  We need to survive the race in order to keep our hopes alive.  This team has had an exceptional year, and we want to bring Bill and Gail [Davis] their first championship.  We know that in order to do that, we have to be on our game all day and hope we stay out of trouble.  I know we are bringing a truck that is capable of running up front, but we have to make it to the finish and see what unfolds.”