Johnny Benson

Bill Davis Racing Event Preview

Race/Date:    AAA Insurance 200 – June 1, 2007

Location:       Dover International Speedway – Dover, D.E.

Dover International Speedway is the track where Benson won his first NASCAR Busch Series race in 1994 and he was looking to win again, but this time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

With crew chief Trip Bruce back on board this weekend, Johnny Benson and his No. 23 TCUV team headed to the Monster Mile ready to work their way forwards in points at the series 300^th race.

The team immediately struggled in the first practice session on Thursday afternoon.  After making some major adjustments before Happy Hour, Benson’s team found a great combination and finished out the session as the fifth quickest truck.

With Saturday’s morning qualifying session underway, Benson would get his turn as the 21^st truck on the track.  With the track getting hotter by the minute, Benson knew what he had to do to start up front.  Posting an incredible time of 23.308 seconds, Benson would start in the third position for Saturday’s afternoon race.

As the green flag waved over the field, Benson knew he had to be careful at the start of the race.  With many quick trucks up front, Benson would narrowly avoid a first lap wreck with the front runners.

Restarting in the second position on lap 11, Benson would maintain his position within the top-three until his green flag pit stop on lap 100.  Taking four tires, fuel, an air pressure and a wedge adjustment, Benson would return to the track one lap down and in the 13^th position.

With Benson’s truck needing to be a little freer as the race went on, Benson would again get his chance to come to pit road as the caution flag would wave on lap 130.  Taking four tires, fuel and making a wedge adjustment once again, Benson would restart in the 12^th position on lap 134.

With an amazingly fast truck, Benson would not only charge his way forwards on the restart, but would get his lap back by driving his way around the field over the next 60 laps.  Benson’s No. 23 TCUV Tundra was a half a second quicker than any truck on the track the last part of the race. 

Picking off positions one by one, Benson vaulted his way straight to the front, but would eventually run out of time and finish fourth at the Monster Mile.

Benson moves up two positions in points and will head with the rest of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend.  The race will be televised on SPEED on June 8.

NOTES:

• This week’s race truck for the Dover International Speedway is Chassis No. 23-37.  This is the first time this truck has been run this year, however Benson did run this truck last year at Dover en route to a sixth place finish.

• Welcome Back Toyota Certified Used Vehicles this weekend.  Benson’s truck will adorn these colors for the next four races.

• Moving On Up… The No. 23 team moved up a spot in points this week into the ninth position with a solid top-five finish at Mansfield Motorsports Park, but is only a mere 2 points out of the eighth position.

• Last year… Benson started from the top-10 and finished strong in the sixth position at Dover International Speedway.

• Listen and watch … The AAA Insurance 200 is scheduled to start at 4:45 p.m. ET Friday, June 1.  It will broadcast live on Speed Channel (TV), MRN (radio) and Sirius Satellite Radio (Ch. 128).

Johnny Benson on racing at Dover International Speedway:

“I really like Dover.  It is definitely a get up and go track, but 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 into the gas.  It is a place where you have to pay attention to everything that is going on though from start to finish, so you have to be very careful.”

“I am definitely ready to race in Dover this weekend.  We need to get back up there in the points, so hopefully this weekend we can get another strong finish.  We have TCUV back on board this weekend and I want to give them a good showing as well.”