Race/Date:
Built Ford Tough 225 presented by the Greater Cincinnati
Ford Dealers – July 14, 2007
Location:
Kentucky Speedway – Sparta, K.Y.
With a stunning average finishing position of 6.5 at the
1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway, Johnny Benson and his TCUV
Tundra were looking for another strong finish this
weekend.
Benson and the No. 23 Toyota Tundra team had an
incredibly fast truck during both practice sessions
Friday and finished the day with the fifth-fastest truck
overall.
The team was feeling extremely confident as Saturday’s
afternoon qualifying session approached. With the sun
blazing over the track and no grip on the surface,
Benson was only able to muscle out a time of 31.621
seconds, which placed him in the 11th position for
Saturday’s night race.
At the beginning of the race, Benson reported to his
crew that the handling of the truck was very loose.
Despite trying his hardest to drive through the handling
issue, Benson soon reported that the truck was slamming
hard on the left front. He figured he could have a bad
set of tires.
Benson maintained his position the best he could, but he
was relieved when the caution flag waved on lap 52. He
pitted for four tires, fuel, rubber and a trackbar
adjustment and restarted 11th on lap 59. He returned to
the pits a few laps later to enable the crew to tighten
the rear lug nuts. The stop dropped him to the 18th
position.
The No. 23 Tundra’s handling was now growing tighter,
but Benson continued to plow forward. He came to pit
road again under caution on lap 96. This time, the crew
gave the truck four tires, fuel, an air pressure and
trackbar adjustments. However, the right rear lug nuts
were left loose again, so Benson had to return to pit
road to have them tightened. He again lost valuable
track position and restarted 23rd on lap 101.
Benson had his hands full as he tried to get to the
front with just a handful of laps remaining in the
race. He felt as if something was either loose or
broken on his Tundra, but he was forced to remain on the
track under a long green flag run that lasted until the
end of the race. Benson finished 14th.
Benson stands only 10 points out of fifth place in the
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship standings.
He will try to gain more ground in two weeks, when the
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams head to O’Reilly
Motorsports Park in Indianapolis. The race will be
televised on SPEED Friday, July 27.
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This
week’s race truck
for Kentucky Speedway is
Chassis No. 23-73.
This is the same truck Benson ran earlier in the year
at California, Atlanta, Kansas, Texas and Michigan.
With the highest finish (fourth) being at Kansas.
-
Kentucky Stat… Racing only
twice at the speedway in years past, Benson has
managed to bring home one top-five finish and two
top-10 finishes. He has an average finishing position
of 6.5 at the 1.5 mile speedway.
-
On Board… Benson’s truck
will once again adorn the red and black colors of TCUV
during this weekend’s race.
-
Moving Up… Last week Benson
took home a seventh place finish in Memphis, which
moved him up into the sixth position in the NCTS point
standings.
-
Bill Davis Racing… had a
very solid weekend two weeks ago in Memphis with all
three of the BDR trucks finishing in the top-10 for
the second time this year. With Skinner finishing
fourth, Mathews finishing sixth and Benson finishing
seventh.
-
Listen and watch … The Built
Ford Tough 225 presented by the Greater Cincinnati
Ford Dealers is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. ET
Saturday, July 14. It will broadcast on the Speed
Channel (TV), MRN (radio) and Sirius Satellite Radio
(Ch. 128).
Johnny Benson on racing at
Kentucky Speedway:
“Kentucky has been pretty good to me in the years past.
I like running there. Turns three and four are kind of
tricky, but if you can manage to get into three well and
off of four properly you can gain ground fast on the
track.”
“My
team has been strong the last few weeks and we are
looking to keep that momentum going in Kentucky. This
is definitely one of our better tracks, so hopefully we
can bring home a solid finish this weekend.”
