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Keep up with what is happening with Johnny and the #23 Bill Davis
Racing Team.
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Johnny
Benson - Bill Davis Racing Event Preview
Race/Date:
Missouri/Illinois Dodge Dealers Ram Tough 200 –
September 1, 2007
Location:
Gateway International Raceway – St. Louis, M.O.
Gateway Race Report
After collecting their first victory at Bristol (Tenn.)
Motor Speedway last weekend, Johnny Benson and the No. 23
TCUV Toyota Tundra team were seeking two in a row at
Gateway International Raceway.
Benson finished fifth last year at the 1.25 mile track and
felt that he knew the track well. It showed during
practice Friday, as he ran near the top of the speed chart
during both sessions. Benson finished the day eighth
fastest in the final practice session.
Benson was the second driver to make his qualifying lap.
Although it seemed to be a bad qualifying draw, Benson
posted a lap of 34.045 seconds, which placed him fourth on
the starting grid for Saturday night’s race.
After the green flag waved over the 36-truck field to
begin Saturday night’s race, Benson immediately reported
to the crew that all the side bite was gone, and the
truck’s handling was loose in the center of the turns.
After a few long green flag runs, however, Benson’s Tundra
improved, and by lap 39, he had taken the lead.
Benson remained in the lead until the caution flag waved
on lap 58. He pitted for four tires and fuel.
Unfortunately, a missed lug nut on the left front tire
forced Benson to pit again and restart at the end of the
longest line on lap 63.
Benson was a bit frustrated, but he remained calm and
rocketed through the field. Benson re-emerged in the top
10 within 10 laps. With his truck getting faster the
longer he ran, Benson charged straight to the front of the
field and found himself fighting for the lead by lap 92.
The caution flag waved again on lap 105, and Benson again
pitted for four tires and fuel. He restarted fifth on lap
110. With just 50 laps remaining in the race, Benson knew
now was the time to make his move. He passed trucks left
and right and found himself battling for the lead with Ron
Hornaday, Jr. on lap 140. A good run off turn two
propelled Benson into the lead on lap 148, and he never
looked back. Benson captured his second consecutive
victory and his third win of the season.
Benson will join the rest of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series competitors in two weeks at [Loudon] New
Hampshire’s International Speedway. The race will be
televised live on SPEED Saturday, Sept. 15.
Johnny Wins at Gateway!
Johnny Benson rallied from a mistake on a mid-race pit
stop to score his second consecutive NASCAR Craftsman
Truck Series win in the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers
Ram Tough 200 at Gateway International Raceway. Benson,
who had been at or near the front leading all race prior
to his first stop of the day, was forced to drop back to
twentieth after a lug nut came loose as his crew changed
left side tires. From there, Benson quickly knifed his way
through the field and eventually slipped past leader Ron
Hornaday on lap 147 en route to his third win of the 2007
season.
"I was driving halfway mad after that
happened and that's not a good thing here," Benson said.
"The guys had a lugnut come loose and we had to come
back down to get it on. We were able to make it back to
the front but we purposely slowed down our last stop
just to make sure that didn't happen. We knew picking up
five spots would be a lot easier than having to come
from twentieth again."
Benson charged past Hornaday on the
outside coming out of turn two on lap 147. Hornaday's
truck was fast down the straightaways but he was fighting
it just a little off the corners.
"I studied what he was doing when I was
there behind him for those few laps," Benson said. "I knew
he needed to use up all the track coming off the corners,
I just hoped he knew I knew. Once I got on the outside of
him and the spotters called us clear and we didn't both
crash, I knew I could drag race him down to the other
end."
Hornaday, who unofficially takes the championship lead
from Mike Skinner after Skinner crashed early and finished
28th, was happy to come home in second.
"I knew he was coming, anybody catching
me as fast as he did was going to pass me," Hornaday said.
"I raced with him hard, but gave have him all kinds of
room for about three laps, kept pinching him going in to
three. He finally got a run on the outside, I was going to
give it to him anyone, I knew he was going to run up
there. I kept slowing up on the bottom more and more each
lap. That is what it takes. He has to be there to do that
to help Skinner out. If we could have won, it would have
been 10 more points."
Gateway Photos
Photos By: Barb Benson
Toyota Notes - Gateway
Johnny Benson scored his
second-consecutive win and third victory of the season
in the No. 23 TCUV Tundra for Bill Davis Racing Saturday
afternoon at Gateway. Benson also won at Milwaukee in
June and last week at Bristol. The win is Benson’s
eighth-career victory in a Toyota Tundra.
Tundra drivers Ted Musgrave (third),
Todd Bodine (fourth) and Josh Wise (eighth) also scored
top-10 finishes. For Wise, it was his best-career NCTS
finish. Other Tundra drivers in the field included
Ryan Mathews (18th), David Green (20th), Mike Skinner
(28th), Terry Cook (30th) and Jack Sprague (32nd).
Tundras have won nine races this
season. In addition to Benson’s victories at Milwaukee,
Bristol and Gateway, Skinner (California, Atlanta,
Martinsville and Kentucky), Sprague (Daytona) and Bodine
(Texas) have all registered wins this year.
Johnny Benson, No. 23 TCUV
Toyota Tundra, Bill Davis Racing - Finished: 1st How
does it feel to win your second-consecutive race?
“This was awesome. The Bill Davis Racing team gave me a
great truck this weekend. We were fast from the time we
unloaded, and it’s great to get back into victory lane.
Last week, we got a little lucky at Bristol, but today, we
had to work our tails off. We had a little mistake on pit
road that put us back for a while, but fortunately, there
was a long green flag run and we were able to make up some
spots. I can’t thank Toyota enough for these engines. They
are just awesome.”
Can you talk about coming from
the back to the front? “We obviously dropped a
lug nut and had to come back in, and that was something
that we didn’t want to see. At that point in time, I
believed it would’ve lost us the race. After I ran 10
laps, I thought that the truck was good enough to get back
up there if it stayed green. I needed green flag because
this thing got really good the longer it ran. Some of the
guys struggled after they got a lot of heat in the tires
and heat in the brakes. I abused the truck, though. It’s
tired right now. It’s laying on the ground and it’s ready
for a nap.”
NOTES:
-
This
week’s race truck
for Gateway International Raceway is
Chassis No. 23-104.
This is the same truck Benson ran at O’Reilly Raceway
Park earlier in the year en route to his runner-up
finish at the track.
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Winner Last Time Out...
Benson was your NCTS winner last week at Bristol Motor
Speedway. He became NASCAR’s first winner on the
newly resurfaced tough to tame “Thunder Valley” when
he captured his first ever short track win at Bristol.
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Sponsor Alert... Benson and
the No. 23 team will once again be sporting the red
colors of TCUV this weekend at Gateway.
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Point Standings… Benson sits
sixth in the Craftsman Series point standings, only a
mere 31 points out of the top-five.
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Autographs Anyone??? Benson
will participate in the NCTS autograph session along
with BDR teammate Ryan Mathews on Gateway’s pit road
Saturday, September 1 from 11:45 a.m. till 12:45 p.m.
-
Welcome JV… Jacques
Villeneuve, former F1 World Champion and Indy 500
Champion made his debut this week as he tested a Bill
Davis Racing Craftsman Truck this past Monday and
Tuesday in Chicago. Villeneuve adapted to the No. 27
Tundra very quickly and ran extremely well in his
first oval attempt in nearly 12 years.
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Listen and watch… The
Missouri/Illinois Dodge Dealers Ram Tough 200 is
scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m. ET Saturday, September
1. It will broadcast on the Speed Channel (TV), MRN
(radio) and Sirius Satellite Radio (Ch. 128).
Johnny Benson on racing at
Gateway International Raceway:
“I am looking forward to running at Gateway this
weekend, especially after coming off the win last week
in Bristol. Trip Bruce and the guys have got this truck
running great. We have had some bad luck a few races
this year, but when everything stays together we seem to
always run up front.”
“We normally run pretty well at Gateway, even though I
have only run there twice. Last year we got a top-five
finish, so hopefully we can try and pull another one off
this weekend.”
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Victory Lane
Milwaukee
June 20, 2008
Miami
November 16, 2007
Gateway
September 1, 2007
Bristol
August 22, 2007
Milwaukee
June 22, 2007
Berger
Chevrolet
Check Out
Berlin Raceway
Results
Berlin Raceway
Racing Broadcast on 92.5 - The Outlaw
Click Here
to listen on
the web
Berlin Raceway
Hall of Fame
John Benson Sr.
Harry Obie
Bob Knight
Gail Cobb
Ralph Baker
Jimmy Meyer
The Mysliwiec's
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2008
Craftsman Truck Schedule
|
02/15 |
Daytona |
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02/23 |
California |
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03/07 |
Atlanta |
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03/29 |
Martinsville |
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04/26 |
Kansas |
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05/16 |
Lowes |
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05/24 |
Mansfield |
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05/30 |
Dover |
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06/06 |
Texas |
|
06/14 |
MIS |
|
06/20 |
Milwaukee |
|
06/28 |
Memphis |
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07/19 |
Kentucky |
|
07/25 |
Indy |
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08/09 |
Nashville |
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08/20 |
Bristol |
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09/06 |
Gateway |
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09/13 |
Loudon |
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09/20 |
Las Vegas |
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10/04 |
Talladega |
|
10/18 |
Martinsville |
|
10/25 |
Atlanta |
|
10/31 |
Texas |
|
11/07 |
Phoenix |
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11/14 |
Homestead |
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2008
Nationwide
Schedule |
|
02/16 |
Daytona |
|
02/23 |
California |
|
03/01 |
Las Vegas |
|
03/08 |
Atlanta |
|
03/15 |
Bristol |
|
03/22 |
Nashville |
|
04/05 |
Texas |
|
04/11 |
Phoenix |
|
04/20 |
Mexico |
|
04/26 |
Talladega |
|
05/02 |
Richmond |
|
05/09 |
Darlington |
|
05/24 |
Lowes |
|
05/31 |
Dover |
|
06/07 |
Nashville |
|
06/14 |
Kentucky |
|
06/21 |
Milwaukee |
|
06/28 |
New Hampshire |
|
07/04 |
Daytona |
|
07/11 |
Chicago |
|
07/19 |
Gateway |
|
07/26 |
Indy |
|
08/02 |
Montreal |
|
08/09 |
Watkins Glen |
|
08/16 |
Michigan |
|
08/22 |
Bristol |
|
08/30 |
California |
|
09/05 |
Richmond |
|
09/20 |
Dover |
|
09/27 |
Kansas |
|
10/10 |
Lowes |
|
10/25 |
Memphis |
|
11/01 |
Texas |
|
11/08 |
Phoenix |
|
11/15 |
Miami |
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2008
Sprint Cup
Schedule |
|
02/17 |
Daytona |
|
02/24 |
California |
|
03/02 |
Las Vegas |
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03/09 |
Atlanta |
|
03/16 |
Bristol |
|
03/30 |
Martinsville |
|
04/06 |
Texas |
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04/12 |
Phoenix |
|
04/27 |
Talladega |
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05/03 |
Richmond |
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05/10 |
Darlington |
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05/25 |
Lowes |
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06/01 |
Dover |
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06/08 |
Pocono |
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06/15 |
MIS |
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06/22 |
Sonoma |
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06/29 |
New Hampshire |
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07/05 |
Daytona |
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07/12 |
Chicago |
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07/27 |
Indy |
|
08/03 |
Pocono |
|
08/10 |
Watkins Glen |
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08/17 |
MIS |
|
08/23 |
Bristol |
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08/31 |
California |
|
09/06 |
Richmond |
|
09/14 |
Loudon |
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09/21 |
Lowes |
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09/28 |
Kansas |
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10/05 |
Talladega |
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10/11 |
Lowes |
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10/19 |
Martinsville |
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10/26 |
Atlanta |
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11/02 |
Texas |
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11/09 |
Phoenix |
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11/16 |
Miami |
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2008
JB's Berlin
Schedule |
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August 2nd |
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September 27th |
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