Benson 15th At California

If filmmakers in Hollywood made a movie similar to Johnny Benson’s NASCAR
Winston Cup race in Fontana, Cal on Sunday the opening scenes would have
started out really scary but by the time the credits rolled all cast members
were smiling.

Benson finished 15th – the best of the Pontiacs – showed a fast car, but had to come from the back of the field after falling down a lap early in the 500-mile race.

“We had a really good car today,” Benson said. “We weren’t too good at the beginning, but by the end of the day it looked like we were one of the fastest. The key now is to get the car to be that fast throughout the race. When we do that we will be fine.”

Benson started the race with his Eagle Once clad Pontiac in 11th but quickly fell back complaining of not being able to turn on the high-speed D-shaped oval.

The Valvoline team brought Benson to the pits on laps 20 and 21 for major handling adjustments. Benson rejoined the field in 37th place but with a much better handling car.

It didn’t take long to show the repairs were worth the effort.

Over the next 120 caution free laps, Benson charged from the back. Although he fell down a lap to leader Kurt Busch, Benson climbed as high as 18th-place passing on all part of the track.

Benson spent most of the afternoon trying to regain the lost lap and came closest to doing so with just 50 laps remaining in the race. After the lap 200 restart Benson led the group of leaders and ran side-by-side with them for
almost 20 laps before they finally slipped by.

"I held those guys off as long as I could, but there was a point when they just got right there,” Benson said. “Not that I was going to let them by, by any means, but once they got beside me and around me - man, they just drove off.
There was no way to stay with them once we were behind them."

Benson finished the race in 15th one of the top cars down a lap. Jimmie Johnson won his first race. Busch and Ricky Rudd followed the California native across the finish line.

Benson will race the Whelen Monte Carlo Friday night in the Busch Series at
Richmond International Raceway then Saturday night in the Valvoline Pontiac.

Race Results

1 Jimmie Johnson *
2 Kurt Busch
3 Ricky Rudd
4 Bill Elliott
5 Mark Martin
6 Dale Jarrett
7 Sterling Marlin
8 Rusty Wallace
9 Dave Blaney
10 Michael Waltrip
11 Jeff Green
12 Robby Gordon
13 Greg Biffle
14 Ryan Newman *
15 Johnny Benson
16 Jeff Gordon
17 Kyle Petty
18 Ward Burton
19 Jeff Burton
20 Matt Kenseth
21 Terry Labonte
22 Steve Park
23 Brett Bodine
24 John Andretti
25 Joe Nemechek
26 Jerry Nadeau
27 Jimmy Spencer
28 Casey Atwood
29 Tony Stewart
30 Bobby Hamilton
31 Mike Skinner
32 Rick Mast
33 Steve Grissom
34 Bobby Labonte
35 Kevin Harvick
36 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
37 Ricky Craven
38 Jeremy Mayfield
39 Elliott Sadler
40 Hut Stricklin
41 Stacy Compton
42 Shawna Robinson *
43 Ken Schrader


Driver Points

1 Sterling Marlin 1515
2 Kurt Busch 1372
3 Matt Kenseth 1363
4 Rusty Wallace 1354
5 Jimmie Johnson* 1352
6 Mark Martin 1292
7 Jeff Gordon 1283
8 Ricky Rudd 1279
9 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1233
10 Tony Stewart 1214
11 Bill Elliott 1178
12 Jeff Burton 1178
13 Dale Jarrett 1123
14 Ward Burton 1115
15 Terry Labonte 1089
16 Michael Waltrip 1051
17 Dave Blaney 1044
18 Ryan Newman* 1031
19 Ricky Craven 1026
20 Bobby Labonte 1019
21 Jimmy Spencer 990
22 Kyle Petty 990
23 Jeremy Mayfield 975
24 Jeff Green 954
25 Elliott Sadler 925
26 Jerry Nadeau 884
27 Johnny Benson 881
28 Mike Skinner 870
29 Bobby Hamilton 845
30 Robby Gordon 832
31 Kevin Harvick 829
32 Brett Bodine 751
33 Ken Schrader 720
34 John Andretti 717
35 Hut Stricklin 715
36 Stacy Compton 710
37 Casey Atwood 676
38 Buckshot Jones 559
39 Kenny Wallace 553
40 Joe Nemechek 535
41 Rick Mast 518
42 Steve Park 494
43 Shawna Robinson*318
44 Geoffrey Bodine 292
45 Todd Bodine 218
46 Mike Wallace 186
47 Frank Kimmel 165
48 Steve Grissom 152
49 Hermie Sadler 143
50 Greg Biffle 124
51 Robert Pressley 97
52 Dick Trickle 74
53 Andy Hillenburg 68
54 Jay Sauter 52
55 Dave Marcis 37