Benson Quotes from Newsconference

The following is a transcript of #10 Valvoline Pontiac driver Johnny Benson's
appearance in front of the media at Lowes Motor Speedway Friday afternoon.
Jerry Nadeau is substituting for Benson until he is able to return to racing.

Benson:

"I'm glad to be back at Charlotte. Unfortunately, I don't get to drive a race car at the moment, but that's just because my ribs are hurting pretty bad right
now. I've got one broken one in the back, a cracked one in the front and a cracked one up (in my chest). The doctor says it would be good idea to take this week off at Charlotte. Other than that, everything else is pretty normal."

"Obviously, Jerry Nadeau is driving the Eagle One Pontiac this week and he'll
be driving it until I get back in the car."

What Is Your Role With The Team? Are You The Assistant Crew Chief?

"No. Right now Jerry and (Crew Chief) James (Ince) are going to have to
communicate. Jerry is the one that has to drive the race car, so he's got to
communicate with James. I'm just basically here to support the guys. It's a
great group of guys that I want to spend a long time with, so it's just a
matter of hanging out with those guys. As James says, if we have any
communication problems between him and Jerry, maybe I can translate, but that would be about it."

Has The Doctor Given You A Timeline?

"He says with the type of breaks and stuff that I have, he says it's seven to
eight weeks. But, he said 'Obviously, with you being a race car driver you're
going to get in the car before that,' and I'm sure that will probably be the
case. He tells me that I could go ahead and probably run at Dover if I wanted
to. Because of Dover being Dover, he said that I surely am not going to want to
hit anything. But, physically, I could probably get in the car (there) and
drive it. He's just real worried, because of where I've got some breaks and
that track being what it is, obviously he's not going to want me to hit the
wall. Not that we try to do that any place we go, but he would be a little
nervous over that, so he is thinking Pocono would be a really good place to aim
for and 'if you can go before that go ahead.' "

Are There Other Physical Issues?

"No, those are the only ones I know of."

Is There A Lot Of Pain?

"Yeah, I've had cracked ribs before and I thought those were really bad, until
I broke one. Those are two totally different worlds. A broken one and a cracked
one are two different things. The break is kind of weird. it's not straight
through. It's kind of broken halfway and then down on an angle and then out the
other side, but it was fully separated which is probably the main reason why I
haven't been able to get back in the car right now."