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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."
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