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Benson 20th
In NASCAR Return At Pocono
Before Sunday’s 500-mile race at Pocono International
Raceway, Crew Chief James Ince told his Valvoline teammates
during the morning team meeting that the weekend had already
been a success no matter what happened in the race.
And it had nothing to do with racing.
“Today we got Johnny back and to me and everyone else that
makes the weekend a great weekend,” Ince said.
Benson was making his return to racing after suffering a
broken rib and two
cracked ribs on May 3 in a Busch race at Richmond. Joe
Nemechek substituted at Richmond and Jerry Nadeau filled in
at Charlotte and Dover.
The team was ready for its driver to return and Benson told
the team he was
anxious to drive again.
“I sure as heck don’t want to sit on top of the pit box and
watch any more
races,” Benson said during the meeting. “I’m ready to go.”
And when it came time to go Benson gingerly lowered himself
and the broken rib into the Valvoline Pontiac completing
what he correctly predicted would be the most painful task
of the day.
Once the grimacing was over he was ready to concentrate on
driving.
But the race didn’t go liked he hoped.
The Valvoline Pontiac struggled with handling and power
problems and Benson
brushed the wall early in the race apparently damaging the
chassis and making
the car, a top 10 finisher in previous races, a handful to
drive.
“Be patient and we’ll take some big swings at it and see if
we can hit on
something,” Ince counseled his driver. “We’ll try to use
some strategy at the
end and see if we can come up with something. We may have
hurt it pretty good and you’ll just have to hang on for the
rest of the day.”
Benson and Ince made major chassis adjustments throughout
the race but the
damage from the encounter with the wall was too great to
overcome and Ricky
Rudd dropped the Valvoline Pontiac down a lap with less than
50 laps to go
negating any opportunity for late-race strategy.
Benson made it a point to finish the race without trouble
and collect points
for the team coming across the finish line 20th.
With some assistance Benson climbed from the Valvoline
Pontiac after the race and assessed the day.
“I felt really good in the first part of the race but with
about 60 to 70 laps
to go I got to where I was hurting pretty bad. It’s a long
race here and I was
getting pretty sore,” Benson said.
“It probably wasn’t fair to the team because toward the end
I was getting to
where I couldn’t tell the team what was wrong with the car.
We have a better
car and a better race team than what we showed here today.
We’ll be a lot
better next week, but I’m glad to get the first one out of
the way. But, I was
really hoping for a good day.”
Dale Jarrett won the race that saw Tony Stewart as the only
Pontiac team in the top 15 for the second consecutive week.
Benson left Pocono for Michigan where he will spend the week
in his home state before meeting the Valvoline team Thursday
night at Michigan Speedway where the NASCAR Winston Cup
Series races Sunday.
Results
1 Dale Jarrett 200
2 Mark Martin 200
3 Jimmie Johnson* 200
4 Sterling Marlin 200
5 Jeff Gordon 200
6 Jeff Burton 200
7 Tony Stewart 200
8 Michael Waltrip 200
9 Rusty Wallace 200
10 Dave Blaney 200
11 Casey Atwood 200
12 D Earnhardt Jr. 200
13 Kyle Petty 200
14 Ricky Craven 200
15 Elliott Sadler 200
16 Ken Schrader 200
17 Ricky Rudd 200
18 Todd Bodine 199
19 Robby Gordon 199
20 Johnny Benson 199
21 Jimmy Spencer 199
22 Hut Stricklin 199
23 Steve Park 198
24 Brett Bodine 198
25 Steve Grissom 198
26 Bobby Labonte 198
27 Bobby Hamilton 197
28 Stacy Compton 195
29 Hermie Sadler 193
30 Bill Elliott 180
31 John Andretti 179
32 Ryan Newman * 174
33 Ward Burton 173
34 Jeff Green 171
35 Matt Kenseth 161
36 Jeremy Mayfield 146
37 Mike Skinner 142
38 Terry Labonte 102
39 Kevin Harvick 81
40 Kurt Busch 67
41 Joe Nemechek 30
42 Carl Long * 18
43 Frank Kimmel 8
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