Benson 30th at Sears Point

#10 Valvoline Pontiac driver Johnny Benson hoped for a little bit better result in Friday's single lap qualifying session at Sears Pont Raceway in Sonoma, Cal.

But he isn't about to concede anything for Sunday.

Benson placed 30th of the 45 cars making qualifying runs on the road course.

It might not be on the front row, but it's close enough to give him a shot on Sunday.

"We're a little disappointed but we have a hundred and some laps on Sunday to get to the front," Benson said after his run on the two-mile road course. "I think our car will be decent in the race and I'm sure (Crew Chief) James (Ince) and the guys will come up with some strategy to get us up to the front. We will be OK."

Ince remained confident as well.

"I'm confident we can still get a top ten finish or better starting where we are," Ince said. "We learned stuff qualifying that we can apply to the race. We will be fine."

Tony Stewart won the pole for Sunday's race that begins at 3 p.m.

Results

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