Benson Survives Road Course To Earn 16th-Place Finish At Sonoma

#10 Valvoline Pontiac driver Johnny Benson and his teammates might not have had the fastest car Sunday afternoon on the road course in Sonoma, Cal. But, they ran one of the smarter races of the day and Benson spent the 120 laps avoiding trouble to come home with a 16th-place finish.

“We weren’t as good as we thought we were going to be but the bottom line is we got a respectable finish out of it,” Benson said. “The car was really good at
times, but we were in traffic all day and never got a chance to show what we had. Sometimes we were tight and sometimes we were loose but I think everyone was skating all over the track this afternoon.”

Benson started 30th and spent most of the day around 25th place, but in the
late going he came in for two tire on lap 85 of the 110-lap race. Most of the
other teams took no tires or four tires. Benson restarted in 19th and fell back
to 25th then stormed his way to 16th in the closing laps taking advantage of
cars that slid off the road or suffered mechanical problems.

“We had a good points race today,” Crew Chief James Ince said. “Our pits stops were great, race strategy worked good, and Johnny drove a good race.”

Ricky Rudd inherited the lead from Jerry Nadeau in the closing laps and went on to the victory.

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