Home Cooking Propels Benson to 8th at Michigan

The American Medical Association might not consider it good science but it
seems the best way for a home grown race car driver to cure broken ribs is a
visit to Michigan International Speedway.

At least #10 Valvoline Pontiac driver Johnny Benson thinks MIS is a fine remedy for a rather painful injury.

For the second time this season Benson came to Michigan weeks after breaking ribs and for the second time this season he drove from the back of the grid to post one of his best finishes of the season.

In June the Grand Rapids native qualified 35th and finished sixth weeks after breaking one rib and cracking two at Richmond. On Sunday he repeated the performance starting 25th and finishing eighth just weeks after breaking three ribs in Daytona.

Benson was pleased with the car.

"We had a very good race car today," said Benson who won the feature race at his home track of Berlin Raceway on Wednesday night "Our guys had the Valvoline Pontiac rolling through the corners like we wanted. I thought it was going to be an even better finish than eighth."

Benson noted that his best two finishes of the year have been in front of the home folks.

"I really don’t know why that is," Benson said. "(Crew Chief) James (Ince) and the guys seem to have this place figured out. We have top ten finishes in four of the last five races here. That’s pretty impressive. We’d run here every week if it were up to me."

Benson said his only problem Sunday seemed to be an engine that couldn’t keep up with the front runners. Debris on the front grill midway through the race could be part of the blame but once the debris was cleared Benson said the engine never regained the form it showed early in the race.

"The guys on the crew had the car nearly perfect," said Benson who on Friday joined Ince and extending their contracts with the Valvoline team two more years. "It just makes it awfully hard when you can’t compete with the other cars down the straight-away."

Benson started 35th and showed from the green flag he was going to be on of the fastest cars on the two-mile, D-shaped oval. By lap 12 he’d moved to 23rd but around the lap 50-mark he reported the loss of 600 rpm. But, he made up for it by rolling through the corners faster than the other cars.

With differing pit strategies among the teams Benson moved up and down the scoring pylon all afternoon. But, he carefully timing his passes and drafed with the quicker cars down the front stretch. The Valvoline team combined good strategy, quick pit stops and tenacious driving to put a charge on in the final laps to earn the eighth-place finish.

"We needed a good run and today we got one," Benson said. "Our goals is to build on this and get an even better run next weekend at Bristol."

Dale Jarrett overcame an early race spin and still won Sunday’s race.