Benson 12th at Bristol

The #10 Valvoline Pontiac’s night at Bristol came down to a few laps midway
through the race that saw driver Johnny Benson out duel eventual winner Jeff
Gordon on a restart to reclaim a lost lap and enable the team to leave the
concrete half-mile with a very respectable 12th-place finish.

“Getting that lap back was the highlight of the night and it sure helped where
we finished,” Benson said after the race. “But we never gave up tonight. I mean
we were struggling but we went from struggling to lead the race. That’s what’s
fun about racing at Bristol and that’s what’s fun about racing with this team.”

Benson started Saturday’s race in sixth position and quickly moved to fourth in
the early going. Benson knew that to finish well he had to survive and did
nothing to jeopardize the Valvoline Pontiac.

By lap 151 of the 500 lap race Benson was 11th when a caution came out just a few laps before he was schedule to make a green flag fuel stop that would have dropped him and the leaders down several laps. The race restarted and Benson dropped to 15th place then Gordon put him a lap down on lap 286.

Benson narrowly missed regaining the lost lap or wrecking just after a caution
that saw Dale Jarrett and Jimmy Johnson crash in front of him but he couldn’t pass Gordon. When the race restarted Benson was on the inside lane while the leader Gordon was on the outside lane.

It was his best chance to regain the lap.

“We did what we had to do and that’s stay out in front of the #24 and get our
lap back,” Benson said. “Everyone knew if we could get our lap back we’d get a
pretty decent finish.”

Benson did just that fending off Gordon in a stirring battle that culminated
with Benson and Gordon touching several times before the yellow flew with
Benson in front returning him to the lead lap on lap 306.

Just as quickly as Benson lost a lap earlier in the race he moved to the front
of the pack once he regained the lost lap. While others pitted for tires Benson
moved up the grid. He was sixth by lap 363. Then a yellow brought the rest of
leaders to the pits and when the race restarted on lap 373 Benson led.

“I think that was our first time leading this year so that was a pretty good feeling,” Benson said.

He held the lead for about 20 laps before he was shuffled back to sixth. At lap
406 Benson put on four fresh tires and came out 13th and ended the race 12th.

Not a bad night at Bristol.

“Anytime you can finish at Bristol you have had a good run, but like I said tonight it would have been easy to give up after we lost the lap but we were able to come back and walk out of here with a 12th place finish and that’s pretty good.”

Benson and his teammates return to racing Sunday at Darlington.

Final Results

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