Benson Ninth at Richmond

#10 Valvoline Pontiac driver Johnny Benson showed that he and his crew chief
James Ince have a pretty good setup for Richmond International Raceway.

In May, Benson proved to be the quickest in two Nascar Winston Cup practice sessions after qualifying. Today in Richmond Benson proved to be one of the fastest by qualifying 9th of the 44 cars attempting to qualify for the 43-car field.

"That is about what we expected," Benson said. "The track was pretty slippery.
It seems as the session went on the track got faster and faster."

Benson knew he would be good.

"We were sixth quick in practice and hoped we could bump that up a bit and try for the pole," Benson said. "But what matters is tomorrow night and we'll be starting up front."

Nascar will hold two 45-minute practices Friday night before the Busch Series
race.

Benson said he felt the car would race even better than it qualified.

"We qualified 16th last time and in practice the car was one of the best here and we expect that will be the case today as well."

Benson suffered a broken and two cracked ribs in the Busch race here in May.
Joe Nemechek replaced Benson and finished 12th in the Winston Cup race.

Jimmie Johnson won the pole Friday on the .75-mile D-shaped oval.

Saturday's race telecast begins at 7:30 p.m. on TNT.


Lineup

1 Jimmie Johnson* 126.145
2 Ryan Newman* 125.733
3 Dave Blaney 125.733
4 Mark Martin 125.722
5 Terry Labonte 125.704
6 Ricky Rudd 125.605
7 Todd Bodine 125.576
8 Mike Skinner 125.552
9 Johnny Benson 125.546
10 Jeff Gordon 125.540
11 Robby Gordon 125.523
12 Dale Jarrett 125.500
13 Ward Burton 125.482
14 Tony Stewart 125.406
15 Jeff Burton 125.360
16 Ken Schrader 125.308
17 Jerry Nadeau 125.203
18 Bobby Labonte 125.168
19 Bill Elliott 125.133
20 Ricky Craven 125.133
21 Jeremy Mayfield 124.936
22 Kurt Busch 124.873
23 Rusty Wallace 124.683
24 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 124.671
25 Matt Kenseth 124.556
26 Michael Waltrip 124.510
27 Kevin Harvick 124.504
28 Joe Nemechek 124.481
29 Jeff Green 124.435
30 Jimmy Spencer 124.384
31 John Andretti 124.378
32 Sterling Marlin 124.372
33 Kenny Wallace 124.332
34 Casey Atwood 124.292
35 Elliott Sadler 124.286
36 Kyle Petty 124.201
37 Greg Biffle 124.075
38 Steve Park 124.012
39 Mike Wallace 123.485
40 Brett Bodine 124.195
41 Geoffrey Bodine 124.149
42 Tim Sauter 122.571
43 Hermie Sadler 121.169