#10 Valvoline Pontiac driver Johnny
Benson and his teammates know they have just ten races
remaining in the 2002 Nascar Winston Cup season.
They also know if they bring a car to
the rest of the races as fast as the car they brought to
Richmond International Raceway Saturday night then the last
third of the season could be pretty exciting.
Now if they could just figure a way to
avoid penalties and Robby Gordon.
Both of those maladies led to a 35th
finish Saturday night despite Benson turning some of the
fastest lap times of the evening and running in the top ten
all night.
“We had a fast car tonight,” said
Benson. “We hurt ourselves and then we got wrecked.”
Benson began Saturday’s race in ninth
and never moved far below that position for the first half
of the race. A lap 18 scare saw Benson narrowly avoid a
multi-car accident and survive contact with Bobby Labonte
who was also attempting to avoid the wreck.
By lap 68 Benson used a 15-second stop
by the pit crew and climbed to 7th place. By lap 179 Benson
was reeling in the top runners in fifth place when the top
half of the field made their green flag stops and Benson
came to pit road.
The slower cars in the back of the
field that had made pit stops during an earlier caution
remained on the track hoping for a caution flag that would
put them a lap ahead of those who had just pitted.
And they got that caution flag.
Benson along with about 25 cars that
were on the lead lap were now on the tail end of the lead
lap or down a lap. After a quick pit stop for tires Benson
and the team expected to easily regain the lost lap, but a
penalty for a tire loose on pit road during the pit stop
forced Benson to the tail end of the longest line.
Regaining the lost lap would now be
tougher.
“Don’t worry we can get our lap back
if we are patient,” counseled Crew Chief James Ince. “You
are one of the fastest cars here. We’ll get it back.”
A few cautions enable Benson to be in
prime position to regain the lap but on lap 254 Robby Gordon
and Benson battled on the track. Gordon nearly wrecked
Benson in turn two and accomplished the mission on the front
stretch slamming Benson into the outside wall.
The damage to the right front of the
Valvoline Pontiac was too great to continue and Benson left
Richmond with a 35th-place finish.
“These guys build a rocket ship
tonight and if we can keep doing that then only good things
are going to happen,” Benson said. “We aren’t giving up. We
can still win a few races and end up having a pretty good
year.”
Matt Kenseth survived two cut tires
and won his fourth race of the season.
Benson and his teammates return to
action this weekend in New Hampshire.
Results
1 Matt Kenseth
2 Ryan Newman *
3 Jeff Green
4 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
5 Todd Bodine
6 Mark Martin
7 Ricky Rudd
8 Ward Burton
9 Dave Blaney
10 Jeremy Mayfield
11 Steve Park
12 Mike Wallace
13 Jimmie Johnson *
14 Kenny Wallace
15 Rusty Wallace
16 Bill Elliott
17 Kyle Petty
18 Kevin Harvick
19 Kurt Busch
20 Brett Bodine
21 Ricky Craven
22 Mike Skinner
23 Hermie Sadler
24 Casey Atwood
25 Joe Nemechek
26 Ken Schrader
27 Jerry Nadeau
28 Robby Gordon
29 John Andretti
30 Tony Stewart
31 Dale Jarrett
32 Bobby Labonte
33 Greg Biffle
34 Elliott Sadler
35 Johnny Benson
36 Michael Waltrip
37 Tim Sauter
38 Geoffrey Bodine
39 Jeff Burton
40 Jeff Gordon
41 Terry Labonte
42 Jimmy Spencer
43 Sterling Marlin
