#10 Valvoline Pontiac driver Johnny
Benson can’t wait to get to Kansas Speedway. Especially
after the way his luck continued Sunday at Talladega where
Benson was caught up in a lap 10 multi-car wreck ruining his
day. In April at Talladega the same thing happened on lap 3.
Benson knows he’s less likely to
endure that kind of problem at Kansas where the field is
more spread out than Talladega and isn’t at the mercy of
other driver’s problems. Benson and his Valvoline team
tested at Kansas Speedway last week.
Benson On Going To Kansas?
“Hey I’d be glad to go race a road course this weekend as
long as we could get away from Talladega with the luck we
have had at that place this season. But Kansas is a
good place to go after Talladega. We have run a lot better
there than our results have shown. But our luck hasn’t been
all that good at Kansas. The first year we were second when
we blew up then we were running good until we got in a wreck
in the final laps last year. If we can get to the finish
then we will be fine. Our plan is to get a good run there
and then we won’t even remember Talladega.”
Do You Like Kansas?
“It’s the type of track I like
and (Crew Chief) James (Ince) gave us a really good setup
the first two years there. James is from Springfield,
Missouri which isn’t that far from Kansas Speedway so maybe
all of us are motivated a little extra to do well in front
of James’s family and friends. We know we have a lot of
support in Kansas.”
Kansas Testing:
“We used our final test of the
year there last week. We tried some things that worked and
some things that didn’t work. I don’t know if we left there
thinking we had the place figured out, but we left with an
idea of what we want to do as far as race setup and that
kind of stuff so you could say it was a successful test.”
Do You Like The New Yellow Flag
Rule?
“It seems to be working pretty
well. Everyone is doing a good job of slowing down after the
yellow and that makes it safer. I think NASCAR has figured
it out pretty good. I don’t mind if we give the lapped cars
their lap back. I think it will be fine the rest of the
year. I mean if there wasn’t problems in Talladega where
everyone is side-by-side when the yellow comes out then I
doubt there will be too many problems at the rest of the
races.”
Benson Kansas Record
Year S F
2002 25 24
2001 6 37
THE RACE: Banquet 400
Winston Cup Race #30 of 36 for the
2003 Winston Cup season
Race: Sunday, October 5, 2003 in
Kansas, KS
TV: NBC - 2:00pm/et
Pre-Race Show: NBC - 1:30pm/et -
hosted by Bill Weber
Scheduled Race Re-Air: there will be a
one-hour recap of the race scheduled for: Wednesday, October
8th at 7:00pm/et and again on October 9th at 1:00am/et;
There is NO full race re-air scheduled
on Speed Channel on Thursday, October 9th.
Announcers: Allen Bestwick, Benny
Parsons, Wally Dallenbach
Pit Reporters: Bill Weber, Matt Yocum,
Marty Snider, Dave Burns
War Wagon: Bill Weber and many guests
Purse/Race Awards: (was $4,601,173 in
2002)
2002 Race Winner: Jeff Gordon,
119.394mph, started 10th
Track/Event Race Record: Jeff Gordon,,
Sept 2002, 119.394mph
Track/Race Length: 1.5 mile oval, 267
laps, 400.5 miles
Slowest Race Record: Jeff Gordon, Sept
2001, 110.576mph
Most Wins: 2 - Jeff Gordon
Most Top 5s: 2 - Jeff Gordon [both
wins], Ryan Newman, Rusty Wallace
Most Top 10s: 2 - Jeff Gordon [both
wins], Ryan Newman, Rusty Wallace, Tony
Stewart
Oldest Winner: Jeff Gordon, 31 years,
1 months, 25 days, Sept 2002
Youngest Winner: Jeff Gordon, 30
years, 1 months, 26 days, Sept 2001
Most Cautions: 13 - Sept 2001
Fewest Cautions: 11 - Sept 2002
Most Caution Laps: 70, Sept 2001
Fewest Caution Laps: 52, Sept 2002
Most Running at the Finish: 30 - Sept
2001
Fewest Running at the Finish: 27 -
Sept 2002
Worst Starting Spot to Win: Jeff
Gordon, Sept 2002, started 10th
Most Lead Changes: 19 - Sept 2001
Fewest Lead Changes: 13 - Sept 2002
Pit Road Speed: 45mph
Practice: Friday, October 3rd, 12:20 -
2:20pm/et; and Saturday, October 4th, 10:30 - 11:15am/et
Happy Hour Practice: Saturday, October
4th, 12:10 - 12:55pm/et on TV-Speed Channel live.
Qualifying Draw: Friday, October 3rd,
11:20am/et
First Round Qualifying: 2 laps for
positions 1-36, Friday, October 3rd at 4:05pm/et, TV-Speed
Channel tape delay at 8:00pm/et and re-aired at 1:00am/et on
Saturday, October 4th. And live via MRN radio Track/Event
Qualifying Record: Dale Earnhardt Jr., September 2002,
177.924mph
Last Year's Pole Sitter: Dale
Earnhardt Jr., 177.924mph, finished 6th.
Track Specs:
Superspeedway: 1.5-mile quad-oval
Banking: turns: 15 degrees;
frontstretch: 10.4 degrees; backstretch: 5 degrees
Straights: Frontstretch - 2,721 feet;
Backstretch - 2,207 feet
Attendence: 75,000
#10 Valvoline Pontiac Team Television
Information
Pit Contact: James Ince or Drew Brown
Owners: Valvoline (Jim Rocco)/MB2 Motorsports (Tom Beard,
Nelson Bowers, Read Morton)
Crew Chief/Car Chief: James Ince
Engine Builder: Hendrick Motorsports
Spotter (Race Day) Jay Guy
Spotter (Practice Only) Russell
Hoekwater
Engine Tuner John Kendrach
Over The Wall Pit Crew
Front Tire Changer Rick (Fuzz)
Burgdoff
Front Tire Carrier Shane Cooke
Rear Tire Changer Greg Burkhart
Rear Tire Carrier Steve Genenbacher
Gasman Jimmy Watts
Tire Specialist Skippy Johnson
Catch Can Steve Mann
Jackman Brian Perry
Other Crew Members
Truck Driver: Jerry Hess
Mechanic: David Baum
Shocks: Mike Cluka
Tires: Jeff (Skippy) Johnson
Engineer: Tim Turner
Computers & Gas Runner: John Hayes
Scorer: Terry Lane
Pit Stop Coach: Gary Smith
PR Rep: Drew Brown
