2003 Johnny Benson Fan Club -

Benson On Atlanta

#10 Valvoline Pontiac driver Johnny Benson believes the most exciting qualifying session of the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup season will be a little bit more exciting Friday night at Atlanta. The ultra-fast track will host qualifying under the lights - something Benson says could make the speeds even faster. In March the pole winning speed was 191.417 mph, which is faster than Daytona, Talladega and only trails Texas at 193.514 mph this season.

Johnny Benson On Changes In Qualifying At Atlanta
“Going qualifying at night in Atlanta is something we haven’t done before so you are always a little concerned whenever you do something for the first time. What we do know is the track will be really, really fast, and probably pretty slippery. It will be a wild ride.

“Atlanta is about as on the edge as you can get when it comes to qualifying. It is so fast. Momentum is such a huge factor. You can get a lot of momentum through one and two but carrying that speed down into turn three is pretty hard. Sometimes you will see drivers out of breath when they get out of the car from just one or two qualifying laps. That’s because it is so intense if you get right down to it. You put everything out there. In qualifying you have no time to relax.”

Johnny Benson On Atlanta Qualifying:
“Those two qualifying laps at Atlanta are the most intense a driver is going to be during the year. It’s a wild ride. But it only last for a short time. I’d say it would be about a 9 on the 10 scale. When you race there assuming your car is handling well it is about a 6 on that scale.”

The audio segment below is Johnny Benson
discussing the upcoming race at Atlanta

Click Play to Listen

GM RACING WINSTON CUP NOTES & QUOTES
ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY; OCT. 26, 2003
Johnny Benson, driver of the No. 10 Valvoline Pontiac Grand Prix, spoke today on several topics, including the circumstances of his replacement as driver by Busch Series driver Scott Riggs.

THE NEWS CAME THIS WEEK. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT THAT SCOTT RIGGS HAD BEEN HIRED? “Well, they told me Thursday that I wouldn’t be back with the 10 car, and that’s fine. It was one of those deals where they wanted to make a change, and I think there are other changes going on there at the shop with some ownership program or something like that. I was a little surprised, but by the same token I’m looking forward to next year. I have another year left on my deal, but I’m still looking forward to next year and finding a good ride.”

WHAT WERE THE CIRCUMSTANCES? “They pretty much just said they had somebody signed to come into the car and at that point in time they had to work on me getting out of the car. I think they had somebody signed when it came time to move me out. That’s cool. That’s how the business works. Hopefully I can find something that is going to be worthwhile. If not, I’m not sure what I’ll do. Maybe I’ll just hang out. I want to make sure I’m in something that’s decent. I really kind of wish they had said something in June as opposed to now, but I can’t control that.”

YOU WON 30 RACES AGO. IS THIS A SURPRISE? “It is. We have 13 top-five finishes and a win for them in the last not too long here, so I guess part of it is a shock. But they need to run it how they see fit and I can’t do anything about it. They decided they needed somebody else. I guess I didn’t actually ask why, because I can’t change it. We’ll just deal with it.”

ANYTHING IN THE FIRE AS YET? “I’ve only had seven days to work on it. I’ve talked to a couple of people, but there’s either people already in the car or circumstances that have not allowed them to move forward on different things. There again, this is awful late for them too. It’s not the best time of year to be doing this. I think we’ll be fine in the future, and if not, I still have a year left on my deal and they’re working that out right now. We’ll go on from here.”

Benson Atlanta Record

Year S F

2003 Spring 23 11

2002 Fall 25 23

2002 Spring 10 27

2001 Fall 8 23

2001 Spring 19 7

2000 Fall 21 10

2000 Spring DNQ

1999 Fall 17 39

1999 Spring 36 22

1998 Fall 40 23

1998 Spring 15 9

1997 Fall 12 10

1997 Spring 40 11

1996 Fall 16 27

1996 Spring 1 38

THE RACE: Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500

Winston Cup Race #33 of 36 for the 2003 Winston Cup season

· Race: Sunday, October 26, 2003 in Hampton, GA

· TV: NBC - 12:30pm/et

· Pre-Race Show: NBC - 12:00pm/et - hosted by Bill Weber

· Scheduled Race Re-Air: on Speed Channel a one-hour recap of the race scheduled for: Wednesday, October 29th at 7:00pm/et and again on October 30th at 1:00am/et; and a full three-hour race show will re-air at 3:00pm/et on Thursday, October 30th

· 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: $5,051,229 (was $4,765,544 in 2002)

· 2002 Race Winner: Kurt Busch, 127..519mph, started 8th

· Track/Event Race Record: Bobby Labonte, Nov 1997, 159.904mph

· Track/Race Length: 1.54 mile oval, 325 laps, 500.5 miles

· Pit Road Speed: 45mph

· Most Wins - Active Driver: Bobby Labonte and Bill Elliott, 5

· Most Wins - All Time: Dale Earnhardt, 8

· Most Poles - Active Driver: Bill Elliott, 5

· Most Poles - All Time: Buddy Baker, 7

· Slowest Race Record: Fred Lorenzen, 1962, 101.983mph

· Oldest Winner: Morgan Shepherd, 51 years, 4 months, 27 days, 3/20/93

· Youngest Winner: Jeff Gordon, 23 years, 7 months, 8 days, 3/12/95

· Most Cautions: 11 - 11/1993

· Fewest Cautions: 1 - 7/9/1961BR>

· Most Caution Laps: 99, 11/6/1961

· Fewest Caution Laps: 7, 11/2/1986

· Most Running at the Finish: 39 - Oct 2002

· Fewest Running at the Finish: 10 - April 1964

· Worst Starting Spot to Win: Bobby Labonte, Nov 2001, started 39th

· Most Lead Changes: 45 - Nov 1982

· Fewest Lead Changes: 6 - 3 times, most recently June 1963

· Practice: Friday, October 24, 3:20am - 5:20pm/et; and Saturday, October 25th, 9:30 - 10:15am/et

· Happy Hour Practice: Saturday, October 25th, 11:10 - 11:55am/et on TV-TNT tape delay at 12:00pm/et.

Qualifying

· Qualifying Draw: Friday, October 24th, 2:20pm/et

· First Round Qualifying: 2 laps for positions 1-36, Friday, October 24th at 7:05pm/et, TV-Speed Channel live, re-air at 9:00pm/et and on Oct 25th at 1:00am/et. And live via PRN radio/internet (link below) and XM Satellite - NASCAR Radio (Subscription Required).

Track/Event Qualifying Record: Geoffrey Bodine, Nov 1997, 197.478mph

· Last Year's Pole Sitter: none, qualifying rained out

· March 2003's Pole Sitter: #12-Ryan Newman, 191.417mph, finished 10th

Track Specs:

Degree of Banking: Turns: 24 degrees

Straightaways: Banking: 5 degrees; Straights: Frontstretch - 1471 feet;

Backstretch - 1380 feet.

Grandstand Seating: 124,000

#10 Valvoline Pontiac Team Television Information

Pit Contact: Jay Guy or Drew Brown

Owners: Valvoline (Jim Rocco)/MB2 Motorsports (Tom Beard, Nelson Bowers, Read Morton)

Crew Chief/Car Chief: Jay Guy