Darlington Photos
Cliff Calton sent in this pictures of Johnny and the #1 Dodge from the Darlington race .....  (04-01-04)

         

Ask JB
Another round of questions are now answered by Johnny.  Questions concerning track difficulty, night racing, chassis, ASA & USPRO series, tire costs, handling, meeting President Bush, assigned numbers and the IRL series can be found HERE.   (03-31-04)

A Fan's Perspective - Bristol
A huge thank you to Cliff aka ancsandman from North Carolina for writing another column for johnnybenson.com .... He must be JB's good luck charm as the Yellow Transportation Dodge has been in the front of the field at Darlington and Bristol!   

This was a great week-end for racing. The weather on Saturday was warm and cloudy. You could just tell that there was going to be some great racing to come.

 As the race got on its way, Johnny was 15th and looking good in the Yellow #1 car. It didn't take long for Johnny to start moving thru the field like he did at Darlington last week.

 On the first run Johnny told them that all they needed was to take out some air from the right rear and to take out a round and half of wedge. The main chatter on the radio was about how the lap cars was running both high and low in the corners, which made it hard to get pass them.

 The pit guys had a great day and DIDN'T make any mistakes like last week. After every pit Johnny would come out in the same place or moved up a spot or two. {^5 Team...Well done!}

 Now on to the last few laps. Johnny was doing great and was about to get past Bliss for 2nd. Stremme bumped past Harvick to take 4th....then Harvick returned the bump to get 4th back and put Stremme into the wall. {Hum no caution?}.  Biffle then spun Sauter out. {still no caution?}.  Then Stremme "wrecks" Johnny thinking it was Harvick, {as printed in the Bristol local new papers on Sunday} now a caution...go figure....This is 2 weeks in a row that Stremme had a part in holding Johnny down from a good/better finish. This week it cost Johnny 10 or 11 spots and last week it just cost him one.
(03/31/04)
 

BGN #1 Dodge Colors
As we saw at Darlington, the #1 Phoenix Racing Dodge will have different  paint schemes throughout 2004.  The majority of the races will have Yellow Transportation colors flying so we can concentrate on the Swamp Orange color.  However, the following races are scheduled to be a black car painted like the #09 Cup car sponsored by Miccosukee Gaming Resort:  Nashville, Talladega, Richmond, Dover, Daytona, Bristol, Charlotte, Darlington and Miami.  Of course, this schedule is subject to change.   We will try our best to remind you of the color change during those weeks!       (03-29-04)         

A Fan's Perspective - Darlington
Cliff aka ancsandman from North Carolina volunteered to be a JBFC reporter for the BGN Race in Darlington.  Cliff - your report amazed me!  Thank you for taking such good notes to share with JB fans! 

Johnny started the race in good shape. He was running as fast as the leaders and passing other cars at will. His radio wasn't working to good and it was hard at time for the crew to hear him. He was telling the crew what was wrong with the car and how to fix it. After today I really think Johnny would make a great crew chief after he retires.

Under the 1st caution all they did was some air adjustments on the right rear, which Johnny made that call. Johnny was faster then the leaders at that point by around a 1/3 of a second. Moving thru the field like he did at Rockingham when he won the race.  The only hold up on this run was the #77 was going really slow and was running in the middle of the track. Johnny and a lot of other drivers where complaining about him and it took forever before they black flagged him.

On the 2nd caution they didn't do any adjustments. Johnny busted out in 3rd spot after cutting Jeff Burton off on pit road {which was cool}. It didn't take Johnny to long to get the lead. After he led a few laps he reported on the radio that he was going to save his tires and fell back to 3rd. He was staying right with Biffle and Burton on this run.
 
 On the last caution, Johnny went in 3rd and came out 14th, which was the lowest he was all day.  As the race went back to green Johnny was running faster then the leaders. The traffic was bad but Johnny did some great driving and made his way back to 6th. If there was another 20 laps or so, I really think he would have got a top 3 out of it all. All in all it was a great race to watch Johnny. He showed how skillful of a driver he really is. Great Job Johnny! 
 (03-23-04)


Testing at Texas
Johnny, Jon Wolfe and the #1 Yellow Transportation team are on their way to Texas to test the BGN car on Tuesday and Wednesday.   (03-22-04)

Las Vegas Photos -  By Ron and Connie Brantman 
Special thanks to JB Fans - Ron and Connie Brantman for sharing their Las Vegas photos of Johnny and his Yellow Transportation team with JB fans.  They were one of the lucky ones who were in the pits for the BGN race.  Thank you for sharing!  (03-21-04)

Surprise! 
The Phoenix Racing team changed the colors of the #1 Dodge that Johnny drives in the BGN series.  This weekend they are flying the colors of the Miccosukee Gambling and Resort sponsorship.  Johnny qualified 11th at a speed of 166.783.  (03-19-04)
 

Happy Birthday! 

The JBFC is sending out special birthday greeting to Alma "Grandma" Flora who is celebrating her 94th birthday today.  She is one of JB's strongest supporters and works on the monthly mailing along with the JBFC celebration.   Enjoy your day, Grandma!   (03-19-04)

2004 JBFC Annual Contests - Congrats Dan Wendel!
I finally have reviewed and entered your entries for the 2004 JBFC Annual Contests into a spreadsheet.  (I'm not as good as our resident stat man - Ray!) Thank you for your patience ~  Barb

Contest #2 came to a close as Johnny earned the pole at Rockingham on February 20, 2004.  Congratulations to Dan Wendel of Missouri who is the #2 contest winner.  Your prize will be delivered soon via the big brown truck!  Other fans who submitted Rockingham included Faye Roman, Geoff Brinkman, Roger Bushman, Herb Combs, Dave Nemitz, Rick Schregardus, Alan Stills and Karen Weiss.  (03-15-04)

Congratulations - Kenny! 
The Golden Corral 500 marks the 600th start for Kenny Schrader!  Let's hope that the "expert" panel takes you out to lunch to celebrate!   (03-13-04)


Las Vegas Photos
Special thanks to Kent Gilley of NASCAR Scene for allowing the JBFC to share this pictures of Johnny in Las Vegas with JB fans.  We appreciate it! 

A Fan's Perspective
Ray Patten from Nevada volunteered to be a JBFC reporter for the BGN Race in Las Vegas.  Thank you for all your hard work and for sharing the news with the fans, Ray! 

A view from the stands ...  Ray took this picture of the #1 Yellow Transportation Team on their pit stop with his new digital camera

I sat with Randy Peppler (Pep) during the Busch race and he might have some more input.  Johnny started the race in 8^th, and as the race went on Johnny was complaining about being very loose.
     The first pit stop on about lap 34 they made a change to the track bar and put a rubber in the right rear. It seemed like the changes they made might fix the problem but very soon the car would have the same loose condition.
     Johnny said it was so loose he was going to lose it, he said that he thought he had completely worn out the right rear tire because it felt like it had no grip.
     After leaving the pits on a later pit stop Johnny said wait let me spin the tires to see if both sides were driving and they noticed only the left rear tire was spinning. So they took the car to the garage changed some components in the rear of the car and they went back on the track.
     Soon the loose problems continued, Johnny mentioned it seemed like a heating problem when they first when out it would be ok but soon would have the unexplained totally loose problem. They decided to bring the car in again find out what was wrong fix it and spend the rest of the day on the track practicing for future races. Johnny asked them to take some measurements to see if something had changed with the heat.
     Now here is the most important part but unfortunately the scanner talk was breaking-up I could only hear one side of conversations and some parts were cut off. But I heard someone say I found the problem, something about one part being 5/8 of an inch when it should have been another size.  Johnny’s day was pretty much over by then but the good part is that they did find out what the problem was.  Here’s hoping for a better race at Darlington!  (03-09-04)

Press Releases / News Page
There are many times when you may miss out on the news that is posted on the main page - that isn't related to a formal press release.  So, in response to your suggestions, a new feature has been added to the Press Releases / News Page.  You can find the latest news by month - the news from January would be located under January news and so on.  Hope this new feature helps!
(03-09-04)
 

Guestbook
The JBFC guest book is back up and running.  Thank you for your patience during our technical difficulties this past month.  (03-09-04)

Happy Birthday, Katelyn!
We need to send out another birthday wish to the Benson family.  Katelyn turns eight today ...  It was just 8 years ago that Johnny earned his first Winston Cup pole driving the #30 Pennzoil Pontiac for Chuck Rider and Bahari Racing.  The day after Katelyn was born, Johnny flew in just in time to practice and qualify.  (03-07-04)

Qualifying at Las Vegas
BGN - Johnny's speed of 170.460 mph during the BGN qualifying gave him the 8th starting position for the Sam's Town 300.  Kasey Kahne earned the pole.    Considering that the #1 Yellow Transportation team did not make the trip out west for testing, this was a solid run for the team.  Crew Chief, Jon Wolfe relied on word of mouth experiences from other teams.    Johnny speed in the first practice was 168.977 mph. 

After the NEXTEL CUP qualifying was over, Johnny went back into the #1 Dodge for the final BGN practice.  He was 9th overall in race trim with a speed of 166.144.  Kyle Busch was fastest with a speed of 167.886. 

NEXTEL CUP - The #09 Dodge did not hit the track in the first 45 minutes of practice - giving them considerably less time to find the right set up for qualifying.  Johnny's speed of 170.401 put him in the 36th starting position.  During the first practice session his best speed was 169.078.  (03-06-04)


BGN Provisional Procedure Change
NASCAR on Friday announced a change to its procedure for allocating provisional starting positions in the Busch Series in the first four races of every season. The change, which took affect this weekend, prohibits car owners with drivers in the top 25 of the final 2003 Cup point standings from earning a provisional starting position in the first four races. Previously, the rule prohibited any Cup drivers in the top 35 in points from earning a provisional. After the first four races of every season, the rule reverts to its original form, prohibiting car owners with drivers in the top 35 in Cup points from earning provisionals.
(03-06-04)

Ask JB
A new set of questions and answers concerning dirt racing, engines, red flag status, Berlin guests, race purse and JB's schedule can be found here ..... 
(02-29-04)