|
Las Vegas Preview
Wolfe, Benson
have "High Hopes for Successful Weekend"
Jon Wolfe is kind of
like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when it comes to the Sam's
Town 300 Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Wolfe, the crew chief for the Yellow Transportation Dodge
that Johnny Benson drives, is optimistic about how the
team is going to run since "we ran well there last year.
And Johnny seems to run well there, too. So I have high
hopes for a successful weekend."
On the other hand, Wolfe admits he is a "little worried"
because the Yellow team did not test at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway last month. "It is kind of like a shot in
the dark with the new tire and all," adds Wolfe. "The new
spoiler rules definitely changed things at Rockingham. We
lost some down force there, and it will be even worse at
Vegas since you are running so much faster. At
Rockingham, we were never loose there before, but we had
that problem this time." Complete
PR
Wolfe says he has talked with several teams that did test
at Vegas, and they have indicated that "they did use a new
shock package because of the tires and all. So we will
have to be prepared to make some changes to the setup we
used last year. "But I still feel real good about
how the Yellow team is going to run. Last year, Jamie
(McMurray) crashed in practice, and we had to go to a
back-up. Despite that, we ran well in the race. We ended
up having ignition problems (finishing 33rd), but we were
good before that. So I feel the Yellow team can have a
pretty good day (on Saturday)." Benson also wishes
the team had tested. Yet like Wolfe, Benson is "excited
about going out there. We usually seem to run pretty well
there. "There are two grooves, so that makes for
some good racing," adds Benson. "At first, the track had
tremendous grip, and it was strictly a one-groove track.
But over the years, it has lost some grip and that has
made for better racing. "Yes, there are different
issues this year with the new spoiler rule, the new tire
and with the track being a year older. Last year, on the
30th lap (of a run), we were running as fast we had on the
fifth or tenth lap. Now it looks like there will be a lot
of fall off (in the times). So the key will be following
a strategy like we did at Rockingham. The team that does
the best job of running fast on old tires will be the
winner."
It will be a busy weekend for Benson as he will be running
both the NASCAR Busch Series event on Saturday as well as
the NASCAR Nextel Cup UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400 on Sunday.
"It makes things easier since I am running both races for
the same team (Phoenix Racing)," says Benson. "If you
are running for two different teams, sometimes you have
each team wanting more of your time as each one looks on
their deal as the top one of the two. But everyone at
Phoenix knows the Yellow team and the quest for the (Busch
Series) championship is No. 1 on our hit parade. We want
to run good in both races, but Saturday is our main deal.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with winning both
races."
When it comes to time away from the race track, Benson
agrees "there are a lot of neat things to do in Vegas.
But I am not a big gambler. Since I never played cards
growing up, I am smart enough to realize I need to stay
away from those games. So that pretty well limits me to
the slots.
"I think the card games would be a lot more fun and
interesting, but having never grown up playing cards I
know I need to stay away from them. But I do usually try
and take in a show or two, especially the magic shows."
Benson hopes to do his magic on the race track
|
