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LOTS OF NEW
FRIENDS OFF THE TRACK
HARD DAY ON THE TRACK AT LAS VEGAS
Johnny Benson won a lot of new fans for himself and the
Yellow Transportation team last week while the team was in
Las Vegas for the Sam’s Town 300. However,
things didn’t go as well on the race track for Benson and
the Yellow team as multiple problems resulted in Benson
finishing 34th.
“It was just one of those
days that you have ever so often in this business,” said
Benson. “The Yellow team will bounce back at Darlington
(in the Diamond Hill Plywood Company 200 on March 20).”
A broken axle and a wheel
bearing problem that the team discovered when Benson went
into the garage area for repairs for the second time ended
up forcing Phoenix Racing to call it a day well before the
checkered flag was waved at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Handling problems and an
ill-timed yellow flag had dropped Benson two laps behind
the leader during the first half of the 200-lap event. But
the Yellow team still had high hopes of getting back into
contention. “We had made a lot of changes to the car,”
said Benson. “And we felt if we could get around the
leader and get one of our laps back, we could get right
back in the hunt since a lot of cars were in the same
situation as we were (losing a lap because of the yellow
coming out before leader Matt Kenseth had pitted).”
But four laps after the green flag was waved, Benson told
the crew “something broke.” It turned out be the rear
axle. The Yellow team replaced the axle and decided to use
the rest of the race as an experiment. “We knew we were
too far behind to get a good finish, but we thought we
would take advantage of the opportunity to make major
changes to the car to see what we needed to run better the
next time we run here,” said crew chief Jon Wolfe as the
team changed the right rear shock on the car.
And after returning to the
track, Benson quickly ran down and passed the car that
eventually won the race (Kevin Harvick). Five laps
later, however, Benson informed the team “I’ve got a real
bad vibration. We need to find out what is causing it.”
For the second time, Benson
limped into the garage area to have repairs made. Wolfe
quickly noted, “Whatever it is, it has just about burned
up this axle.” The culprit turned out to be a bad wheel
bearing forcing the team to park the Yellow Transportation
Dodge. “Things didn’t turn out too well on the race track,
but I had a lot of fun off it this week,” said Benson.
Three days before the race,
Benson met with a number of Yellow employees at an Exact
Express event and was an immediate hit. “That was a fun
evening,” said Benson. “We met with a lot of nice people,
and everyone seemed to have a good time when we went go-karting.”
Benson continued to add to
his fan base on Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. After
qualifying eighth in the Yellow Transportation Dodge,
Benson surprised a lot of race fans when he sat on pit
road and signed autographs and joked with them while
waiting to qualify his Nextel Cup car for Phoenix Racing.
As more than one fan pointed out, “you don’t see too many
drivers do what Johnny did. That shows what a great guy he
is.”
On Saturday morning, Benson
visited the Yellow hospitality tent. “It is always nice to
meet with Yellow’s consumers and race fans,” said Benson.
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