BENSON BELIEVES DARLINGTON
 HAS BECOME EVEN TOUGHER

In recent years, Darlington Raceway has been called “The Track Too Tough To Tame.”  Johnny Benson prefers the old nickname of “The Lady In Black,” but wonders if it now should be changed to “The Mean Lady In Black.”

           
“I love Darlington because it is such a tricky place to drive,” says Benson, driver of the Yellow Transportation Dodge in the NASCAR Busch Series.  “It is one of my favorite places on the circuit.  I just think it is going to be even harder now.”

The reason why Benson feels this way is because of the new safety barriers that have been added at Darlington.  “I’ve got to believe that is going to become a little bit of an issue there,” adds Benson.  “The more tracks that add the safety barriers, the better it is for all of us.  But as high as you run there, you run basically right against the wall, and now the wall is 24 inches further out.

“The racing groove at Darlington has always been real narrow, and now it is even narrower.  There are going to be some guys that are going to get into the barriers without realizing where they are on the race track.”

Benson has not run a Busch Series race at Darlington since his championship season of 1995.  But he remembers finishing second in both races at Darlington that year.  “We had a chance to win both races,” says Benson.  “And with the record the Yellow team had last year at Darlington, I can’t wait to get to Darlington.   I think we’ve got a chance to have a real good day – if we can stay off the wall.”

And that is why Benson feels “racing the race track” will become even more important this year.   “Drivers always talk about that when we run Darlington,” says Benson.  “What we mean by that is if you know you are a little faster than the guy out ahead of you, you don’t need to race that guy.  Just keep on doing what you are doing, and he’ll come back to you as opposed to saying ‘I’m going to go after him.’  If you race that way at Darlington, you are going to abuse your tires that much more.  And you can’t afford to do that at Darlington.  They fall off fast enough without you abusing them.”

Because of the new safer barriers, Benson believes “you are probably going to enter the corners a little bit differently.”  To crew chief Jon Wolfe, that means “we may need to change the shock and spring combination that we ran there last year.  I don’t think we will need to make much of a change.  But because of the way you may now have to enter the corner, we may need to tweak it a little."

“But I think we will probably go there with the same setup we ran last year,” adds Wolfe.  “We ran well in both races in the Yellow Transportation Dodge.   Unfortunately in the fall, we didn’t get to run too long.  Jamie (McMurray) qualified second and was running second, right on (Kevin) Harvick’s tail end, when he got in some oil and got up in the fence.   In the spring race, we finished second so we definitely feel good about going back there.  Johnny likes Darlington, and runs well there.  So we feel the Yellow team is going to have a good day.”

Wolfe says he is glad “we are on the same tire as we ran at Rockingham.  We are taking the same car we ran at Rockingham.  We won the pole down there and ran well in the race.  So we feel pretty good about Darlington.”

Benson and Wolfe realize they need a “good finish” to start their climb up the points ladder.  With two DNFs (did not finish) in their first three races, Benson sits a distant 28^th in the race for the Busch Series championship.

“Luckily, it is early in the season so we have plenty of time to catch up,” says Benson.  “But we also know we have got to start putting together some top fives and tens in the Yellow Dodge if we are going to be in the hunt.  We can’t afford to let guys like Bobby Hamilton Jr. and David Green get too far ahead of us.”

Harvick, who will not run the full Busch schedule, is the early series point leader.   Benson trails Harvick by 281 points.   Of the drivers expecting to run all 34 Busch Series events, Hamilton sits the highest in the point standings after three races -- third behind Harvick and Michael Waltrip -- with 426 points or 187 more than Benson.