BENSON ‘EXCITED’ ABOUT REST OF
 YEAR FOR TEAM YELLOW

BRISTOL, TN – Johnny Benson knows the climb to the top of the NASCAR Busch Series mountain is a long one especially since the first couple of steps didn’t go too smoothly.  Yet he is “excited” about the rest of the trip.

 “I really feel good about the direction of the Yellow Transportation team,” says Benson.  “I hated we started (the season) off bad with that wreck at Daytona and then having mechanical problems at Vegas.  But our run at Darlington really has me excited about the rest of the year.  “I believe we are ready to start our march to the front.”

           
The next step in the climb back into contention for the 2004 Busch Series championship is Saturday’s Sharpie Professional 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway.  The 250-lap event will be televised live by FOX with the telecast starting at 1 p.m.

           
“I’m a big fan of Bristol,” says Benson, who knows that not every driver feels the same way.  “It’s a track where I don’t necessarily like to qualify or practice at, but I love to race there.  It’s a very tough race track, but one you can race on it.  The last couple of years it has been getting tougher and tougher to run side-by-side, but you are still able to pass.  And that is the main thing.  Racing there is a lot of fun.”

           
Benson knows a lot of his compatriots don’t look on Bristol as “fun” since its history is filled with multi-car accidents.  “It is one of those tracks that anything can happen at any time, and you hate to see that part of it,” says Benson.  “But I still feel it is a lot of fun to race there.”

The driver of the Yellow Transportation Dodge feels “the reason why the race is so much more fun than practice is during the race you get a chance to feel out the car, see what it needs, and see how the tires are doing.  You get to run your segments.  That is what makes it fun.

          
“In practice, you just run a couple of laps and then you come back in and then go back out and run a couple more.  And it so hard to get a real feel for a place like Bristol when you do that.”

           
Benson believes the Yellow team, headed by crew chief Jon Wolfe, showed at Darlington that “we are adapting to the new tire pretty quickly.   This team had such great success the last couple of years on the harder tire.  But this new softer tire has forced all the teams to change their setups in trying to figure out the difference in the two tires. 

          
 “At Rockingham, we qualified well (winning the pole position),” adds Benson.  “But we had to start at the back (because the right front spring didn’t fit NASCAR’s specifications) and had to work out way back up to finish ninth.  I didn’t feel that was too bad of a run.   At Vegas, we qualified well, but we struggled a little bit in the race.

           
“At Darlington, we had as good a car as anybody’s.  We had trouble with the lug nuts on our last pit stop (dropping from third to 14^th).  I had to burn the tires off, but we were able to get back up to finish sixth.  And if the race had been a few laps longer, we would have got ourselves a top five.  Our car was really good on a long run.   That is why I am so excited about the rest of the year.”

           
After the wreck at Daytona, Benson and the Yellow team stood 41^st in the point race.  After two top-tens in the next three races, Benson has climbed into a tie for 21^st.

           
“We still have a long way to go to get into the top ten,” adds Benson, the 1995 Busch Series champion.  “But I feel the Yellow Transportation team will be a contender for the championship before the year is over.”